I woke up this morning determined that I would write a blog about the film Insidious. When I watched this at the cinema I was generally unnverved & frightened for 75% of it, to the point that where I obtained a copy of it I could not physically sit down to watch it on my own. However, after sitting down with my housemates on Saturday, I can honestly say that my feelings have changed about this film.
For those that are unclear, Insidious's premise is that of a haunted house tale. This film starts by introducing us to a family of 5 - the mother, father, and 3 kids. However, the film really only focuses on the mother, father and eldest son (Dalton). The other two kids don't really have much of a part to play, although the baby girl is involved in one of the first jump out-of-your seat moments, and the mother and father are quite vapid & don't really warrant me learning their names for the rest of the film...
This family have moved into what I can only believe is a reject for the House film series (the 1st House was epic win while the others fell way way outside of happy-mega-win territory). A dark foreboding house that has no in built lights, as there seems to be lamps everywhere. In such a house, little things start happening - books placed on a shelf one minute are on the floor the next, whilst strange noises are heard in the attic. Upon investigation the mother goes up there to find one of her boxes has been hidden up there, and she breaks a ladder trying to turn on a light.
That evening, little Dalton is playing outside the attic when the door opens & he goes to investigate. However, he falls off the ladder due to his mum breaking it earlier that day. As he lays in pain he hears a noise and turns to see something that causes him to scream (my first thought was Justin Bieber). Cue the parents coming to the rescue. They put him to bed but can't wake him up the next day, as he's fallen into a coma. Then things start getting creepy...
With Dalton being cared for at home, the mother manages to hear a demonic voice on the babys monitor saying I WANT IT louder and louder until the mother goes to investigate. However, there's nothing in the room apart from a crying baby. That evening, the middle child tells his mum he doesn't want to sleep in his room anymore as he doesn't like it when Dalton gets up & walks around at night. A sleepwalking coma patient? Is that a cinema first?
The creepyness gets ramped up a bit more upon the mother finding a bloody clawprint on her sons bed sheet, as well as a face staring over the little baby. As the dad is a complete pussy he refuses to go home at night, but when he does strange things involving door knocking & opening occur, yet he can't believe it is paranormal based. In the end, a dead man comes into the room to attack the mother & they all agree to leave to a new house.
Unfortunately, at the new house strange things also start occurring, such as a dancing child jumping out at the most predictable of times. This then led to the fathers mother turning up to tell us all about her dream, which led to the most jump-out moment of the film. This involved a demon (credited as the Lip-Red Faced Demon, aka Darth Maul) standing right behind the father. This I jumped at in the cinema, despite this having been in the trailer for it.
Cue a paranormal investigation group coming in - namely one smart woman & 2 comedy sidekicks. The woman deduces that Dalton is haunted, as he can astral project & has been kidnapped by Darth Maul. Its about this time that the plot goes downhill, as its as if someone really didn't know how to end it.
Basically, the father was able to Astral Project as a kid, & he had this crazy old woman following him throughout his life to take over his body. His mum stopped this by refusing to take photos of him, and repressing his memory. Now he has to re-learn to astral project & go get his son back. He does this whilst finding some creepy dead people hanging around, and he has to bring his son back to the house & his own body. However, along the way he sees the old woman & he tells her to go away as he's not afraid of her, to which she then disappears...can you see where this may be leading folks?
So the father & Dalton both wake up in their own bodies, and the smart woman (aka Magda, the one from Something About Mary with the floppy tanned boobies) realises something is up with the fathe, takes his picture & gasps in shock. He then strangles her. As the mother walks back in the room, she finds the camera & looks at it, to see a picture of the old woman. She then turns round & the screen goes black.
As I said, I found this deeply unnerving & frightening when I saw this at the cinema (which, may I add, was packed), and before Saturday I could not bring myself to watch this film alone. I wish I had, as I would have seen that being surrounded by a cinema full of people all sharing in the "terror", as well as experiencing some of the same things at my old house (which was haunted by 2-3 ghosts) added to the fear. When I watched this on Saturday, some parts did creep me out, but never to the same level they had at the cinema.
Therefore, I find this film to be an average haunted house tale. It started off so well but went off the path with the whole astral projection thing, then was ruined by a very predictable ending. I heard that they may well be making a sequel out of this. Please don't. Just make a truly fucking scary haunted house tale that could possibly stand the test of time. It's not a difficult request, and technology these days could help so much. Take Ghostwatch as a test of how creepy things could be (ignore the stupid ending for its over the topness, but it was still creepy watching Michael Parkinson get possessed).
If you like Insidious & find it terrifying then I hope my views don't change your opinion. This is making me look at things differently now - maybe I should re-watch the old horrors that scared me at the cinema? If horror films really aren't that bad when watched with a smaller audience, then maybe comedies aren't that funny when they are watched on their own?
Expect more blogs to come, including another random review for the excellent Devil's Rejects!
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