Truly Scary Tale

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2016)

"Insidious" raised the bar high for future directors of "scary" movies. James Wan keeps that camera on people long enough to see and understand their feelings. He also knows that too much sometimes is just too much. It's the quiet and the suspense that freaks us out because we just don't know when something or someone is about to strike. A comatose child, garbled static, concerned and irritated adults... they all add up to us forgetting it's a tale of possession and the supernatural. We become invested in the future of these people and the ultimate fate of the young boy.
It's always dark in just about every scene, with people both on and off the screen straining to see if we can believe our eyes. Ghosts appear, threaten us, leave enough clues so we can't doubt the reality of their existence, but what is worse than knowing others might just think we are crazy?
Byrne and Wilson are very effective as the afflicted parents. They're young, and the film's believability factor increases because they look like modern people who wouldn't be acting irrational unless something bad and special would be truly be invading their lives. I like how so little time is wasted in dialogue and much depends on their reactions to all the supernatural happenings. The film actually picks up steam as they move to a new house, and things just happen to get worse.
So well put together is the movie that I could ignore how much it borrows from other movies, from the rocking horse, to the marks left behind by others, to the anachronistic music and the appearances of the mysterious children. It doesn't matter because we have a good director putting it together, and veterans like Hershey providing support.
Enjoy the transformation, the decline of reason and the futility of what we always thought would work, and don't despair, there's plenty of originality, too, and everything works when the mood is just right.