My friends and I decide to go to the movies late at night, and the movie they wanted to see was Insidious. Having no idea what it was about, they bring up the trailer on the phone and I automatically want to see it on the account of it being a horror film. As I am waiting in line to purchase my ticket, the small boy on the poster of the movie meets my eyes and stares with an immersed force, as if he was looking into my soul....
Insidious was created by the same makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw, and.... wait, Saw? Really? So that means this movie contains an immense amount of gore, right? Actually, no. Gore does not make a single appearance in this movie and relies solely on the scare factor. The cast for the film include Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Ty Simpkins.
Plot Synopsis
After moving into their new home, Josh and Renai begin to have unusual experiences in their home after their son slips into a deep coma. After close encounters with demons, the couple begin to think that their home is haunted and decide to hire a team to investigate. After a few short investigations, it's concluded that the house is not what's haunted... it's their son....
First Impression
As I stated before I had no idea what this movie was about, let alone existed, until our group went to watch it. So there's not much I can say about my first impressions with it. The movie poster shows a possessed boy outside of the house, gazing into your eyes. In my personal opinion the scariest thing in horror movies are possessed children, especially Japanese horror with their scary little girls. I love the opening credits, the music gave me the impression of classic horror films with black and white snapshots filling the background.
Review
The opening scene starts off with the camera going through different rooms of an old house, when we are greeted by this creepy old hag staring at us through a barely lit window.
And that's what I want to praise most about in this movie. No not the old hag, but it's ability to maintain a creepy, dark atmosphere throughout the movie. There were times I could hear some of my friends beg for a character to not go into a dark room where the noise was coming from.
Since the movie was just released, I'm gonna stay away from the storyline and not give away any spoilers. Instead I'll talk about the things I liked and disliked in the movie. With that said, I'll begin with the dislikes:
After the opening sequence, the movie gets slow.... in fact really slow. We watch the lives of our characters before us and it feels like it was dragged out for a while. Soon after, their son finally slips into a coma and everything begins.... the movie never really gives a background to the characters, or why they even moved in the first place. It's not until very later on the movie that we get some information, and only on Josh.
Another one I want to talk about is the film's use of "False Alarms". A false alarm is where a scene gets really suspenseful and you're ready for something to pop out and frighten you, only it turns out to be something completely different or nothing at all. I have nothing against false alarms, in fact I find them to be fun at times. However, this movie used the false alarm a lot. Even during the long, drawn out opening it was used a few times.
Now that I talked about some of the dislikes, it's time to talk about the things I liked about Insidious:
Despite the false alarms previously mention, the movie did contain a handful of scenes that made you jump. Horror movies don't really scare me anymore, but Insidious did a very good job at making me jump a couple of times. I already stated I don't want to give away anything about the movie, but let's just say that there are a couple scenes where if you play your cards right, you might be able to make your friends yell out in the theater. Just saying.
The concept around the haunting of the child is unique. Instead of regular possessions that involve "the devil holding the child hostage so now we have to get a priest to perform an exorcism. Exorcist is successful/failure. Movie ends", the concept used is astral projection. This means the person can separate from their physical body and walk around, pretty much the equivalent to an out of body experience. The traits were passed on to the boy from the father, so it is his duty to go save him.
Visuals/Effects/Audio
The visuals and effects for this movie were just astounding. As I stated before, the movie does a great job at retaining a very dark and very creepy atmosphere where at some points you don't want to know what's waiting around the corner. Even though one of the demons was obviously CGI (And looks a tad bit like Darth Maul from the Star Wars series), it still maintained a frightening appearance and it would make you jump every time he appeared on screen.
Whoever did the audio work for this film deserves an award. As I stated at the beginning of this review, the opening credits played a piece that was very suspenseful and had that classic horror feel to it. Speaking of suspenseful music, the tracks uses throughout the movie were incredible. Each one had the perfect tone and mood, and would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck right as something were to happen.
Final Thoughts
If you got the chance, I would highly recommend to go check this movie out. It is especially enjoyable if you have your friends or lover with you and scare them every time something pops out on the screen. The movie is highly enjoyable and I think you would not be disappointed by it. Insidious gets two thumbs up from me, and I would love to see the makers pair up again and make another movie like it.
