Hey folks, Valkor here. You know, when it comes to "feeding into the hype", I try my best not to eat too much, usually I end up disappointed. Sometimes it can't be helped, like with Chris Nolan's Dark Knight Rises or Zack Snyder's Superman: Man of Steel flick; for those films I'm all up in the hype. Sometimes it just creeps up on you like with the film I'm about to review – Insidious (directed by James Wan). From all the ads and what not, it looked so damn creepy, but after viewing it… well, read on! Major spoilers ahead!
Insidious centers on the Lambert family – father Josh (Patrick Wilson), Mother Renai (Rose Byrne), Sons Foster (Andrew Astor), and Dalton (Ty Simpkins), and little baby what's her name (who gets no credit whatsoever). They just recently moved into this grand new house, complete with creepy attic. But no sooner have they settled in when weird stuff starts happening. Oh it's nothing to make anyone suspicious, just noises one would attribute to the house settling. However things get stranger when young Dalton has a slip and fall, and suddenly falls into a comatose state. Doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him. And it's when the parents bring the kid home that things get out of control. Neither Renai nor Josh can figure out what's going on and it's driving them batty. But one woman has the answer. CALL IN THE PSYCHIC! Enter Elise (Lin Shaye). She does a quick check of the house and Dalton's room. And it's there she sees the cause of all the troubles and goes on to explain that it's not the house that's haunted, it's Dalton.
So here's where you might start to think "hmm… haunted kid, possession, gonna cause some scary shit" right? WRONG! Elise goes on to explain that Dalton is a pro at astral projection (out of body experience) - he's been doing it for awhile, and the last time he went on his journey, he never made it back into his body. The little guy went a little too far from base on that last trip. Now those ghost and demons floating around in the astral plane want in on that body and are fighting to gain possession of it. One in particular, he has a black body and red face, yea he really wants it. OK, so how do they get Dalton back?
Enter Grandma Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), Josh's mom. What's her role? Well, it turns out that as a young lad, Josh was also a pro at astral projecting and she has the pics to prove it - it's him with an old ghostly woman hanging around him, first from afar, but with each pic she inches closer, and closer. But it's through Josh that Dalton gained his abilities and since grandma kept the information from Josh as he was growing up, the dude forgot and never made the connection when Dalton used to talk about his dreams.
And now it's up to the father to enter the astral plane and rescue his son before the red faced demon finds the kid's body and takes over.
Spoiler alert!
Josh enters the realm, fights to save Dalton from the demon. However he loses the battle to the ghostly old lady who is now in possession of his body. The movie ends when the old lady (who is now in Josh's body) attacks the wife.
Really?
The Good:
I gotta give credit to one thing first and foremost – the marketing! I bought into it hook, line, and sinker. You watch that trailer and tell me you're not in the least bit interested in seeing this film. Believe me when I say I love horror films and I was expecting gold from all the marketing this film had on it. Great job, ya sold me! I'll also give props to the first 30 minutes or so of the film, before all the astral projecting talk started, that's when shit was cool. I mean it was downright creepy – I'm talkin clutch your pillow, close your eyes, hide under the blanket, and maybe let fly a droplet of piss because your that scared, kinda creepy. This was the set up for a ride I wouldn't soon forget…
The Bad:
… But then they had to start talking about astral projecting and my boner for all things scary took a nose dive - ya had me, but then ya lost me. It's like we jump from horror into fantasy. What happened to the haunted kid? THAT'S what I wanted to see!! Not some journey into the astral plane. There's nothing scary about that. And nothing really scary happens after that. Oh the ending is sort of unexpected, but it's not like you won't see that bit of a twist coming at ya.
The Scary:
This:
Why is it scary? You have to watch the film. I think its worth it. Anything after that is just... ugh!
Insidious, you built me up just to tear me down. Believe me I've sat through my share of suck *cough*Grave Encounters*cough*, but Insidious puts that film to shame. No wait, who am I kidding, they're both equally bad. But Insidious does have a nicer beginning, which is more than what I can say about GC. And for that I'll I'm gonna grade this film up a notch from GC and out of TOV 5 stars, I give Insidious a 2.