Insidious Review


Movie: Insidious
By: Maniac E
Date: June 13, 2011

Insidious the next new thing?

Horror movies are always hard to make especially when it concerns a complete new series. Yes, I know Insidious 2 hasn’t been announced but after seeing the first you know right from the start that they will do more than just this one. A new horror movie needs to be not only well executed, but also show us something new and unpredictable.

Let me first start by saying this: Insidious won’t be the best horror movie you ever see. It may not even be a very good one, but it at least takes a honest stab at trying to be sort of original. Helmed by James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence), the film gives us the Wilson family, who have just moved into a brand new home which will undoubtedly be haunted. Sure enough, shortly after the move their young son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into an unexplainable coma, and his mother Renai (Rose Byrne) begins to see shadowy figures and hear menacing whispers throughout the home. Her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson) is skeptical (the husbands always are), but in a surprising instance of horror movie logic, he agrees to move into a new house anyway to set her mind at ease.

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But these strange happenings continue at their new home, and soon Renai and Josh find themselves confronted with the possibility that their house isn’t haunted, but their comatose son Dalton is. With his soul floating somewhere between life and death, other spirits are trying to gain access to his body to enter our world. The Wilsons are left trying to find a way to rescue Dalton from the in-between realm known as “The Further” before he’s lost forever.

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Wan setups a great energy in the movies atmosphere. It has been a while since I have had such a feeling with a horror movie. Wan is able to establish a solid tone, giving the Wilson home a good sense of the uncanny and all the tension it creates. The less he shows us, the more anxious we get because we’re furiously checking every corner of the frame to see what might be lurking there. But once the ghosts start appearing the movie falls back on easy and cheesy scares, which in the end aren’t in favor of the movies ending. The pieces of aren’t falling together in the movie and it seems like Wan ended up making a movie and then thought we need to go bigger and bigger. What was nice to see were the Poltergeist and Saw references (You will know it when you see it).

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But the movie falls a bit short on a lot of things like the finale is completely underwhelming, partially because it feels like Insidious doesn’t have any real idea how (or when) to end. The ending feels forced and I am sorry to say but also complete foolish. This crash and burn in the final act is a disappointment, because even though Insidious wasn’t going to be a classic, it was still a decent, enjoyable horror show for at least an hour.

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We are probably looking at a new franchise, the box offices don’t lie. And a lot of people are calling it horror movie of the year. To me it’s all a bit farfetched the movie lacks to many things. I have to agree on the fact that the movie has it charms, some great camera angles are being used and some great references to other movies but it doesn’t hold up the movie completely. Walking away, we get the sense that James Wan is very close to making a good horror picture, possibly even a great one. He just isn’t there quite yet.


3/5




DVD REVIEW

Image quality

Image quality is good, printed on a dvd9 makes sure even upscaling PS3’s or bluray players can produce some nice images. Scattered artifacts can be found if watched on a hdscreen. But the dvd keeps the nice dark color scheme and it seems this dvd release has less problems with the transfer unlike the blu-ray brother.


Sound

The sound quality is a pretty good with a nice 5.1 dolby digital soundtrack. The scare effects really do their job in this one! So all you people that can’t handle big scares turn down the volume.


Extras

This Dutch version has no extra’s. But the US version has some featurettes but isn’t anything of big value.


Overall

Overall the disc is pretty decent with a good soundtrack and a good image quality dvd. Despite the movie not being that great the soundtrack will defiantly make sure you will be sitting on the edge of your chair.


E1 Entertainment

Movie

Insidious

Title

Insidious

Director

James Wan

Country

USA

Year

2011

Cast

Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Andrew Astor, Lin Shaye