Fuji reviews Insidious

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Fuji Vice

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Insidious



The Lambert family move into a new home but things soon turn tragic after their young son, Dalton, falls into a coma after a mysterious incident in the attic. After exhausting all forms of treatment, the attending physicians essentially give up and move Dalton back home. Around this time, the Lambert’s start to notice strange things happening in the house and soon a psychic appears, telling them that the comatose Dalton may hold the key to their salvation.



LOUD MUSIC~! That’s the first thing I noticed about Insidious, a smart little horror film released in 2011. Normally LOUD MUSIC makes me think that the filmmakers are attempting to pull a fast one by bombarding our senses to make us forget that what we’re watching is total crap. Luckily Insidious is one of the exceptions to this rule and actually uses this LOUD MUSIC to great effect, scaring the pants off of us more than once while telling a solid ghost story with some unique twists and turns. Along with that, the filmmakers manage to pull off some pretty awesome jump scares, something that’s always welcome in films of this type. Sure it’s not really a well-written film and it does have a tendency to waste a lot of time with exposition that most of us have figured out on our own long before it comes, but it does have a certain charm to it that cannot be denied. Whether that’s due to strong performances, the above-mentioned jump scares or just the fact that it achieves its goal of scaring our pants off, Insidious is proof that the new generation of horror is sometimes just as potent as the old ones.



"Well at least everyone's happy in the afterlife."

Directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Wannell (the same team that brought you Saw) as well as being produced by Oren Peli and Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity), the film certainly has a good pedigree. In fact, the pedigree is so good that I was instantly worried that it wouldn’t possibly be able to live up to the previous works that these men are known for. Thankfully they managed to surprise me more than once, particularly in Wan’s case. I’d often considered him more of a lucky than talented director, as his work on Saw was pretty pedestrian but the film’s success got him more gigs. To his credit, Wan has really worked on his earlier miscues and here turns in his best effort to date. He purposely slows things down quite a bit at points in the movie, not just to give us a chance to catch our breath but to give us a false sense of security before hitting us with another great scare. Wannell’s script is full of the usual stuff that occupies films of this type (threatened children, one adult believes in spirits while the other does not, overbearing psychic) and one gets the impression that he was a really big fan of Poltergeist as a kid. However, he does just enough to make the characters interesting and in the end, the mediocre stuff is overshadowed by the really good stuff, which I’d say makes the script a success in the strictest sense.



"Mr. Demon on my shoulder."

The dreamy Patrick Wilson stars as Josh Lambert, the patriarch of the family, and does a really good job conveying both emotional distress and a total lack of understanding in regards to the events occurring around him. I’ve been a fan of Wilson’s since his performance in Watchmen and here he shows why he should be the go to guy for these sorts of roles. There’s just something really believable about his performance that makes you buy into it immediately and that’s not the easiest thing to accomplish in a horror film. Meanwhile, the equally dreamy Rose Byrne plays Wilson’s wife and shows a lot of mettle in a role that I would have thought was beneath her. Coming from the critically acclaimed television show Damages and art house fare like Wicker Park and Sunshine, I was surprised to see her in the film, but equally as happy with her performance. She’s got the mother’s grief and anguish stuff down properly and you can tell she’s a fierce protector of her children, as does Barbara Hershey as Wilson’s mother, who does a fine job in support. Meanwhile, Lin Shaye (who’s been in more than 100 movies including Nightmare on Elm Street and Snakes on a Plane) is great as the psychic who’s just trying to fight evil as best she can. Her cohorts, played by Leigh Wannell and Angus Sampson, are also great and help to provide some much needed comic relief when the going gets too heavy.



"Pretty sweet Sandman mask."

As I mentioned earlier, Insidious is very much like Poltergeist, in fact, a little too much for my liking at times. Just take a look at a few of the similarities between the two films; young child, young parents, someone being "trapped" in another place, paranormal investigators, video, the psychic and even "harmless" ghouls who trick the kid. Hell, even the ending that leads to another ending is a trick fully realized first in Poltergeist. With all of that being so obviously lifted from the earlier film, you’d think I’d hate Insidious for being a cheap copy of something better. Well I’m here to tell you that it’s simply not the case; Insidious manages to tell its own story, free from the boundaries set forth by Poltergeist. In fact, before the second half of the film (where almost all the similarities pop up), Insidious is one hell of an entertaining (and creepy) film. Obviously it was going to be tough to follow up that act and it’s true that once the psychic shows up it relies too much on genre clichés, but that doesn’t cancel out all the positives that came before. Hey, I was scared a couple of times while watching it, which admittedly doesn’t happen that often, so even in that it succeeds where many of its contemporaries fall flat. It’s not meant to be the greatest horror film ever but Insidious is definitely good old fashioned, spooky house entertainment and at the end of the day that’s its strength. It knows what it is, knows what it’s trying to accomplish and does so in solid fashion so if you haven’t seen it yet, I’d highly recommend giving it a watch with the lights down low and the volume cranked to 11. 7/10.



"Coming up tomorrow...look out, its Chapter 2!!!"
 

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I've yet to see Insidious but it's on Netflix now so I will be watching it pretty soon. Great review tho.
 

Fuji Vice

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I've yet to see Insidious but it's on Netflix now so I will be watching it pretty soon. Great review tho.
Thanks, just noticed it was on Netflix so enjoy and remember to PUMP UP THE VOLUME~! Lol, seriously, it's worth it if it's loud.
 

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This was a great little film. I thought this was done well I have even seen the second which didn't live up to this one but I will wait to see what you say about it.

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Fuji Vice

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I have even seen the second which didn't live up to this one but I will wait to see what you say about it.

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Don't worry, I felt the same way...or possibly even worse. :lol:
 

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Just watched it and I FUCKING LOVED IT!