"Insidious" And Then Some
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Insidious (FilmDistrict)
Director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, longtime collaborators of “Saw” and “Dead Silence” fame, take an old concept and show us what they can do with what’s been done to death.
Produced by “Paranormal Activity” director Oren Peli, you can’t help but make comparisons between “Insidious” and “Paranormal Activity.”
Both center around haunted spaces permeated not with ghosts who just want some understanding, but with pure evil, both show innocents on the verge of possession and both are excellent films.
But where “Paranormal Activity” plays with the mind and leaves it up to you to imagine the demonic horrors that lie behind your eyelids at night, “Insidious” shows you all its creepy monsters in operatic glory.
It’s a throwback to classic films like “The Haunting,” “The Changeling” and “Poltergeist,” but it stands strongly on its own with a new take on what initially appeared to be an exhausted backdrop.
“Insidious” is about a young boy who is about to be possessed. The beautiful Rose Byrne (who cries in just about every movie with the exception of “Marie Antoinette”) and Patrick Wilson play Renae and Josh Lambert, a young family with three kids who are seemingly happy until they move into a house with a requisite haunted attic.
From there, things go bump in the day, afternoon, dusk, night. Their son, Dalton, slips into a deep sleep that puzzles doctors because he’s not really in a coma but can’t wake up. Renae soldiers through the ordeal for months while Josh comes up with excuses to avoid their situation.
The film is jumpy in scenes you least expect it and in scenes you fully expect it, but you are scared anyway because of long silences severed by needles for music, and the images Wan throws on the screen.
“Insidious” is shot almost like a student film and in place of CGI, blood, gore and guts, Wan uses actors dressed effectively as specters infiltrating the living world. One scene has Josh confronting an apparition, and it’s a slumber party’s worst nightmare. She’s straight out of a Bloody Mary double dare, looking into a mirror with a candle sucking light out of the room instead of illuminating it.
You’ll hide behind your sweater when watching this film, but you’ll continue to look through the holes because in a sick way, you don’t want it to stop. It’s so rare that a classic, “scary” movie genuinely scares you because of its eeriness instead of its grossness, that you’ll want to revel in it for as long as possible.
Whannell, who also plays one of the ghost busters, delivers a strong script, mixing equal parts camp/humor/drama and suspense. There are some points in the film where you just have to accept the ridiculousness and go with it, and once you do you’ll be taken along for the best haunted house ride you’ve ever been on.
This film was seen at Outside the Box Office, part of the USC School of Cinematic Arts free film screening program. For the current calendar, click here. To join their mailing list, click here.
