When it was revealed that the director of Saw was filming a new movie called Insidious, many horror fans probably expected that he would follow the torture model that made him successful. However, James Wan leaves his comfort zone and creates a very effective scary movie with Insidious, that not only makes for a fun horror movie, but shows that Wan is a talented and versatile horror director.
Insidious stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, telling the story of parents who believe their son’s recent fall into a coma is connected to strange happenings within their house. You’d think the haunted house sub-genre had been done to death, but not only is James Wan able to deliver legitimate scares, but he does it on a sub-one million dollar budget. It may have helped that Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli also served as a producer on this film, but whatever the case may be, Insidious is very well crafted and does a great job building tension and scaring you.
I’m going to stay away from plot details as much as possible, because the less you know about the film, the better off you are. Just be aware that it is very obvious that Insidious was heavily inspired by Poltergeist, and while that doesn’t make this any less entertaining of a movie, many of the basic elements of the script are the same. Also, while Insidious starts out like your traditional scary haunted house movie, the last third of the film almost falls more into horror adventure territory.
In many ways Insidious feels very much like one of those haunted attractions that are open around Halloween. You could tell that as opposed to going for a very original concept, they wanted to focus on refining the haunted house concept, and really do a great job on timing, editing, and creating legitimate scares. There may be some people who will be seriously frightened by Insidious, but I found this to be a very fun scary movie to watch. I enjoyed seeing this with a group of horror fans, and will probably drag a few of my friends and family members who are a little less brave to this movie just to see their reaction.
I don’t have any real complaint about Insidious that would prevent me from recommending this to most horror fans. Yes, there could have been some more original plot items and some of the scenes that dragged on could have used a bit of editing or sets could have looked better with a higher budget, but it seems like James Wan and his team created exactly what they set out to do.
If you like Poltergeist and other haunted house movies, or have fun with movies like Drag Me to Hell and The Evil Dead, you’ll really enjoy Insidious. While you shouldn't go in expecting a very original concept or excessive gore, this is a very good horror movie that not only has some great scares, but is a lot of fun to watch with a group of friends. I am really impressed with what James Wan was able to do with Insidious and hope that he continues to challenge himself and make great horror movies.
Score: 4/5
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