Insidious

“Not with a wand, nor lightly!”

Swift shot:  This film resonated with me, on several levels.  It touches on themes not normally seen in your standard horror film, and I won’t give that element away here.  Suffice it to say, Insidious will force you to fight your urge to scream and will push the intellectual envelope even further.

Josh (Patrick Wilson: The Watchmen, Little Children) is a high-school teacher, his subject isn’t important, as it never comes to the surface.  He works hard to provide for his large family, while his wife Renai (Rose Byrne: 28 Weeks Later, The Dead Girl) stays home and deals with their new house and three children.  But almost immediately, things start to go bump, and their oldest son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins: Little Children, Pride and Glory) enters into a creepy upstairs room, exploring the new place, but something happens to him which plunges him into a bizarre coma.  The family is now draped in despair.

They try everything science can offer, but ultimately they can’t seem to break Dalton from his deep, dark slumber.  They even move from the new house to a smaller place, and it is implied this isn’t their first move.  Everywhere they move, the darkness comes with them.  If you pay attention, they keep bringing one item with them throughout their moves, is this what felled their son?

Finally, Josh’s mother, played by Barbara Hershey (The Last Temptation of Christ, Black Swan) decides to call in an unorthodox team of paranormal investigators, a woman named Elise (Lin Shaye: My Sister’s Keeper, Dead End) who has been a friend of hers for years.  Her team of scouts is hilarious, employing some old 80’s toys which have been modified to see the things few see, I won’t ruin that for you, but it should make anyone over 20 laugh out loud.  The scouts are characters themselves, you’ll like them, and I saw a few allusions to Poltergeist throughout their scenes, one scene with a steak made me smile as I got the inside joke, and you should too.

Insidious was a dark, chilling, vile, fresh, thought-provoking film.  I bet you google my tag line after seeing the film, but beware, the line contains a serious spoiler, it is a chapter from a book I own.  So research AFTER you see the film, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Patrick Wilson should be no stranger to anyone right now, he keeps popping up in some incredible films.  His roles aren’t always the most interesting characters, but he pulls his weight and carries others well.  I have yet to see him suck in anything, and Insidious is no exception.  A few times you will find yourself hating his character, so, as always, if an actor can elicit any pure emotion out of you, that is all we ever really need.  Wilson seems to become his characters fluidly.

Rose Byrne was decent, she had a few strong scenes, but nothing like the mom from the original Poltergeist, that film will always have the most powerful mom figure in a horror flick, period.  Barbara Hershey nailed her very small role in this film, coming off her Black Swan performance as the critically domineering mother, she shifts her soul, ever so slightly, to portray a truly caring and understanding mother – even embracing her daughter-in-law with the same affection.

But, the show stealer of this film has to be the infamous indie film actress Lin Shaye, she caught my eye with her character in Dead End, years ago, and anytime I see her now, quite frankly I get excited.  She is almost a character actor, because I have yet (personally) to see her in anything straight.  She always plays a character who has intense, border-line insane scenes . . .  she does the same thing in Insidious.

The music was a throw-back to the Hitchcock films with a modern digital pulse spiraling up your spinal cord like a dark, twisted snake. One recurring theme for the vile “fire faced” entity is Tiny Tim’s innocuous “Tip-Toe Through the Tulips With Me” which I used to think was just a cray song, but now, the way director James Wan employs it, let’s just say, Madison Monroe never wants to hear that song, ever again!

The special effects were imaginative and frighteningly playful, and using a few simple, yet effective surreal effects that will definitely give your mind’s eye something to focus on clearing out before you get much sleep.  Everything in the dark might annoy some, but it really touches on our earliest, instinctual fears of the unknown, cloaking the scarier scenes with the dark was called for and employed well.  The use of the white-clad techies to add a very brief bit of character acting comedy was a nice touch, and it allows you a little time to breathe.

We needed a classic, simple, scary horror film.  Combining the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity was like intellectual incest, where the offspring is your god-child of horror!

I won’t spoil anything, but, man, this film is gonna have you talking, and researching, and wondering – what are the limits of the human being.

Here is the only problem with Insidious, it is rated PG-13, so the tweeny boppers WILL be in your theater, thing is, they don’t care about the film, because they aren’t paying for it – their irresponsible parents are.  So, for the majority of the film, kids were getting up, leaving, coming back, using cells, the whole list of annoying things I hate, which you can find out by simply searching for “Movie Ushers” in our search box.

So, to that end, here is what I advise, wait til this sucker is about to leave theaters, then go the last week, go when the kids are asleep.  But, this is one that might even be better to see at home on Blu Ray for the first time, you know, LATE, in the DARK, when your MIND is vibrating with that ethereal, creative energy that permeates the air, where all things seem possible, where emotions run through the atmosphere like a sieve.  See this one where you have the best chance to not be disturbed at all, and I think you will be pleasantly disturbed.