As soon as I heard about the new movie Insidious, I said "Oh boy, this is a MUST-SEE." For as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of this genre. I'm not talking about the Freddie/Jason slasher-type films or the torture/amputation sicko-flicks, but the truly psychological twisters that do a number on your head.
This is the story of a young family whose oldest child, Dalton, after a seemingly minor household accident, slips into a mysterious coma that medical science is unable to explain. Doctors and hospitals not being able to do anything for Dalton, his parents are forced to take the not-quite-living-but-not-quite-dead boy home where he lies in his room completely unresponsive. Spectral entities are soon haunting the house, or so it seems, but when the family moves to a new home, the haunting continues; hence the tagline: "It's not the house that's haunted." Turns out little Dalton has entered The Further, a sort of nether-world where evil spirits vie to inhabit his body. At some point his grandmother (played by Barbara Hershey) hires a psychic who sends the boy's father into The Further to search for him and hopefully bring him back via some sort of astral projection or out-of-body experience.
Insidious did not disappoint. Although highly derivative, that is not a bad thing here. It has elements of every one of my favorite ghost stories: The Haunting (haunted house, unexplained noises), The Innocents (possessed child, ghostly apparitions, eerie weeping), The Others (creepy climactic séance), Flatliners (crossing over into another realm) and Carnival of Souls (pale-faced ghoulies coming to get ya).
Very much like the aforementioned The Haunting, most of the early scares in Insidious rely on sound, lighting and camera angles. Because of the way tension builds up (like in Paranormal Activity), the sight of a face eerily appearing in a window, or a sudden loud noise, can make you jump out of your seat. The beginning of the movie is all about suggestion, mood and atmosphere, and what you don't see, which are the elements of the very BEST ghost stories.
Special commendation for the excellent editing. As much as you might want to shield your eyes in anticipation and dread while watching this movie, you won't want to miss some of the split-second spine-tingling images.
My only complaint is that the last one-third or so of the film was almost over-kill. The scares were so relentless toward the conclusion of the story, you barely have time to recover from one fright before another is foisted on you. Nevertheless, there are some truly frightening images in this movie.
I have seen many many such movies (and have read even more such novels) and I consider myself pretty jaded and not easily frightened, but I am a little embarrassed to admit that one scene in particular actually made me scream out loud in the movie theater - a first for me! By film's end, my heart was literally pounding.
If you are highly suggestible or prone to nightmares, do not see this film, but if you are truly a fan of a good ghost/haunted house story, do not miss Insidious. Got to be one of the scariest movies of all time.
