Welcome to the month of October. The month of Horror.
To celebrate Live for Film is having a horror movie review each night in the 31 Days of Horror. You can see last years 31 days here. You can be involved by sending me your review of a horror film – new, old, good, bad, depressing, funny, disgusting, psychological. As long as it can be classed as a horror then you can send it over.
Click here to see all the reviews for 2011′s 31 Days of Horror.
Today Jacqueline Roach of Rogue Shark Says… reviews Insidious.
This post started life as a quick review of Insidious but it quickly developed into a bit of contemplation on my love/hate relationship with horror movies.
I was quite the horror fan in my younger days, having a soft spot for classics like Night of the Living Dead, Hellraiser, Poltergeist, American Werewolf and thoroughly enjoyed watching them. Once upon a time I had the stamina for late night horror shows through which I got to see the more unusual movies like Reanimator, Society, Parents and Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. Then suddenly my bloodlust waned, my appetite for gore was suppressed, and the only thing I could put it down to was the arrival of my daughters.
After the birth of daugher number one I popped my Hellraiser video into the player but found I had to turn it off as soon as things got nasty, I couldn’t stomach the gore. Suddenly I was genuinely disturbed by these films and would rather turn them off than watch. Apart from becoming a Mum I think that the arrival of the torture porn movie was a big turn off for me. I have no time for the endless Saw sequels and films of that ilk, they are disturbing and distasteful and frankly not all that.
Now that my daughters are of high school age my love of horror has revived and my desire to watch these films has been rekindled. I’ve slowly been replacing my dispossessed video collection with dvds and blu rays where appropriate. So it was with a little unease that I went to see INSIDIOUS, my first cinematic viewing of a horror film in years. For me The possession/haunting storylines are marginally more easier to take and ultimately more interesting than the madman with the axe, and yet in some cases they can be more frightening, with films like The Exorcist often topping scariest movie charts.
Anyway off I toddled to the cinema, feeling quite anxious and fully anticipating a good scare. I didn’t quite know what to expect really. I imagined a new piece of work from James Wan (director and creator of the first Saw movie) would be quite nasty and not necessarily my cup of tea, although the trailer suggested something altogether different which is what drew me to give it a chance.
The opening credits had an unsettling feeling but were ruined somewhat by their length and repitition, ending with the title image blasting onto the screen in giant letters accompanied by some extremely loud and screeching music! Little did I know that this would be the scariest part of the entire movie.
Insidious tells the story of Renai and Josh Lambert (played by Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) and their three children as they move to a new home where they experience some strange and supernatural events, culminating in their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) taking ill and falling into what appears to be a coma.
I like a slow build in a horror flick, it gives you time to get to know the characters, to find out where your sympathies lie, but there has to be a pay off, a denouement at some point. Insidious is quite successful if a little predictable in its first half effort. Rose Byrne as Renai is suitably unsettled by the sinister goings on in her new family home. Disturbing noises are heard, household items appear to move on their own, creepy figures appear and move around the house. Nothing new in terms of imagery here then, however it all works perfectly well even if it fails to surprise.
Where it all falls down is in the second half which seems to be a long time coming. I have to admit that even though most of its ideas have been done before I am prepared to admit that I did not forsee the full reason as to why Dalton falls into a coma. Partly because I kept waiting for an horrific scare which just didn’t seem to be forthcoming and partly the explanantion (delivered at the halfway point by the obligatory aged female psychic) although weird, was not particularly scary. After this pivotal plot moment it climbs back onto the predictable band wagon picking up random bits from other movies along the way till it reaches its frankly rather silly ending that had a kids horror movie/Prodigy music video feel. We see too much, far better to have creepy flashes of what’s behind all the “evil” goings on.
Insidious has been a tricky film to write about as it’s been very hard to pin point exactly what the film’s makers were trying to achieve. I was nervously anticipating a good scare that would make me not be able to sleep for weeks, what I got was a confusing mish mosh of images and plot devices from superior movies and a slap in the face with Freddy Krueger’s glove minus the blades. Even so I still quite liked it. Go figure!
Perhaps the following recipe will give you some clues as to what may be in store should you choose rent the dvd/bluray.
Recipe for Insidious
Take a good sized dollop of Amityville Horror, add a heaped tablespoon of Poltergesit, pop in a scant pinch of Exorcist, sprinkle in a smidgin of Ghostbusters and a grain of Supernatural’s Ghostfacers, grate in some twins from The Shining, waft a bit of Asian horror in the vicinity, give this a good mix and top off with a dusting of Legend and Jeepers Creepers. Plop on a Darth Maul cherry and you’re ready to go.
Delicious! Depending on your taste of course ;D
