Insidious

admin | April 28, 2011 | Comments (0)

DIR: James Wan • WRI: Leigh Whannell • PRO: Jason Blum, Oren Peli, Steven Schneider • DOP: David M. Brewer, John R. Leonetti • ED: Kirk M. Morri, James Wan • DES: Aaron Sims • Cast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins

Considering it comes from the writing and directing team that created the Saw franchise, you’d be forgiven for entering this haunted-house movie with expectations of gallons of gore. But while they have previously mistaken violence for horror, here there is not a drop of blood to be found. A genuine old-school horror movie, it scares you more with what it doesn’t show. For the most part at least.

The film can easily be divided into two parts. Part one is basically Paranormal Activity, with a happy family in a new house getting creeped out by weird noises and shadowy figures that may or may not actually be there. Part two is pretty much Poltergeist, with the arrival of a team of paranormal activity experts-cum-exorcists. Part one sets the tone perfectly, with a steady stream of dread allowing the film to genuinely get under your skin. And while part two still has its fair share of scares, the previously hinted-at monsters are now paraded around like it’s Show ‘N’ Tell Day, robbing them of their initial horror.

As the parents trying to keep control in an insane situation, Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson make a smart choice and play it straight. Lin Shaye and her ghostbusting team show up to inject some much needed levity before the tense finale, and Barbara Hershey (who, following on from Black Swan, must now dominate the market for Creepy Overprotective Mothers) is there purely for backstory purposes.

But this was never about the quality of the acting or writing, this movie exists solely to scare you silly, and that it will. While horror in Hollywood is busy remaking everything old and foreign, or putting a bigger number at the end of a flailing franchise, Insidious is this year’s Drag Me To Hell; much like a ghost train, its scares are cheap and it won’t give you nightmares, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun while it lasts.

Rory Cashin

Rated 16 (see IFCO website for details)
Insidious is released on 29th April 2011