Insidious

Insidious (2011)
Director: James Wan
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rated: PG-13

As a family attempts to get settled amidst a move, frightening things start occurring. The mother, Renai (Rose Byrne), seems to be the only one noticing anything as odd noises and bizarre experiences have her scared. After an accident in the attic, their son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), falls into a coma. Months pass, with his brother giving a forewarning of what is to come by expressing his discomfort with the coma-ridden Dalton as he is cared for at home. More and more alarming scares occur and Renai insists to her husband Josh (Patrick Wilson), that something is wrong with the house and for their safety, they need to leave.

Once in their second new home, Renai hopes they left behind the eeriness yet not long passes before she realizes that it wasn't the home that was haunted, whatever abnormal, other-worldly being(s) that had been harassing them are still with the family. Josh's mother quickly believes her, stating she had a vision about Dalton - that the source of this nightmare was centered around him. Josh's continuous dubiousness frustrates everyone as he is the only one not having experienced the craziness. After an overtly terrifying event, Renai convinces everyone that a supernatural medium is needed to assess what was going on - what happens then can simply be described as a disconcerting, life-altering sequence of events.

Reminiscent of older, horror films that perpetuate fear via build up of titillating oldies music, letting the imagination scare yourself, and simple startling frights, this film is successful in keeping it simple and eerie. We all know by being along at home late at night, those odd noises are enough to get your imagination running, now imagine you slowly realized there was a true supernatural source behind those sounds and it wasn't going anywhere. Josh Wann plays on these fears and gives you more to be terrified of over and over again. I don't want to give too much away so I will stay vague, but this is a film in which I had difficulty determining the single most frightening moment - there were too many! The story is nothing new, as there are many ghost/spirit-based movies out there but we don't need an out-of-place plot. What we fear is not only what is unknown, but something that is close to home and that which is inescapable. For the same reasons I thought 2010's Drag Me To Hell was amazing (though this doesn't contain the icky, body-liquid grossness Drag Me did); classic jumpy frights, no over the top Hollywood graphic makeup - Insidious does it right.

I give this film 4 out of 5 frames!!



View the trailer here:



Danae signing off!

source: traileraddict.com