Insidious is a fresh take on the haunted house subgenre; only this time, it is really not the house that is haunted. Directed by James Wan (Saw, Dead Silence), the film tells the story of the Lambert family and their special gift. Josh Lambert's (Patrick Wilson) son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), falls into a terrible coma that doctors cannot explain. Soon after, Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) experiences several unexplainable supernatural disturbances-enough to make the Lamberts move houses. However, in a twist to the classical haunted house films, this was only the beginning of their haunting.
Wan's straightforward style of scares proves to be a positive change from modern horror films, which are too obsessed with shock value. If Stanley Kubrick's The Shining proved that straight up scares can be just as effective as in-the-distant-figure and man-hiding-behind-door scares, Insidious proves that this still holds true.
Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert in Insidious
In fact, one of the creepiest images of the film is a clear headshot of a demon stalking behind Josh. Wan also further explored silence as an effective medium for suspense, something he perfected in Dead Silence. There is just something creepy about getting one of your senses taken away and then given back in heart pounding proportions, all at the filmmaker's will.
Wan, notable for his signature use of the color red (Jigsaw, Billy), strikes again with his latest abomination, the Red-Faced Demon. And he was not stingy with his demons. He flooded the screen with so many other entities without proper character development or backstory that they felt like one trick ponies. Perhaps attempting to take a page off M. Night Shymalan's The Sixth Sense, Wan fails to share Shymalan's careful approach to the development of his ghouls. Maybe Wan is saving their story for another time (another sequel or spinoff). Insidious is generous with its scares but what it lacks in is a memorable moment.
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