When people recall the move Saw, someone’s guts twist with fear. When companions talk about Paranormal Activity, someone feels panic surge through them. What happens when you put the creators of these movies together? What comes out of it? A heart pounding scare or a disappointment?
Insidious, written by Leigh Whannell (creator of Saw) and directed by James Wan (also a creator of Saw), is a supernatural horror film that stars Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert, Rose Byrne as Renai Lambert and Ty Simpkins as their son Dalton, the boy in which the movie is based upon. The story is that the house and son are haunted and the parents must find a way to save him and stop the evil from haunting them. The characters are decently developed, but not enough to make you feel for them. When they are scared it doesn’t show well in their movements or eyes, and that leaves the roles semi-underacted. The father was the classic horror movie macho man, the guy who always denies what the other people are saying. For example, Renai would say “This house is haunted. We have to get out of here!” Macho Josh, completely ignoring his wife’s panic and seriousness, would reply “No honey we’re staying. You’re nuts. There is nothing wrong here.” Later in the movie, Josh sporadically received more character development, but it didn’t hold down as well and didn’t compel his character any farther.
The cinematography (the way the movie was captured/shot) is very good. The camera turns at the right moments to make it feel like you’re walking down that hallway or walking next to one of the characters. The lighting was very gray and gloomy, a good effect that helped set the mood for when something popped up. Speaking of things popping up, that brings us to the next point: was Insidious scary? Yes and no.
Saw scared people because of the gore and plot. Paranormal Activity scared people because you couldn’t see the demon. In this movie the demon was shown a lot, creating a major let down. To be honest, the demon (spoiler alerts!!) looked like it was a cross breed between Darth Maul from Star Wars and Nightcrawler from X-Men. The demon was scary at first when it was only shown in shadows and sketches but when exploited it became a watered down minor character that lacked scare and intimidation. Other spirits that were shown were laughable, as were many of the random plot points the movie tried to throw in. Insidious was scary because you knew what was going to happen but you just didn’t know when.
Total recall: Insidious is a decent horror film that doesn’t bring much to the table. Rating: two stars out of five.