Potential spoilers, read at your own risk
Insidious (2010) is a movie I have been aware of for quite a while but for some reason I have chosen not to watch it. Today I suddenly decided, why not? Well, I have to admit I was not a fan of The Conjuring, directed by James Wan, so perhaps that was part of it. No surprise that this movie reminds me of The Conjuring but more surprisingly this movie reminds me of so many movies, older movies, such as Poltergeist and The Exorcist. Unfortunately in my opinion these are better movies, and when a movie makes you think of better movies sometimes it is because the one you are watching is the unsatisfying simulacrum.
The plot of the movie is far from original, but how many movies are? Everything under the sun, well almost everything, has already been done. So what do we, the viewer get: we get remakes, or we get movies that borrow heavily from what went before. Think of Insidious as akin to a shopaholic with all their credit cards maxed. The plot is basically the standard haunted house with the "twist" being that it is not the house that is haunted. Yet for all intents and purposes it is a haunted house, with an extra house thrown in. The "twist" is that the young son is haunted, not the house.
The movie starts with a family moving into their new home. There is a sense of hope, but soon strange events start to happen, and one of the young children goes into a coma, only it is not a coma. The rest of the movie revolves around the struggle to return their child and set him free from the malevolent forces surrounding him. There is the father, who simply is not able to handle stress and instead makes up the excuse that he must work late. We have the knowledgeable old lady expert on the supernatural who tries to help them return their son. You have seen this role played out in so many movies. The ending of the movie was, however, slightly different than the one I predicted but it was more or less what I expected right from the start.
Insidious is a movie, as I said before, that borrows heavily. The haunted house, the child in danger, has beem done before and done better by a movie like Poltergeist (1982). When they are trying to return the young boy to the land of the living they shine lights and say things such as follow my voice. The haunting of the young son is comparable with a movie such as The Exorcist (1973). The difference being the young boy is in a state of purgatory almost whereas the Linda Blair character, Regan, was most definitely possesed. Towards the end of the movie I got a Jason vs Freddy vibe, as sleep sends people into this other world where they must battle monsters. The demon looks like he had his face painted for Halloween and I kid you not, he even has Freddy Kruger blade hands that he likes to sharpen. It is as if someone looked at all the great horror movies and said lets try to cram their ideas into this one movie. It is a pick'n mix, but all the sweets have melted together into one giant turd pie.
The acting is not very convincing, surprisingly as Josh Lambert is a decent actor. Perhaps it was the dialogue, perhaps the cast just didnt think the movie was goimg to be any good, as they seem almost half hearted in their performance. The movie does at times succeed at creating a creepy atmosphere. For myself the best part of the movie was the build up in the intensity of events. When the young son lapses into a coma like state you really do almost feel the despair, if you have children you can easily relate to the situation. The problem I have is when Elise, the expert on possession, starts to do her "work" and pulls out a gas mask that makes her look like a cute elephant the movie descends into haunted house cliche as ghosts come flooding out, as do the jump scares, but you know when to expect them. This is a by the numbers horror.
I am not sure why some people rave about this movie, but they are probably equally puzzled as to why I didnt think it was that good. Don't get me wrong it is not an awful movie but it isn't a good one either.
5 out of 10.
Go watch or rewatch Poltergeist, The Exorcist or even The Amityville Horror (1979)