|
Insidious
| Released |
29 April 2011 |
| Director |
James Wan |
Starring
|
Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell |
| Writer(s) |
Leigh Whannell |
Producer(s)
|
Jason Blum, Steven Schneider, Oren Peli |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
102 minutes |
| Genre |
Horror |
| Rating |
16 |
|
|
Things that go bump in the night.
“From the makers of Saw and Paranormal Activity” is the type of promotional blurb that will earn wildly different reactions from cinemagoers. Some will delight that the makers of two such successful horror franchises are coming together. Others will shudder at the thought of what the makers of the crude ‘torture-porn’ Saw series and the over-hyped borefest that was Paranormal Activity can come up with.
Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell were the creators of the original Saw film and here they take the same roles, with Whannell also snagging a supporting actor role for himself. Oren Peli, the writer-director behind the low-budget success story that was Paranormal Activity, serves as a producer. They’ve come up with another low-budget picture with a small cast on basically two sets.
However this is very much an old-school horror movie, which is confirmed by the opening titles that feature a “duh-duh-duh!!!!!” score. The film begins with a couple waking up in the house they’ve just moved into. Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) have two young sons and a baby daughter. The house is quite old though and when exploring the attic their son Dalton (Ty Simkins) has an accident and bumps his head. He seems fine but when Josh goes into his bedroom to get him up the next day, Dalton won’t wake up.
The doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with him but he appears to be in a coma. After three months of home care and still no response from Dalton, Renai is beginning to crack. She starts to notice some bizarre things in the house. First there appears to be a strange voice on the baby monitor. Then she sees a figure in the bedroom. Eventually she becomes convinced the house is haunted and begs Josh to leave. Josh doesn’t believe her but agrees to leave the house to appease her.
However, even in the new house, the incidents keep on occurring. Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey) suggests they get help from an unusual source. She calls in an old friend Elise (Lin Shaye), who with two male colleagues, works as a kind of supernatural ghost-buster. Can she solve their problems?
This is all pure hokum of course with ghosts, demonic possessions, astral projections and everything else thrown into the mix. Yet, if you allow yourself to suspend your disbelief and just go with it, it’s quite a lot of fun. There are lots of moments that do make you genuinely jump. Yeah, you know they’re coming but you can’t help it.
The cast could have played all this with a knowing wink, but they admirably keep straight faces and it’s all the better for it. Byrne and Wilson are fine in the leads but the biggest surprise is Lin Shaye. She is best known as the gross-out queen in Kingpin and There’s Something about Mary. Here she is virtually unrecognisable in a straight role, but she’s actually really good.
Some of the imagery is genuinely disturbing and there are a couple of nice twists along the way as well.
It’s no classic but if you’re a fan of old-fashioned horror, you could really do a lot worse.
-
Jim O’Connor |
