Creepy, eerie fun

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2010)

When it comes to horror directors, there are only a handful of them out there that produce consistent quality. There is Eli Roth, but his resume is still in its infancy (Cabin Fever, Hostel and Hostel II). There are the Spierig brothers who brought us Daybreakers and the Undead, and Rob Zombie who has the Halloween franchise under his belt. But again, each are still fairly new and are still trying to experiment with the genre to find their niche. Then there's James Wan. Saw, Dead Silence and Death Sentence are were shot with Wan behind the camera and Saw's II, IV, VI and the new Saw 3-D were all executive produced by the budding horror star. For the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival, James Wan brought his new film Insidious to the masses in what was a generally crowd pleasing tale of a family and their fight against evil spirits. The film opens with the introduction to the family. Josh and Renai (Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne) head a family of three children with their eldest being Dalton (Ty Simpkins) at an approximate age of around 10. The family has just moved into a new house and are still in the stages of unpacking when strange things begin to occur. Things begin to move around the house and noises can be heard in rooms where the children sleep. One night, Dalton goes investigating in the attic and falls and bumps his head. The next morning, Dalton falls into a comatose state. The family takes Dalton to the hospital, but doctors are dumbfounded as to why Dalton is not responsive. Months later, the situation has not improved and Dalton is back at home where he is tended to by his mother and a day nurse. But unexplained things continue to occur in the house. Doors open and images of ghosts are seen by Renai. But when a red blood handprint shows up on Dalton's bed sheet, the family moves in fear that their house is haunted. Their new home brings them no less troubles and we learn that it is their son that is haunted, not the house. An expert and two scientists/assistants run tests and reveal to the family that Dalton can astral project himself and he has done so and lost himself in a place known as The Further. Now, with the help of the psychic and Josh's comparable abilities to project, they attempt to find Dalton and rescue him from a ghastly hoofed tormentor that wants to use Dalton's human body for evil. The comparisons between Insidious and 1982's Poltergeist are too comparable to ignore. Both films have a haunted child. Both have a psychic and assistants who have weird gadgets in an attempt to capture evidence of the unknown. And both films employ a solution wherein a parent must travel inside the spirit world to find their child. The first two thirds of Insidious have great scares and moments of spine-tingling suspense. Wan didn't want to use normal conventions in the film so there are no cats jumping out of closets or images appearing in bathroom mirror reflections when someone tries to put their toothbrush back in the medicine cabinet. Instead, the scares from the experiences with the family. Think of it as Paranormal Activity shot with multiple cameras and with a budget. Some of the scenes were downright frightening like when the psychic sees the face of the evil spirit (which looks like Darth Maul) hissing at her behind Josh's head. But in the final acts, Insidious could not keep pace with the momentum of the first half and we lose a little of the eeriness when Josh enters The Further and dry ice and ghosts become the setting. The creature which has abducted Dalton has great powers and strength, but we are to believe that he uses cheap, breakable chains to entrap his victim? And when the creature does get screen time, he is hardly as scary as the description and flash images we had leading to his formal introduction. Still, Insidious delivers the goods enough to be a recommendation. A strong recommendation. Wan knows how to manipulate an audience and doesn't try to bite of the hand that feeds him. He puts humor in all the right places and doesn't dumb things down too much for the genre loving audience. There was a lot about the final 20 minutes that could have used tweaking (and please tell me there was a better ending for the film that will show up on the DVD), but still, I challenge you not to be creeped out by events leading to the final chapters. Seriously, I dare you.