I’ve been a big fan of Patrick Wilson ever since I saw him beside Ellen Page in Hard Candy, but not even him acting alongside Rose Byrne (Get Him To The Greek) could elevate James Wan’s Insidious to being the next knockout horror movie.
Josh (Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Byrne) have just moved into a new house with their three children. Small incidents occur that frighten Renai, and when their eldest child Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into a coma-like state, the odd happenings get worse, leading the couple to believe that their home is haunted. As the previews have indicated, it’s actually Dalton that is haunted, not the house, and malevolent spirits are keeping Dalton’s soul from returning to his body.
Insidious starts out rather slow, letting the film build the story while fleshing out the Lamberts a little. The story development is a nice change of pace from a lot of horror movies that have come out recently, even if it did get boring at times waiting for the action to begin.
Wan uses mostly “jump out” tactics to frighten. The scary moments from the film are all derived from sudden flashes of a face or abrupt moments of characters being close to something evil without realizing it.
While there won’t be any moments of a character brushing their hair and seeing a ghost in the mirror, there also won’t be a single scare that lasts for longer than a second. Your heart won’t be pounding from watching this one, and a lot of the frightening bursts will leave you laughing afterwards at the ridiculousness of what you just saw, though you will jump at least once.
Byrne and Wilson aren’t challenged as actors at all, and about halfway through the film, the focus seems to shift from Renai to Josh without doing a good job of making me care about either one.
Neither character seems extremely likable and while the trope of “guy not believing the girl about the evil thing” has been done in movies before (a la The Grudge), Renai should have been the hero at the end rather than Josh, even if that would have stuck too much to conventional horror plots. The two leads do their best and Byrne starts to shine by the end, but neither get the opportunity to show their acting chops.
The biggest problem is the plot’s story, which was highly predictable; the final plot twist at the end was glaringly obvious well before it arrived, and every major plot point was expected. Wan made it work with good pacing; however, all the story-building that had been done throughout the movie completely dissolved at the end. The final climactic scene of the movie was preceded by a lengthy scene of exposition, explaining exactly what was going on. No movie should have to take an extended break before the climax just to explain what is happening in the film.
Insidious won’t be wholly original to the viewer. The story is a mix of previous works and the acting is nothing exceptional. There was a surprising amount of comedy in the film, and while Insidious doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously (two minor characters are there for the express purpose of mocking the clichés of the supernatural genre), the funny moments themselves feel too forced.
The score didn’t stand out either, with the standard scenes in which the music built in intensity, and right at the crescendo, either a ghoul popped out or nothing happened.
You won’t experience a mind-twist along the lines of The Grudge or The Ring, but is it better than Drag Me to Hell? Absolutely.
Plot aside, the movie itself was entertaining. There is no gore, and a low budget had Insidious relying on things other than CGI or heavy special effects to do the heavy lifting. You’ll be laughing as often as jumping, and even with a terrible climactic scene, Wan does a good job of building a story, as predictable as it was, rather than simply throwing monsters at the screen.
Expect to leave with certain minor plot points never explained, and while they’re not overly important to the story, they’re talked about often enough to leave you annoyed that no explanation is given.
3/4 stars is generous, but Insidious is better than any recent horror movie, and you won’t mind paying for a ticket.
Richard Solomon can be reached at richard.solomon@spartans.ut.edu.