A Nutshell Review: Insidious

Rating: 8/10 (16 May 2011)

Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell have burst into our filmic consciousness having being responsible for Saw that launched an enduring franchise, created a new anti-hero and spawned a frenzy in the torture porn subgenre. Horror films are their forte though Wan did branch off for a remake of Death Wish with Death Sentence, before re-teaming with Whannell behind the camera to come up with Insidious, one of the best jump in your seat horror offering in quite some time.
It's easy to pass this off as another quick hack out to earn an easy buck at the box office. For instance, the poster has this creepy child, and creepy children have been staple in films such as The Orphan, the remake of The Omen, and countless others in recent years. The opening credits scene is incredibly cheesy and cheap looking, but it gets better, trust me. Then there's the story about a haunted house, a requisite in many, many horror films, but that's only the tip of the iceberg, as Wan and Whannell intended to lull you in with complacency built up from one's horror film experience, before shoving the motherload of scares right down your throat.
Even the building of the premise may make you roll your eyes at the expectation that this may be just another Paranormal Activity, since it tells of the Lambert family, with parents Josn and Renai (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne respectively) and their three children Dalton (Ty Simpkins playing Wilson's kid again, collaborating before in Little Children), Foster (Andrew Astor) and another toddler in arms who bawl at the slightest of disturbances in the house. And there are plenty, with the usual moving and slamming doors, a very receptive baby monitor and documentary styled camera movements that reminisces that of Paranormal Activity 2, sans voyeuristic eyes from CCTV and found footage.
You won't be faulted if you had suspicions that this film took a leaf from Paranormal Activity and combined it with your classic haunted house spooks, but here's where Whannell, who also starred in this film as a paranormal geek alongside Angus Sampson, upped the ante despite having to have the family move house, and came up with a tale that's best kept under wraps to retain the surprises that come along the way, although some may find fault with his rather geeky and detailed explanation through the medium Elise (Lin Shaye), engaged by Josh's mom Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) that links up with Josh's own repressed past.
But as far as scaring the audience goes, Insidious scores top marks. Wan has a knack for designing his scary pieces with aplomb to jump scare even the most jaded of horror film goers, and the best part is, you're primed to expect something to happen, and they do, without too many time wasting red herrings. Wan gives what an audience will expect, and does so without pulling his punches, so much so that it's somewhat of a thrill ride as we journey with the characters to make sense of what's happening. The beauty comes from the simplicity of the ghoul design, clichéd some may be even, and one red faced demon that looked very much like Darth Maul. But they did their job in old school like fashion, complete with a very in your face, scratchy soundtrack that did half the job since this film would not have worked without Joseph Bishara's violin-centric score.
Costing only 1.5 million dollars to make and grossing over 50 million to date, Insidious just goes to show how profitable horror films can be, where there's no need for fancy graphical effects, but reliance on simple practical ones to send chills up your spine. If it's a good scare in the cinemas you're after, then Insidious serves that up by the bucketloads without insulting your intelligence. Stay right through to the end credits for one final hurrah. Highly recommended!