Did Charlie Kelly write this?

Rating: 4/10 (28 June 2015)

There's an episode of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" called "The Nightman Cometh" where one of the characters makes a misguided attempt at seducing a woman by writing a musical. The show revolves around a young boy who gets his soul stolen and dragged off to another dimension by the titular Nightman, a Demon with slick black hair and cats eyes who hides in the shadows. It's not very well written, poorly acted and inevitably, winds up being a total disaster.
Why is this relevant you may ask?
Well because the plot to 'Insidious' is remarkably similar. Sure, it's not a musical and the acting is generally rather good, but the story of a young boy dropping into an inexplicable coma during the night because of a Demon with slick black hair and cats eyes dragging him off to another dimension is uncomfortably close to Charlie Kelly's ham- fisted calamity.
That being said, if you're not familiar with said comedy you might still find 'Insidious' intriguing, but only if you've not seen any horror films before. It does a pretty good job of setting up the tension in the early going, but soon loses it's way once you realise that it doesn't have many original ideas. It might not be about a haunted house, but aside from the fact there's one point where the protagonists move, it sure plays out like one. Considering the Demons spend most of the film doing little more than the occasional cackling or running past an open door, it's also hard to feel scared by them.
In fairness though, 'Insidious' isn't awful. The early scenes work quite well, the interplay between Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson does make them seem like a convincing married couple and the two bickering paranormal researchers are actually quite entertaining. However, it just feels like it was put together by a committee who wanted bits of 'The Amityville Horror' and 'Poltergeist' stitched together. By the time the finale comes round you'll be humming a song about the Dayman, fighter of the Nightman, guardian of the sun, master of Karate and friendship for everyone.