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Insidious
(2011)
  
Followed by:
Insidous: Chapter 2
(2013)
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Director:
James Wan |
COUNTRY
USA |
GENRE
Horror/Thriller |
NORWEGIAN TITLE
- |
RUNNING
TIME
102
minutes |
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Producer:
Jason Blum
Oren Peli
Steven Schneider |
Screenwriter:
Leigh Whannell |
Review
James Wan and Leigh Whannell are still
among the most thorough horror filmmakers, even if their innovation
seems to have dried up since they burst onto the scene with the
brilliant Saw
in 2004. Their most recent film boasts the enigmatic title Insidious,
but unfortunately, the subject matter and course of events aren't equally enigmatic.
The film is well-turned from a technical point of view, but it
also raids the ghost story vault shamelessly and largely ineffectively,
ending up as the lesser offspring of
The Exorcist and Poltergeist.
Although the first part of the film is
encouraging in the sense that the protagonists react to and deal with
the phenomena they encounter as real people would, it also becomes clear
a bit too early on that we're treated to a not too inspirational account
on occultism, haunted house, possessed child, exorcism and that whole
package. I've not seen a really effective film in that category since
The Omen, but
Hollywood still seems possessed (pun intended) with trying to
revitalize it, and not even a James Wan or a Leigh Whannell is able to
avoid rehashing old material and ideas. Insidious unfolds predictably,
and with its rather low tempo, we're given plenty of opportunity to find
links to other horror movies.
The acting is uneven also; some in the
cast go about it head-on, others are in semi-comedy land, for some
reason. Did the filmmakers want to nudge those in the audience who were
getting bored? Whatever it was, it doesn't work too well, and neither
does Barbara Hershey's wild acting as the grandmother. If it was up to
me, I'd want for Wan and Whannell to leave the spiritual world and go
back to more psychological and fleshly meanderings. That's where they've
been able to think outside of the box.
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