insidious premise, insidious film
Posted on 19. Apr, 2011 by Carrie in nakedcity.tv, op-ed
words > CHRIS CONNOR
video > SIDEREEL
Unfortunately…horror movies, in this day and age, are now considered just hack-n’-slash torture films. They try to find new ways of grossing you out, mistaking that to be horror. Thankfully, Director James Wan doesn’t quite follow this latest craze.
James Wan is one of the architects of the film Saw and he also directed. The first Saw, unfortunately, is considered to be among the long list of slasher/torture films (Mostly, this is due to all of the below average sequels in the Saw series). But, the first Saw was more of a physiological thriller, and actually didn’t have too many scenes that were even that graphic (this is the theatrical version that I’m talking about). Saw was actually a good all-out mystery. The reason why I point this out is that James Wan is at the bat again and has graced us with yet another “good” horror movie.
Without spoiling anything, Insidious is about a family that is being haunted by an unknown force. The film borrows heavily from Paranormal Activity (who’s director, Oren Peli helped produced) and Poltergeist. Granted, this is a slight flaw with the film but nothing was blatantly plagiarized, which was surprising to me. The closest thing would be the character of the old woman paranormal investigator that they bring in near the end of the film. However, they did manage to have her different enough from the old woman investigator in Poltergeist.
I will say this. Insidious was better than Paranormal Activity I & II. This is due largely because of its pacing. Insidious eases into the stereotypical build-up of the hauntings quickly but fluidly. My biggest beef with Paranormal Activity was that it wasn’t until the last half of the film till you saw anything major in the area of haunting or what I like to call “Events”. Paranormal activity II was even worse with this problem because you didn’t see any major events until the last 1/4th of the film. Insidious rushed into the different events very quickly but still managed not to overcrowd the film. Each event happens at just the right time and you want to see what happens next.
Perhaps my biggest complaint with the film is not something that the film did in particular but what people did, in general. So many individuals claimed that this movie is “genuinely, the scariest movie in years” end quote. I could delve deeper into how this almost falls into the category “films that have been over-hyped” but I’ll speak about this at another time. I didn’t find the movie particularly that scary. There was never a time where I jumped out of my seat in fear. Granted, I can’t speak for everyone, but, I never did that over the course of the film. Surprisingly enough, though, the biggest reason why you’ll want to see this movie isn’t for the scares or creeps but for the story. The story is really captivating and, at times, fascinating. I wouldn’t be surprised if this film gets a cult following. The story definitely leaves the film open for potential sequels and there is quite an amount of feasible source material for it. The individual events were actually different from each other and gave the feel that each and every one has deep back stories to them.
What helped the film even more was the fact that it didn’t have a highly graphic torture scene or anything overly explicit in the movie like so many short budget horror movies that have come out in the past six to seven years. Insidious took the route of a “classic horror” theme. I have noticed that a lot more horror films have been going this route so, hopefully, this whole “Torture Horror theme” will have just been a phase.
Even though I didn’t find the movie all that scary, I will say this… most, if not all, of the events were very eerie in tone, which is something that a lot of horror movies don’t accomplish. The eerie factor of the movie is, in large part, because of the art direction. Again, I won’t spoil anything, but several events and “Designs” were truly unique and could have failed, but the art direction was very sound. However, one “Design” was well done for the first ¾ of the film, then dropped in quality in the last forth of the movie.
Several critics and moviegoers criticized the third act. Overall, I liked it. Small improvements could have been made but, in my opinion, the third act separated the movie from being a picture that we’ve seen all too often before and made it a movie that is unique unto itself.
I could keep going on about other things that I enjoyed in the film but suffice it to say that Insidious is simply a good old-fashioned, classic horror film. It has a truly great story, good designs and flat-out good “Events”. I would love to see more done with this film in a possible sequel and maybe this will show that horror movies don’t have to be the ever ‘insidious’ hack n’ slash, torture films.
The Good:
*Great classic, immersive story that gets better the more you watch
*Amazing art design
*Doesn’t contain any depraving torture scenes
*Parts & “Events” were very eerie. (Great for girlfriends)
*Third act was actually clever and the end gives way to any potential sequels
The Bad:
*It wasn’t as scary as everyone said it was.
*It did borrow heavily from Poltergeist & Paranormal Activity
*One of the “Designs” dropped in quality near the end of the film
The Ugly:
*After seeing this movie…well, I’ll let you decide.
Overall: 9.5 out of 10
