INSIDIOUS Movie Review

What does Insidious mean? According to the World English Dictionary it is stealthily treacherous or deceitful. Does it tie in with the film? Yes it does. James Wan, director of Saw and Dead Silence stirs up the scares for us in this flick. Before I started watching the movie I was already all hyped up because of his past credits and I found Dead Silence to be a bit of a creeper. As I watched Insidious I wasn't that scared at all. The movie was rated PG-13 and did not seek help with CGI for any creepy effects. It was made on an estimated budget of $1,500,000 which is obvious once you see it. No big effects were needed to create the eerie feeling in the house or the kid or even the demons.

It's starts off with a family moving into a new home. While stumbling around the house their oldest child 'Dalton' finds his way up to the attic, takes a bit of a tumble and slips in to a mysterious coma. He stays in this coma for 3 months at which point the family decides to take him home. Once home eerie things start happening. Convinced that the house is haunted the couple decide to move again. Things continue to happen in the new house as well which leads us up to the movie tagline "It's not your house that's haunted". Renai, Dalton's mother, speaks with her mother in law (Barbara Hershey from horror classic 'The Entity') about what's been happening and she calls on an old friend of hers who deals with supernatural events and paranormal activity to try and help. They come to a conclusion (which I won't ruin for you) and start working immediately to rid the evil from the house. The standard horror movie events start to take place throughout a chunk of the movie and then the resolve the issues. I refuse to say what happens here so you will just have to watch the movie for yourself.

I rather enjoy the psychological thrillers and thought this one had all the right guts but was needing a bit more work on the few visual scary parts.A series of typical haunted house movie effects happen throughout the film offering a bit of a scare however never really make you jump out of your seat. At some points I was thinking "Hey this is a lot like Poltergeist" and other moments I drew comparisons to The Haunted and Paranormal Activity. Although I won't agree with the dozens that have said it was one of the scariest films of all time, I will say that it was entertaining to watch. If you like psychological thrillers this is one that you shouldn't miss out on.

Tags: james wan insidious