Something borrowed, something new.

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2011)

"Insidious" follows a young couple, Josh and Renai (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne). The couple have two sons and an infant daughter, and have just moved into a new house. Renai doesn't feel comfortable there and later has several experiences with a man appearing in her daughter's room and outside her bedroom window. The couple's eldest son, Dalton, then mysteriously falls into a coma which the doctors cannot explain. After the supernatural incidents become increasingly frightening, the couple move into a new house— and it follows. They find a medium named Elise (Lin Shaye) through Josh's mother (Barbara Hershey), who tells them that their comatose son is the reason for the paranormal activity, and that he has become a vessel for the dead who reside in a dimension she calls 'the Further'. What ensues is a struggle to retrieve Dalton's astral body and return it to his physical one.
James Wan and Leigh Whannell hit it out of the park with their smash hit "Saw", which has turned into one of the biggest horror franchises in history (with less-than-stellar sequels, if you ask me). They followed up with the underrated puppeteer horrorfest "Dead Silence", and here they take a turn at a good, old-fashioned ghost story that's anything but old-fashioned. The film toys with classic concepts of ghostly women in black, demons, possession, and alternate dimensions, but is perhaps the first film to deal with the concept of astral projection — that is, the ability of the soul to leave the body during sleep and enter alternate planes of existence. It's a concept widely discussed by psychics and mediums, but this is probably the firs time it's ever been dealt with on film.
In other regards, the film borrows ideas from many others; in some instances, it feels like a 21st century "Poltergeist" with elements of "The Amityville Horror", and the score is eerily reminiscent of that in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining". But in spite of the draws the film makes from other classics of its genre, it very much feels like its own movie.
Visually speaking, I have to say that the film stands out the most in this arena. The ghosts are presented in a lifelike manner, and the characters featured in the Further have a Gothic, mannequin look to them. The visuals are startling and the appearances of the ghosts are disturbing and surprisingly realistic. The sets have a stolid sensibility to them, with pallid and dreary colors that add to a sense of dread that is felt throughout the film. The menacing demon that is the pinnacle of the supernatural activity is visually simple, but for that reason alone he is even scarier.
The acting is all-around respectable, with Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne leading the film, and the presence of classic actresses Barbara Hershey and the quirky Lin Shaye lend the film even more credibility. Writer Leigh Whannell also surprised me, playing a nerdy paranormal investigator quite well. The film's ending was expected on my part, but by all means, it worked. Standout moments: the séance scene, the ghosts in the Further, and the woman in black.
Overall, "Insidious" borrows a lot but also makes its borrowings very much its own. The story has some fascinating elements and contains some genuinely frightening moments. The visuals alone are dazzling and surrealistic, and for that alone I'd say this film is worth a watch. With all of its elements put together, it feels "off" in a way, but one has to wonder if it is supposed to. If anything, it's a respectable and interesting effort in a genre that is slowly becoming anything but interesting. 7/10.