Would have been better as a comedy.

Rating: 5/10 (31 March 2011)

Astral projection (out of body experience) is the real heart of the paint-by-numbers horror sideshow Insidious. A family keeps moving from haunted houses until it realizes the demon is in their child, not the houses, and the other demons want him. Saw's James Wan directs this sometimes amusing hodgepodge without Saw's bloody business or a modicum of innovation. At least it has the guts to avoid overdoing the CGI.
The demons, who seek the body of young Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins) because he astral projects and leaves it frequently, are the motliest crew I have ever seen, from desiccated brides to downright devils with tails, a posse of poltergeist fiends not quite as alarming as they might be in Dawn of the Dead or Shaun of the Dead, for that matter.
The haunted house evokes images of The Haunting, and just as cheesy as that film is this one. Even The Exorcist's darkly painted violence is here with a priest in tow. Insidious never comes close to the fear I felt in The Descent or the interesting layering of characters in 28 Days Later, but it has its scary moments and even humor.
Yes, the nerdy fixers are funny, the technicians that is, who use a variety of outdated machines to film and capture the dead seeking the bodies of the living.
Insidious would have worked as a comedy.