In Insidious, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) have just moved into a sizable, older styled house and seem to have the perfect family. They have three children, with Dalton (Ty Simpkins) being the oldest. Renai is relegated to unpacking solo because Josh is a teacher and has to go to work.
As Renai spends more time alone at the house, she begins to notice something’s happening to her surroundings. It’s the small things at first, such as books being on the floor when she knows she just shelved them the night before. However, one day as they sit together as a family watching tv, Dalton plays alone at the top of the stairs. The attic door opens slowly, inviting him on in, and he obliges. Once up there, Dalton climbs a wooden ladder so he can reach the pull string for the light, but the ladder rung breaks and he slams to the ground. As he woozily comes to, he hears a clicking sound from the darkness and begins screaming for his parents.
Josh and Renai rush up and check him out, and he appears to just have a scratch on his head. The next day, Josh goes into Dalton’s room to wake him, only he doesn’t wake up. At the hospital, the Lamberts are told that he’s not really in a coma, but he’s not conscious either. He has no brain damage, yet they have no idea what’s wrong with him. The film cuts to three months later and Dalton is moved home, but still in this semi coma state. One day as Renai is talking to her son, Foster, he tells her he is scared because Dalton walks around in the middle of the night.
Common Sense Check: Never Move Into a House With a Grandfather Clock.
From here, Renai begins to realize the house, or something, isn’t what it seems. One afternoon, while Josh is at work, she’s trying to write a song on the piano, and begins hearing strange sounds from the baby monitor. As she puts it to her ear, she realizes it’s a voice, though incoherent at first. She takes a few steps into the foyer so she can look up the stairs to the second floor where the child’s room is located.
With the baby monitor still pressed to her ear, the voice suddenly shrieks “Give it to me!” and she bolts for the baby’s room. This is when the terror goes into high gear, which subsequently forces the Lamberts to move out of their home. However, at their new house, it appears the haunting has followed Renai, or has it?
They’reeeeee Herrrrreeeeeee! And Here! And ..Hey, Look Over There! There They Are!
It’s refreshing when a movie sets out to do something, as small as that goal may be, and actually accomplishes it. James Wan (Saw) didn’t set out to make a wholly original horror film, only a scary one. And while the term scary means different things to different people, by and large this film gets it right. It’s not horrifying by any stretch, but it is unnerving. If Poltergeist is a slow burn type of story, pulling the audience in for the ride with the Freeling family, Insidious is a repeated hammer to the head, as is the soundtrack.
Sure, this type of film relies on cheap jump scares, but rarely has a film like this chained together so many in succession. There are times when the jump scare is expected, but it's held back an extra half second, which is a highly effective method for popping asses out of seats. Because of this, Insidious is the perfect date movie, one that will have you and your significant other jumping together, then laughing at how silly it all is, only to be interrupted by your popcorn flying through the air yet again. If films are measured on how well they accomplish what they set out to do, then it’s hard to fault Insidious for anything more than being an old school haunted house story, albeit one that's clearly on crystal meth.
After enduring the horror movie flops and retreads that have been released in the past decade, Insidious gets credit for doing what it’s supposed to do, which is to make the audience jump out of their seats, even if it is involuntary.
- Double Feature With: Poltergeist (1982)
- Film: 6.7/10
- So Bad It’s Good: +.3 (7.0/10)
- Gore: N/A
- Music: 7.0/10
