Well, I just got done watching Insidious, and I officially can’t stop looking over my shoulder. The first time I saw Insidious was with two friends on a laptop. We couldn’t get the picture from the laptop on the T.V. so we just watched it while somebody set the laptop on their lap. That laptop jumped from all the scary moments multiple times. I remembered most of the movie, but still wasn’t clear on what happened. Recently I picked the movie up for two bucks, and finally got around to watching it. As some may know it’s by the people who made Paranormal Activity, and even though I feel that movie was better, I feel they tried more on Insidious. There is an actual story that isn’t all that simple, there is more characters, and ultimately more going on. After moving into a new house one of the sons of the family slips into a coma, and the parents slowly are convinced the house is haunted. They move again, but realize that it wasn’t the house, it was their son. Now there are three children in the family, but it the other two are hardly there later in the film, so you only really remember the one kid. But that doesn’t matter, what matters is how scared you get. I’ll admit I don’t get scared from horror movies that often, and I usually have to set myself up to be scared like I did rewatching Insidious (I made sure it was dark, and that the volume was loud) but it worked! I have goosebumps right now and can’t stop looking over my shoulder. Quickly I want to get over the bad of the movie. First off the very ending I had predicted, and it just doesn’t roll along with the rest of the movie, but rewatching it I felt it held up a little better. Second for about five minutes it gets ridiculous. It jumps quickly from a movie like Paranormal Activity to a movie like the exorcist where a bunch of crazy shit is happening. Luckily from there it was smooth sailing though. Third, this may not be a problem, but it could have been done better. In Paranormal Activity one you don’t really ever see the enemy, but as they made sequels it slowly feels like they build up a reveal of what’s going on. But with Insidious they pretty much just show you what the protagonists are facing. At first you see some drawings and that type of crap, a few frames where they pop up, then just shows them. I’m not saying it’s a problem, but it doesn’t really feel right. Also, there are other things working besides the big enemy, simple benevolent like things are in the house, and it shows them perfectly, like not even transparent or anything like that. They’re just there, and although it’s a big jump scare when your like "oh shit, it’s really there!” but after they leave quickly it feels odd. Anyway let’s get to the good. First I’d like to talk about the characters. Like in Paranormal Activity, the protagonists are adults, which makes the movie not feel like a dumb teenager scare movie. They talk like normal people, and in the end they feel real enough so when they’re in trouble your scared for them. The actual enemy ghost/ demon things are creepy and have ominous character designs that will ultimately make them feel menacing, especially the one that looks like they mixed a Satyr with Darth Maul. I wonder how that went while they were creating that guy.
"Hey man, you know Darth Maul may have been in a crappy star wars movie, but doesn’t he seem scary?”
"Oh yeah man, let’s put him in our movie, but you know add goat legs and make him hairy so Lucas doesn’t sue us.”
"Great idea!”
Another actual good thing about the characters are the ghost buster guys that come in. They’re basically nerds, but you feel like they know what they’re doing, and somehow it makes the idea of these demon ghost things more believable. But the characters aren’t really the best thing about the movie, the best thing is probably the use of tone, lighting, camera angles, all that type of shit. It was like if the crew from Paranormal Activity had thought of a million uses with a camera while the movie was going on, but due to being in first person cam they couldn’t, so they used it with this movie. The movie puts little pictures in your head, and little noises that you’ll remember hours after watching it. Weather it’s a creepy smile or a weird song that the demon likes. Anyway you’ll feel so gripped and chilled by what’s going on in the movie, any ridiculous face mask or showing of the enemy won’t mean crap. In the end the movie is chilling, creepy, ominous, and just hostile. It feel like your in a mad house with demons and they’ve all been let loose. You’ll almost want it to end just so you can escape, but at the same time it’s to much fun to end. But it does, and you feel like it’s a great movie in the end. Could it have done a speck more? Hell yeah, probably could have hit elite or maybe hall of fame material if it did. But they tried the best with what they had, and don’t get me wrong it’s a great film, and probably one I could go back to every few years to get scared all over again.
Insidious gets a 4/5
Spoilers: Okay, definitely not a movie you want ruined so try and skip this section if you haven’t seen the movie. Okay first I want to talk about that ridiculous scene I mentioned. I’m talking about the scene where granny puts on a fallout 3 mask while nerd 1 and 2 bring in all this randomly complicated equipment, then the kid in a coma rises up and starts going Dragonball Z on his family. That gets a little weird I’m sorry. And when that chick with facemask is sitting around with the family, I half waited to burst out laughing from comedic relief gold. But besides that I want to talk about that creepy ass lair of the demon man! He listens to creepy music from the nineteen fifties (the most scary theme based off a time in the world) has a kid chained up, and doing whatever Satan knows what. I think I’ve already said creepy around fifty times, but he’s to damn creepy not to say it again! Another thing, I have to talk about a scene probably forgettable to others, but haunting to me. That scene with the family and they were all frozen scared me to death. It again felt nineteen fifties themed, they had creepy smiles, and she shot em up for no reason. It was terrifying, forget the demon those people were way worse. And lastly the ending. I predicted the woman would take his body, I was thinking of like ten outcomes and that was one. Nobody else I know seemed to guess that, but I did. It really didn’t live up to the rest of the movie to me. And yeah everybody died, that was expected, but at least the kid wasn’t in a coma… that doesn’t really make up for it does it? Also things like the camera, the mom, they all felt a little forced, I didn’t really like that. But in the end the movie was great, and helps prove the guys from Paranormal Activity are really good at making scary movies.
Insidious gets THE "CREATIVITY" BADGE
Insidious Review