I Wanna See It Again

Rating: 9/10 (7 April 2011)

Only next time I won't be hiding behind my bag of popcorn for most of the movie. Insidious tells a tale about a family who flees their haunted house, only to discover that it was never actually the house that was haunted. The proceedings follow a familiar path to anyone who has seen classics of this genre like The Haunting and Poltergeist, but it tells it so much better than similar films of more recent vintage. Right out of the gate it spooked me. I can't think of another movie that grabbed me by the throat quite that fast that I've seen in a theater recently. A good bit of the credit for that goes to Joseph Bishara, who wrote a score that skittered up my spine like a spider. Director James Wan also made great use of shadows and unexpected juxtapositions, and just created such an all-around sense of dread that even when you're pretty sure you know what's about to happen, it's still freaking scary when it does. Leigh Whannell hits all the marks for an Old Dark House movie, and layers it with believable middle class family pathos. The actors all fill out their roles sympathetically, and Lin Shaye in particular knocks it out of the park as the psychic who tries to help the family. The only flaw I can see here is that the way the story plays out is not really going to surprise anyone familiar with this genre. If you watch a lot of haunted house horror, I'll bet you even guess the twist. However, it's all told so very, very well that I'll only take away one point for that. Highly recommended!