A bit creepy and well made, but completely bonkers, forgettable and uninvolving.

Rating: 6/10 (2 May 2011)

The horror film Insidious when I looked at the IMDb rating of 7.3 on here I became very sceptical, thinking due to three previous film experiences that it was highly overrated. The films I refer to (two not being horrors, but still overrated were The Fighter and the hideously bad Thor). The third film which was a horror and had a rating of 7.4 was The Descent, which for me without a doubt is one of the worst horror films in years as I wouldn't even classify as that because it was so bad. So I settled down to Insidious with cautious optimism. I'm afraid to say again like The Descent, Insidious for me has been quite overrated, but it is not as out of proportion and this was much more entertaining than The Descent.
The story itself has some promise with demons and spirits which is nothing new. But there are some creepy moments throughout the film when these spirits appear with unending ease, which stayed in my mind for a while during the film. The atmosphere created by director James Wan is done well to an extent with some impressive make up and special effects and his effective use of sound, though mainly this in the first forty minutes. The acting too (though not amazing) was reasonable for a horror. But really the film lost heart after about forty five minutes as it became more and more silly where I just laughed at certain scenes (and I'm glad from looking at the audience reviews on here I wasn't the only one) as it didn't look at all that real. When they camera does an extreme close up of like the demon, it looked like some ridiculous attempt from a child at making a Halloween costume. The thing is Insidious does market itself as a serious horror and me laughing at it is what disrepute's it to being better than it could be for me. It is completely bonkers with a stupid ending, but strangely in a way it being silly made it more enjoyable in a goofy sort of way.
But by the end the film had lost it's chilling atmosphere and was half horror and comedy and though it was entertaining, it didn't remotely scare me and was uninvolving and forgettable. It's nothing special but is enjoyable enough to watch and it passes the time and is more entertaining than The Descent.