Fin's Review: Insidious

To use a very tired old football cliché, this film was definitely a game of two halves. The first half of the film is strong, but it is let down by a weak and slightly cheesy ending. However, notwithstanding the shaky ending, Insidious is an effective and at times genuinely creepy tale - a thrill ride of a film that, despite being ultimately forgettable, is fun while it lasts. 

Insidious tells the story of a young family who move into an old house and begin to experience a chilling and malevolent presence. Thinking that it is the house that is haunted, they make plans to move, but after their young son falls into a coma it becomes clear that it is not the house which is haunted and that there is a much more terrifying explanation at work. As this very brief story outline suggests there is nothing new or unique about this film and if you were being very critical you could argue that it is derivative of a number of better films. However, while Insidious definitely borrows/steals from a number of superior films, it is fast-paced and exciting enough to be enjoyed on its own terms. 

Director James Wan proves to be skilled in creating tension and fear even when nothing is happening on screen, and it is while the ghosts and demons are hidden from view that this film work best. Wan is excellent at forcing the viewer to peer into the dark and to check the periphery of the screen for unseen horrors. This straining into the dark makes it even more scary when a small glimpse of the demons is given. Unfortunately the film never goes above the level of jump scares and trick shots and, while very effective, never becomes truly scary.

Much of the imagery Wan uses is at times genuinely eery - I was particularly affected by the twisted old woman ghost - but the more screen time Wan gives these creations, the more the fear seeps out of the film, until by the end I felt like I was watching a particularly creepy episode of Buffy. 

While the direction of James Wan is strong, the same cannot be said of the acting, which is very poor. Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson are particularly bad and never convince. Neither of the parents seemed sufficiently bothered by the fact that their son was potentially possessed. Having said that, many horror films before Insidious have had poor acting performances and still managed to be effective. 

It is the dramatic change in tone that this film undergoes half way through that I found most difficult. It felt to me that Wan did not know how to bring this tense, dread-filled haunted house story to an end in a scary and satisfying way. Instead, Wan introduces the character of the psychic who takes the story on a completely different trajectory. The explanation for the family's troubles is too bizarre and difficult to believe and all the tension and fear built in the first half is instantly dissipated. By the time Patrick Wilson goes in search of his son, a creepy ghost story has instead become a bizarre, slightly camp experience reminiscent of a fairground ghost train. 

I actually quite enjoyed the closing scenes - they just felt like they belonged to a different film. Demons and ghosts which had appeared genuinely scary at the start of the film had become mildly ridiculous, not least the main red faced demon. Wan seemed to be attempting to create the confusing, otherworldly, hallucinogenic atmosphere seen in horror classics like Phantasm, but he never really achieves it. 

Insidious is a fun if forgettable film and, in spite of its faintly ridiculous ending, is undoubtedly entertaining.

Clarky's Review: Insidious

From the makers of the first Saw film, which I actually enjoyed, this film has garnered a lot of praise recently. But I took this with a pinch of salt given the dearth of good horror films of late. Compared to a Fright Night / Friday the 13th / any 1980's movie that Hollywood wants to bastardise, anything new can appear to be fresh! However, because of my low expectations going in I was pleasantly surprised. That's not to say this is a masterpiece, far from it, but it is a mindless hour and half that is very enjoyable at times.

There were some really innovative jump scares here, which managed to get me to jump out my seat on more than occasion (no mean feat given how hardened I appear to have become to the horror genre after 2 and a half seasons of horror club). However, some of the acting was ropey at times, as was the dialogue, but the real issue was that the film has no heart. 

The main focus of the film is the son who is apparently haunted, a nice twist, however the film zips along so quickly to start with that you are only given one scene with the young scamp before he is possessed. It is therefore very difficult to connect with the wee man or feel any sympathy towards him. The parents don't come across very well either, which may be due to their acting, which doesn't help matters. There is also a couple of characters, one of which is played by the writer Leigh Whannel, which add some (unwanted) comic relief. This seemed out of kilter with the rest of the film and I could have done without it to be honest.

The main problem however is how the film ends, a problem that we have encountered our fair share of at HC and one that is particularly prevalent in poltergeist stories. The ending was somehow laughable and a bit creepy at the same time before the totally unoriginal twist ending drags the film across the finish line (something that we have definitely seen too much off at HC). At the time I was happy enough with the ending as I was involved enough in the film and was enjoying the ride. But in hindsight I don't think I would take the ride again, and I can certainly see why some people may absolutely hate it.

All in all this was an enjoyable, if forgettable film, but I will certainly follow James Wan and Leigh Whannel's career going forward. There is a lot of promise here and if they can iron out some of the issues that I had then they seem imaginative and exciting enough to bring something masterful to the table in years to come.

Ally's Review: Insidious

Continuing the trend of very recent films, I brought Insidious to the table, a film that none of us had seen but one we've been talking about for a while. The recent run has been a bit hit and miss (as always at horror club!) with some good (The Woman), some pretty poor (The Dead) and some what-might-have-been's (The Silent House). Insidious can probably be classified in the not-too-bad category, although it's a film of two halves…

Insidious comes from the makers of Saw and Paranormal Activity, something I didn't know until just before we started watching. I've never seen Saw because from what I've heard it sounds like the sort of horror movie that I really loathe. We did watch Paranormal Activity and that was one of the major disappointments of last season, so I was a bit worried that Insidious was going to fail to deliver after such a promising trailer.

In the first half of the film, the story of the family haunted by… something… unfolds at a steady pace. The jumps, tension and creepiness increase as we learn more about what's happening. To about the halfway point in the film this is really well achieved, in my opinion. It's exactly the type of film that scares me - paranormal/bump in the night etc - so I was hiding behind my hands a fair bit. There are some really well designed scares, which caught all of us screaming at various points. While the acting is quite poor (not quite as bad as The Dead, but still noticeably wooden) it doesn't have too much of a negative impact on what is a creepy ghost/paranormal story. It's not particularly original, many of the elements feel borrowed from other films (The Exorcist, Poltergeist, even The Haunting), but again because the scares are plentiful and because the pace of the film is good it doesn't really matter too much.

Around the halfway point we are introduced to a sort of parapsychologist who does the job of fully explaining what is happening. She, along with her assistants, start to draw up plans for sorting out the situation. It's around this time that the tension and spookiness of the film begin to noticeably sag. While it's not a disastrous change of pace, it does impact the film quite significantly, to the point where it becomes a bit comical. When the father enters the different dimension the film becomes a bit silly, and the scares completely lose their impact. There is one scene that is so stupid, I felt like I was watching Batman & Robin (never a good thing). By the time the film reaches it's climax I felt quite bored, and I think it is by this point that the poor acting begun to have an effect.

The twist at the end of the film has been criticised a fair bit from what I've subsequently read, but I didn't mind it too much. The film was limping towards the finish line and needed some spark to finish. It seemed okay to me, even if it was a little bit obvious. Or maybe my expectations from twists are so low after The Silent House? Either way, it wasn't the deal breaker in this film.

Overall, the film is quite enjoyable and has some really good scares, but it runs out of steam just after half way through and never gets it back. A solid film, but not a modern classic. Best to watch one of the films that it borrows heavily from instead.