After a strong start, "Insidious" fails to deliver

Rating: 5/10 (5 August 2015)

"Insidious" has a number of things going for it: a stylish credit sequence, with an old- school giallo feel to it, and enhanced by the creepy still images; a gorgeous house as the setting for the first part of the movie, which builds some great atmosphere; and a spookily discordant stringed-instrument score (though it has a tendency to overwhelm the action on occasion). There is also an excellent jump-scare about halfway through that caused me to call out involuntarily as I sat watching the movie in my empty living room. Unfortunately, the shift in action from the 'haunted' house also sees the movie lose its way. The characters proliferate, but fail to add depth, and as Rose Byrne's 'woman on the verge' storyline fades into the background, so does any sense of compelling narrative. The action takes an unwelcome baroque turn, and the attempts at humor do not add to a series of sequences that commit the grievous sin of failing to be even remotely scary. After a promising start, the disappointing second and third acts feel like they have been pasted in from another movie altogether.