Review

The Lambert's, with young family in tow, move into a new house that simply drips with the haunted vibe. One of their sons, Dalton, falls into a coma, apparently the result of hitting his head after a fall in the attic. Ominous or what! Strange things start happening and Mom Renai isn't happy with the general feel in the house. When her husband Josh also encounters some oddities of the supernatural kind the Lamberts do what no other white family in a horror movie ever do, they get out of Dodge.

Unfortunately for the Lamberts it seems the ghosts follow them to their new more modern abode and things are looking pretty freaky. Naturally they go with a Priest, which doesn't work, before calling in the experts and in a shock move Josh Lambert must dig up his past in order to save his family from the things that do more than go bump in the night. Lets get our chill on, this movie freaking rocks!

The advertising for Insidious loudly proclaims the movie is from the makers of Paranormal Activity (2007) and Saw (2004). Lets break that down before getting our groove on with the actual review. I simply dug Paranormal Activity, well it's got like a haunted house and demonic stuff so I'm there. The movie was innovative and a return to making the thrills and chills happen in the main by suggestion and situation. Director Oren Peli manages to make a darkened doorway freaking scary yo! At the screening I showed up for there was screaming, people fleeing the cinema in terror, and I had a hell of a time while wondering whether or not I really wanted to see what happened next. Surprisingly I was less impressed with Saw, while there were some clever ideas the movie doesn't deliver much beyond a couple of surprise twists. What I picked up in the mesh between the two creative teams was a James Wan movie with PA sensibilities, for the first two blocks of the movie the PA influence is there throughout typical Wan visual excellence.

James Wan delivers an excellent haunted house fun ride that will have you high fiving your nearest and dearest, while hiding behind the sofa

James Wan gets his movie out of the parking bay with some fine appetisers of the chills to come, in time honour fashion, and the Director nails it like a well laid floor board. We're talking dimly glimpsed shadows, doors that open by themselves, the whole bad atmosphere in the house vibe. For fully two thirds of the movie things are creepy and we're having a real good time as the Director nails his atmosphere, gradually ups the anti, and has a background story entering stage left. It's invigorating stuff, I was hooked, and I can guarantee that those who dig them some haunted house fare are going to be high fiving the spirits around them. Personally I preferred the first house to the second, the former looked like it should be haunted and was permanently in a stage of twilight allowing for the ghostly shenanigans to leap out of the screen at the Audience without a lot of preamble. You'll need to catch the movie to work out the crafty slight of hand Wan pulls with his second major location, all to do with the modern, science, and investigation.

Notably Wan and Whannell run with normal haunted house expectations while leading the Audience off the garden path and into some pretty menacing shadows in the final block of the movie. We have the Priest, who ultimately proves to be out of his depth, the older person who knows things (Josh's Mom), and of course the seance that goes wrong. On the subject of the seance, the gimmick didn't work Leigh Whannell! People will know what I'm talking about when they see the movie.

What seems to have a whole bunch of people gnashing their teeth is the final block of the movie, which admittedly comes to us with a tad of left field flavouring. I certainly wasn't expecting it but can see where Writer Leigh Whannell was going with things. So you have a haunting, that's either going to end well or badly depending on viewpoint, but how do you add something different to proceedings rather than dialling in the sort of “it was all a dream” malarkey that has destroyed more than one promising horror flick in the past? Whannell has already written off any getting out of the house before things get too histrionic in an Amityville Horror fashion, so he does the next best thing, he gets surreal and up in your expectations. And I believe this is what is driving some Reviewers, especially North Americans, crazy. Insidious doesn't pan out the way you expected it to with a knock down final block that will either have the Audience baying for more or wondering where they left their laundry lists, Whannell goes real left field and drops some of “the further” into proceedings. I thought this was an interesting enough approach and it certainly built the groundwork for a more than chilling final scene. Just mentioning here Director Wan nails that part of the movie, it's going to hit you between the eyes like a well aimed sledgehammer. You'll have to catch the flick to get the whole "further" thing, but well worth it.

In effective Whannell drives downtown to the excellent neighbourhood of the haunted house, hits a left into possession street, before finding a parking spot within Fulci's The Beyond (1981). Insidious thus becomes a hard movie to lock down, but feel safe in the knowledge that Director Wan has the chills headed your way. Finally a fair dinkum horror movie this year that sets out to scare the Audience rather than simply stacking up the body count like kindling. I must admit to having a few chills in places, some of the visuals are awesomely conceived, all about the dark and red, and for sure this is one movie I would not like to have caught say around 1am. Wan and Whannell take great joy in throwing a movie our way that thwarts expectations, while delivering classic shivers to the spine.

Insidious for mine is what we expected Drag Me To Hell (2009) to be, a return to trying to unnerve the audience via visual and sound shock tactics. While Raimi's film moved toward absurdity pretty quickly, come on a loan rebuff, Wan and Whannell keep their movie on the straight and narrow. Drag Me To Hell was simply a disappointment that thankfully no one is including in their top ten list, while Insidious delivers on the promise like a pickaxe to the forehead.

Strangely I kind of picked up on a Poltergeist (1982) vibe going down in Insidious, you know the Poltergeist Tobe Hooper would have made without Spielberg's interference. There's some similar stuff going down, though Wan has his fright mask on while Hooper was hand tied due to the Spielberg middle American ethos. On the bright side we now no longer need a remake of Tobe's movie, James Wan has already nailed it and left the ground salted. Actually in other reflections of past movies I would toss Amityville II: The Possession (1982) into the mix cause that would be a lazy comparison.

Naturally I've ran out of room here and I have about a dozen more cool things to cover, James Wan really does knock the cover off the ball with Insidious, so moving along quickly. Joseph Bishara delivers a score that will have you nodding your head in approval, those screeching violins are simply magic. Wan uses the score effectively to underline jump scenes, ramp up the tension during the many chilling moments Insidious utilises, and to otherwise ensure the Audience are going to be afraid of the dark. One of the most effective scores of the year for mine.

Something I've not noted James Wan achieving before is getting the best out of his cast. For example some Actors were dialling it in during Saw (2004) and let's not go near Dead Silence (2007). Here Wan has everyone delivering, with special mention of Rose Byrne (Renai) who delivers like a genre heavy weight in what I believe is her first dark genre role. Yo, more Byrne casting in scary flicks please.

Surprisingly, given the polished nature of the production values, Insidious is reported as coming in with a $1.5 million price tag. Even more amusing, for those of us who like to see some conveyor belt casualties, Insidious made $54 million at the North American box office, eclipsing the heavily promoted Scream 4's $38 million. Yes I did a happy dance folks, I've simply got no shame. As usual the Aussie box office decided it would rather back cookie cutter outings than anything remotely interesting.

I'm a sucker for haunted house movies and James Wan hit that requirement like a wild night up the Cross. Finally a movie this year that leaps off the conveyor belt and tries to scare the audience, you know like a good horror movie should! No problems recommending Insidious to readers that like a good dark genre outing rather than body count flicks masquerading as horror movies. If you like your scares coming at you with no holds barred then James Wan has you covered.

Insidious is being distributed in Australia by Icon and should hit shelves in September. As expected Icon throw in a lot of extras for those wanting something more than simply the movie, overall I'm giving the package two thumbs up. More information is available via the official Icon website right here.