A wildly fun & scary haunted house flick

Rating: 7/10 (11 November 2010)

James Wan, best known as one of the initial creators of the 'Saw' series, returns to the duo with 'Saw' co-creator Leigh Whannel (who also stars) with a new ghost story starring Patrick Wilson ('Watchmen') and Rose Byrne ('Get Him to the Greek').
Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Byrne) think they have it all: a beautiful new home, three lovely children. . . and a gang of unruly ghosts causing torment around them. Unfortunately, after Dalton, one of their sons, is knocked unconscious and falls into a coma, things take a supernatural turn for the worst. To save Dalton, Josh and Renai call on a ghost-hunting team (Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson) and a psychic (Lin Shaye) to investigate the paranormal presence within the house and put a stop to it before their son's soul is lost to "the further."
Due to recent trends within the horror genre, haunted house flicks have been rather few & far between. However, a few recent solid entries have been more than worthwhile, including 'El Orfanato' and the 'Paranormal Activity' films. James Wan, thankfully, adds this quality haunt film to the short list of recent successes. His film, however, does something different than other ghost stories: It's funny. While it doesn't go as over-the-top with its humour as a film like 'Drag Me to Hell,' it does blend enough laughs throughout to greatly enhance the entertainment value of the overall film, making it feel like a classic-style dark house flick. If only Vincent Price could've been around to perfect that feeling.
Technically, the film is quite impressive, especially for the reported $1 million budget, which is unsurprising after what Wan & Whannell did with the $1.2 million they had for the original 'Saw.' The highest levels of the film come from those elements that don't need a massive budget: the direction, cinematography, and writing. These really were what set the film above what, by anyone else, would have been a straight-to-video-quality forgotten film. Another solid element that makes the film a step above most at its level comes from the cast, especially the work by genre veterans Barbara Hershey ('The Entity') and Lin Shaye ('Dead End'). Their acting added a much-appreciated level of depth to the fun of the film.
Of all the many positive aspects of 'Insidious,' however, perhaps the most attractive is the simplest: It's actually pretty damn scary. While it doesn't contain the slow-burn creeps and chills of 'Paranormal Activity' and the like, it does contain some of the most well executed and well timed scares in a long time. Though the quantity of scares tapers off throughout the final act of the film, the first two-thirds of the film contain more than enough to satisfy any fan of the haunted house subgenre.
Overall, 'Insidious' manages to be, as expected by Wan's previous work, an entertaining & original ride. It has enough humour & horror to satisfy any film-goer without focusing too heavily on one angle to make the other side feel awkward. One hope: Do not let the PG-13 rating shy you away. It actually contains more content worthy of an R-rating than 'Paranormal Activity' did.
Final Verdict: 7.5/10. Highly recommended.
-AP3-