A promising disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (23 May 2011)

This movie is a lazy oddity.
When I saw this, the young, energetic and crowded audience responded accordingly. Squeaks and giggles distracted as the hackneyed script ticked all the relevant boxes, relying heavily on cliché excused as references to classics. The faded palette, screeching-string score and stereotyped characters offered nothing new - but so what? This is a fun horror movie, right? No.
Okay, it avoids CG and splatter but that doesn't automatically single it out as the kind of movie to creep inside your head and have you keeping the lights on in your bedroom for the next four nights. As a weak reworking of superior haunting/possession classics, this poorly-acted, weakly-scripted movie is a vehicle for jump-gags alone. Granted, a couple of these gags are inventive if you're a fan of the genre but the final 30 minutes had me yawning and patiently waiting for a probable conclusion with the inevitable twist.
So you might as well avoid this unless you have a seriously bored rainy afternoon. Insidious is a dull placeholder for those who remember the awe, naked fear, and fascinating paranormal intrigue of Poltergeist.