DVD Review: Insidious

Insidious
Written by: Leigh Whannell
Directed by:  James Wan
Starring:  Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Andrew Astor and Barbara Hershey

Special Features:  Horror 101: The Exclusive Seminar, On Set with Insidious, Insidious Entities

From the box:

From the makers of Paranormal Activity, Insidious is the terrifying story of a family who, shortly after moving, discovers that dark spirits have possessed their home and that their son has inexplicably fallen into a coma.  Trying to escape the haunting and save their son, they move again only to realize that it was not there house that was haunted.


When I first saw the trailer for Insidious I was excited.  It looked scary and was definitely aiming to be the scariest haunted house movie in quite some time.  Then I saw the dreaded PG13 and my heart sank.  How can they make a really scary horror movie and make it PG-13?  Precedent has been set that PG-13 horror is for the most part lame and is not effective.    In the past, it seems like the horror has to be reined in and to be perfectly honest, censored so that the studios can get their hands on teenager's allowances.

This is a business so I can't blame them for doing what they need to do to make money.  It's just sad that a genre I love is being watered down and turned into a shadow of what it could be.  Of course even the R-rated horror films aren't that great nowadays.

All that said, Insidious seems to be the exception.  I was genuinely surprised at how good it turned out to be.  There is no gore, which is fine with me, but the scares and some of the imagery is excellent not just for a PG13 horror but for Horror in general.

It's not without its flaws.  The ending is a little weak.  It seems like it was shocking for the sake of being shocking, and not even really successful at that.  It was a bit obvious to be honest.  There was a bit of silliness with a couple of the characters but I can forgive that.  Some comic relief is good to relieve some of the tension.

I can say with certainty that Insidious is the best film by far from Wan and Whannell.  It's much more well made than Saw which, aside from the ending, I hated.  Good enough in fact that I can forgive them for unleashing that franchise upon the world.

The acting is strong, especially from Rose Byrne who is great.  It's always great to see Lin Shaye in a nice role like this.  The adult cast is rounded out with notable turns from Patrick Wilson and Barbara Hershey.

The real treat of Insidious though is the truly chilling imagery.  The child drawings, the fire faced creature pointing at what he is after, and the creepy snap smile faces of some of the dead are just a few examples of the chill inducing shots you get with Insidious.  The filmmakers really did an admirable job delivering a scary film, one that had me jumping more than once and looking over my shoulder more than that.   They took some interested subject matter and wove it into a nice little chill fest.

Gore fans won't get what they are looking for here since there is barely a drop of blood dropped at all.  Fans of ghost stories and more ominous scares will be all over this one.

The special features are a little weak.  Nothing really to write home about but the film is fine on its own.  I'd be curious to see a director's cut to see just how intense they could have taken the movie but still definitely worth the price.

Insidious is available on DVD and Blu-ray now!

Insidious

Pop Culture Beast Rating

8/10