Insidious

Directed by : James Wan
Starring : Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson, Ty Simkins, Lin Shaye
              Barbara Hershey, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell

Do you remember waking up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat, heart pounding and disoriented in the darkness from a nightmare, the result of some old black and white horror film. You know the one, where everyone is warned to  stay out  of  the attic  or was it the basement ? where something evil is lurking in the shadows waiting for the opportunity to get to know you better.

Unfortunately insidious isn't the movie to make one curl up into a fetal position whimpering for your mommy but does offer a few chills and creepy moments to register a reading on the old creep o meter. I applaud the efforts of the film makers for going back to a time before everyone who attempted to make a horror film were just interested in making money with a franchise, back to the roots of the early horror film, the haunted house.

Film makers director James Wan and writer/actor Leigh Whannell who may be credited or blamed  for the recent torture porn phase with their film debut of Saw switch gears and opt for a more aneroid approach. By the way, the Saw  films hold the Guinness book of world records for the most monies earned as a movie franchise.

A young couple and their three children have just moved into their new home, adjusting  to the new house and still trying to unpack the many boxes that clutter their living space. Shortly strange occurrences begin to happen,books fall from shelves, storage boxes go missing  and turn up in unusual places,  strange voices are heard broadcasting over the baby's monitor. The oldest boy Dalton ( Simkins ) is led to the attic by a strange noise, in the dark he falls off a ladder trying to turn on a light , no serious harm seems to have been done. The next morning he doesn't awaken and has apparently fallen into a coma. A mystery that has the doctors baffled, unable to help they send Dalton back home to a life of being monitored by machines.

With Dalton back home more spooky going ons begin and strange  phantoms are becoming more frequent. Even Dalton's younger brother is being creeped out by his comatose sibling. After a very close encounter of the unknown, mom( Byrne ) is convinced the house is haunted and persuades her school teacher husband ( Wilson ) it's time to relocate  again. As the evil grows stronger within the house, the relationship between the aspiring song writer and the teacher deteriorates. He can not deal with the horrors at home and pretends he is needed at school. Settling into , yet another new house the strange phenomenas begin to happen again.

I don't want to say too much more about the plot, as this is something a little different especially if you've never seen Poltergeist or The Entity before. Like Poltergeist the supernatural events start out slow, almost playful like, but make no doubt about it, the unnatural forces of Insidious is evil  most foul. An interesting choice of casting Barbara Hershey in the role of Lorraine Lambert who starred in The Entity, her dialogue even has her using the word entity once or twice.

This is a decent enough film but the similarities with Poltergeist run  parallely close of a lost  child in need of retrieval from another world. The assistance of a parapsychologist Elise Rainer ( Shaye ) and her team  of Tucker ( Sampson ) and Specs ( Whannell ) mirror that of Tangina's aid to the Freelings of  the 1982 film Poltergeist. Insidious does have it's moments unfortunately it is only moments as the formulaic tactics of jump scares and loud noises don't stay with you.

My Final Thought: See my final thought for The Entity.

My Rating: Three Go Go Girls Out Of  Five.