Promising First-Half. Disastrous Second-Half.

Rating: Null/10 (18 September 2013)

From the director of Saw & The Conjuring, Insidious had the potential to become one of the most brilliant & genuinely frightening horror films of the 21st century but despite having all the ingredients which are used to near-perfection in the first half, the movie ends up being a huge letdown thanks to the tumble it takes down the road during the following half.
The story concerns the Lambert family who have moved to their new house with their two sons but soon start experiencing mysterious incidents in the house. Things turn for the worse when their 8-year old son inexplicably falls into coma and when the doctors are unable to revive him, the parents turn to a spiritualist who warns them of the danger their son is in as a demon plans to take possession of his comatose body.
Directed by James Wan, the manner in which he sets up the premise & builds up the tension in the first half with expert use of controlled camera movements, sound effects & silence is worthy of praise but after that, Wan simply loses his grip on everything as the promising & brilliantly executed first act is completely destroyed by its ridiculous second act, thus turning an effective horror into a plainly stupid one.
The performances are quite good, camera-work & editing works in perfect harmony for a while, the background score gels pretty well with the events, sound effects is one of its biggest strength and James Wan proves his knowledge when it comes to scaring the audience yet the high standards this film set before the halfway mark is never matched or even challenged by its next half, thus resulting in an overall frustrating experience.
Opening with a promise of greater things to come, developing its suspenseful & dreary atmosphere with precision craftsmanship and yet missing what was up for grabs by failing to capitalize on the boost provided by its first half, Insidious really had a chance at cinematic greatness but one wrong route around the halfway mark ultimately ended up wasting that opportunity for good. A heartbreaking disappointment.