Polternormal Activigeist.

Rating: 7/10 (23 July 2011)

Seen Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity? If so, then you'll be in very familiar territory with James Wan's Insidious, which borrows heavily from both of these supernatural blockbusters, but thankfully does so with just enough verve to still make it a satisfying experience.
As in Poltergeist, Wan's film centres around a suburban family—Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) and their three kids—who experience supernatural activity shortly after moving into their new home. At first the occurrences are fairly innocuous—strange noises and moving objects—but after eldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) mysteriously lapses into a coma-like state, the incidents begin to escalate in severity and scariness.
Just like Paranormal Activity, even moving house doesn't prevent the creepiness from continuing, leaving Josh and Renai no option but to turn to a team of experts (led by the always delightful Lin Shaye), who discover that it is Dalton himself who is being haunted—by a hideous demon intent on occupying the boy's body.
Although Insidious certainly won't win any awards for originality, it successfully does what it sets out do do: frighten the audience silly for an hour and a half with plenty of well executed jump scares and lots of fun freakiness (watch it and just try and tell me you weren't weirded out by the sight of that little kid gyrating to Tiny Tim's 'Tiptoe Through The Tulips'—mind you, the song on it's own is enough to make my skin crawl!).