Understated, modest budget, horror at its best

Rating: 10/10 (22 November 2016)

A movie critic cohort on my blogroll, Darren at Movies 101, pointed out to me yesterday that "Insidious" had a ridiculously low budget of just 1.5 million. We were discussing it in context with a film he was reviewing with a small budget as well. It is true that money can buy an awesome production but there is still a lot to do with a little money. Insidious definitely fits in that category.
There is no set criteria for a great horror flick, in my opinion. I rate them based on what they try to be and let me say this, it's fairly easy to detect what a horror movie is trying to be. There are "Saw" formulas and others for movies like "Paranormal Activity." I'd say there are probably a handful of classic themes/formulas and two handfuls of ones that have emerged in the past 20-30 years. Insidious follows the formula of cheap camera scares and ingenious sound effects and they are used well. Everything else in the film, including ghosts, is minimal. The creepiest scene in my opinion could have been aired on the Twilight zone in the 1960's.
There may be minor spoilers the rest of the review. That doesn't mean it's not graphic. It's far less so than "Saw," which was made by the same people, but it's not for very small kids like 0-7. Still, it is a minimal movie that relies on the creepiness of strobe like scares and a ghost story that really never goes anywhere  until the end. I loved the end. There is a twist that made me smile for sure. If you're looking for a great horror movie without the gore and not as much stuff jumping out as "Paranormal Activity," this is a fun one to get your blood going. I didn't like some of the writing choices. For example: I thought the boy came into the house with a feeding tube far too quickly after being in the hospital. I also thought the story was way too slow and not much was developed until a certain point. It could have "gotten to it" much earlier for my taste. For that reason I took off just one star and still rated it very high as a great horror film.