in-s(tup)id-ious

Rating: 1/10 (21 May 2011)

THE term horror has been used in movies for the past 115 years since it's gruesome birth on December, 24 1896 at the Theatre Robert Houdin, France, in the form of Le Manoir Du Diable (The Devils Castle).
Since then there have been many classics such as The Exorcist, The Shining and more recently Saw; and horror movies have gone from strength to strength scaring their victim audience even after the movie has finished. So with the added bonus of this film coming from the makers of Paranormal Activity' and Saw; it promised to be a true horror classic.
The film starts with teacher Josh (Patrick Wilson) and his composer wife Renai (Rose Byrne) moving their family to a new home where everything seems fine.
However, within a few days their oldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) has an accident and whilst in a comatose state an evil presence appears to consume the family home.
Unfortunately over time many good things eventually come to an end and with the birth of Insidious comes the death of the horror movie. Despite a positive start with plenty of jumpy moments, the film rapidly lost life with the storyline being too far fetched and the director trying too hard to place fear into the audience with ticking clocks and creaking floor boards.
The addition of subtle humour that seems to be an ever increasing factor in most modern day horror films was unnecessary and ridiculous props that should be scary only added to the pain of an already agonisingly poor horror film.
The movie did have some scary moments with a certain camera scene that builds great suspense and the fear inflicted on the audience when seeing a ghostly face by a baby's cot; and the performances from Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne were very convincing but unfortunately could not save the second half of this film.
It also had the typical scenes audiences have now seen over and over again like the voice through the baby monitor when no-one is upstairs; and before long you can predict exactly what is going to happen and how it will all end.
For the horror film rookie, this may be a great start for you as things will only get better from here; however, for you veterans out there this will no doubt be the final nail in what was once a terrifying coffin.