Insidious:Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects.

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2011)

After having enjoyed watching the fun,easy going Scream 4 with a friend recently,I felt that due to there being not much word about any other horror films coming out during the summer,it seemed that this was going to be the main horror for the first half of the year.Over a week or two after Scream 4 had been out,I started to hear that there had been a huge surprise at the box office from a small, low budget horror film which was leaving Scream in the dust.Intrieged by the attention that this film was gathering,I decided to check my local cinemas to see if any of them were going to show the film soon.Happily,I discovered that the nearest cinema to me was going to screen the film in a weeks time.Having booked my ticket for an early showing,I sat in the theatre feeling pretty interested about seeing what all the attention that it had received was about.Although I was not prepared at all for how scary this fantastic film would be.
The plot:
Whilst Renai and Josh Lambert try to unpack all of the furniture for there new home,there three kids seem to be feeling a little uneasy about the house (which is probably due to them "needing time" to get used to there new environment)One night their oldest son Dalton begins to hear some creaking sounds coming from the attic .This leads Dalton to decided that he should go up to the attic ,to try and discover what is making all that noise.When he opens the entrance to the attic ,Dalton discovers that the light has been left off.As he walks up a very old,dusty ladder to turn the light on,one of the steps suddenly breaks,and leads to Dalton falling hard on the floor.Hearing a loud thud,Josh and Renai run up to the attic to find Dalton laying on the floor,luck ally he has only gotten some small cuts.After having checked that he is okay,his mum and dad help Dalton down from the attic ,although whilst they are trying to get Dalton to relax,he becomes very nervous about something "weird" which he claims he saw in a shadowy corner of the attic. The next day,Josh goes to wake Dalton up for school,but is terrified to discover that Dalton seems to be in a coma.Rushing to the hospital,to find out what has happened to him leaves the family devastated,when the doctors tell them that everything is fine with him,and that they have never seen this type of coma before.As the weeks go on,the family struggle to continue living a normal life,whilst the hope of Dalton coming out of his coma fading,day by day.During one night,Renai suddenly hears a very disturbing voice from her baby monitor,which yells out that it wants her son.Right after the voice has stopped screaming,Renai rushes to take care of her screaming baby.Suddenly a strange figure appears which completely terrifies her.Hearing this,Josh tells his wife that it is her stress over Dalton that has caused her to see and hear these thing.Although Josh does try to help Renai to relax,the appearances of the "demonic monsters" massively increases,and now with his wife and two children all being scared out of there brains,Josh decides that they will go to live with his mother.When they arrive at the house,the family are all left petrified when they realise that these demonic ghosts have followed them home.Having at last seen an extremely nasty ghost,Josh starts to suspect that these ghosts might be playing a huge part in his sons "Coma".Although,the more Josh goes looking deeper and deeper into "the world" of the ghosts,he begins to discover some terrifying information about his past...
View on the film:
As the opening credits to the film started to roll on the screen,I noticed that the people who were listed as the screenwriter/director of the film (Leigh Whannell and James Wan),were the two main people behind the fantastic low budget horror thriller film Saw (part 1).This lead me to expecting that this film would be very similar to the latter Saw films,which were filled with a lot of shocking gory moments.Instead,Whannell and Wan show an extremely surprising side with this film,with the first half an hour,showing a pretty chaotic family,which Wan (along with some very good performances from Rose Byme and Patrick Wilson) cleverly uses to slowly build up an intense supernatural atmosphere.After having created a fantastic atmosphere in the first 30 minutes,Wan and Whannell unleash some truly nerve wrecking moments,that are guaranteed to make you jump out of your seat,as if you have had a strong electric shock.Unlike quite a few recent horror films that turn that suddenly turn the volume of the score up to max to achieve a very cheap scarre,Wan instead wisely uses Joseph Bisharas creepy score to keep a strong mood of terror as the film builds up to its next shock.The main thing that really impressed me about how Wan paced the music,was that due to there being no hint at all about when the next ghost would pop out,it led to me being more terrified than I have been for along time with any film.Although it has to be said that the ending of the film does lack a bit of logic (how could Josh get worn out?) ,and the second half also noticeably has some strong elements of Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpooms 2004 horror film Shutter,Wan and Whannelle are still able to create an insanely intense atmosphere of terror and dread,with the final "pichure" in the film,being one that is still able to run a tingle of sheer horror down my spine,
Final view on the film:
The scariest film I have seen in ages,which is also brilliantly written,directed and acted.