And it started out so well...

Rating: 5/10 (17 October 2015)

All the other reviews here seem to be torn between 1* down-votes and 10* praises, which I find both in most cases as good indicators for poor reviews. So I'll try to just lay out what I liked and what I disliked about this movie.
Having seen (and loved) The Conjuring a couple of weeks ago, a friend told me to go and watch Insidious, which I just did. Coming from the same director both movies share a good portion of their recipe. A somewhat haunted house, elements of classic horror like Poltergeists and Exorcism mixed with (more or less) modern technology and last but not least a nice share of subtle comedy.
Insidious starts out great. There's not much time spent on building up the horror, you'll get your first scares within the first 5 minutes or so. And they are done very well and very unexpected. It plays with the clear portrayal of monsters, but just for the glimpse of a second, as well with blurry, shadowy characters wandering in the background. Weird noises, opening doors and the constant beep from the heart monitor of a kid in a coma make up a great mix for a horror flick. I'll be honest: I jumped in my seat a couple of times and had a good laugh about it, it's a very enjoyable kind of horror.
But after about 30 minutes or so something changed. To avoid spoilers I'll put it in general terms: The introduction of somewhat comical characters would have worked for me, what bothered me most was the added amount of cheesiness. I still cant point my finger at it, but it starts to get so cliché at every aspect, that even the portrayal of demons and ghosts which I liked in the first place gets spoiled by it. It kinda felt like the author suddenly realized his paper is due tomorrow. What was built up with care and sweet horror in a calm environment lost itself in a disposable teeny horror. Given explanations and actions didn't feel very satisfying and there were a lot of loose strings left.
Long story short: I felt honestly sad about the outcome of this movie, it started as a well made horror shocker and ended up like cheap BO-horror as scream and the likes.