Less than stellar

Rating: 7/10 (30 June 2011)

I am a big fan of horror films, and have seen many over the years. I had heard good things about Insidious before sitting down to watch it, so I did have slightly high expectations going in. I must admit, the first half of the film was reasonably effective and did a good job of setting the scene for some decent scares. Yes, elements of the story have mostly been seen before, but I was still enjoying the movie. Unfortunately the story started to get rather silly during the second half, and the whole "astral travel" thing left me a little disappointed. However the worst feature of this film for me were the ghosts themselves - they just weren't that scary. I mean from the Darth Maul look- alike to the ugly bride with a seriously bad makeup job, I was not so much scared as I was amused. I almost laughed out loud. Not good. For a film that held such initial promise, I was left shaking my head when the credits finally rolled. Not the worst horror film by a long stretch, but it could (and should) have been so much better. If you are after an effective scary film may I suggest any of the following; The Exorcist, The Grudge, The Changeling (George C Scott), The Others or The Descent. 7/10