Passable time waster

Rating: 4/10 (5 April 2011)

I was about to give up on "Insidious," then there was a rather creative sequence about halfway through that carried me to the end of the movie, weak as it was.
I guess it's quaint to suggest a horror film should have any kind of modestly believable back story that gives some credibility to the events; nowadays you just turn up the volume and have the cast start screaming. It may be past the stage, however, where we should CREDIT the movie makers for not thinking up any real story.
This is a family values scare flick, so we don't get any nudity or threatening sexuality. The male lead had a part in the classy studio flick "Little Children" a few years back but I guess he's still waiting on another one. Barbara Hershey is the "Baby Jane" veteran star slumming in the nonsense. You get a typical shocker ending, that's shocking because it totally contradicts what the movie maker just told you happened. Funny, such things aren't very shocking anymore!
Comic relief guys are not funny but the spook hunter lady was likably non-actorish, like a substitute teacher who somehow wondered onto the set. There is a certain silly, spook house quality to the movie that is kind of likable. The use of the late Tiny Tim's novelty hit "Tiptoe through the Tulips" is kind of funny. Tiny Tim was scarier, though, then anything in this movie.