Scary-ish movie

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2011)

I've waited a few weeks for my local multiplex (Brighton) to show a movie that wasn't aimed at pre-teens, and along comes INSIDIOUS, which pre-teens (who'll have to wait for the DVD) will probably enjoy more than I did, since it's about as scary as a good episode of DR WHO.
INSIDIOUS is a mish-mash of ingredients: a bit of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, a bit of AMITYVILLE HORROR, a bigger bit of THE EXORCIST and a whole lot of POLTERGEIST. The mixture is fairly well brewed with quite a few make-you-jump moments and adequate performances (though Barbara Hershey is wasted in a thin role and the lady medium reminded me more than somewhat of the late Queen Mum!). The lighting inside the two Haunted Houses is almost as dim before the weird stuff starts as after, and the glimpses of the 'Further' (the Afterlife has been re-branded) are a bit like the Ghost Train at a funfair, with things jumping out of near total darkness at the rider/viewer.
It's a relief to have a horror flick that doesn't rely on gross-out gore, but this is only a scary-ish movie. It doesn't hold a (black) candle to Sam Raimi's DRAG ME TO HELL.