Insidious

James Wan and Leigh Whanell are the names responsible for the first SAW film which spawned a monster a seven year annual Halloween ride that twisted and turned and ate its own tail as disparate pieces came together to make a whole. Meanwhile Wan had gone in to make DEAD SILENCE and the Death Wish-lite DEATH SENTENCE which did not meet the same acclaim.

A young family struggle with moving house, a haunting, their sons mysterious coma like illness and another move to escape the ghosts that disturb the stay at home mom throughout the day and the teasing of the father by entities unknown through the night. As the hauntings continue even after the move the family seek help from a group of paranormal investigators and learn about the world that lies beyond our own.

INSIDIOUS comes at horror from the DRAG ME TO HELL angle, fun in tone with echos of DEAD SILENCE The sound is suped up to provide jarring orchestral stings and nerve shredding high pitched strings and most of the story is a quirky and fun take on demons, possession and astral projection. The first half of the movie is your standard Hollywood ghost story, a family in a new home, ghost figures walking the corridors or standing in corners and half heard voices. It is in the second half that the film takes a shift toward the weird and is all the better for it. Whannel and Shaye's arrival change the tone and offer the two best performances in the movie. A crazy seance and a journey into the dark and surreal other reality The Further are the freshest and most original parts of the film though ends up in a JEEPERS CREEPERS/NEW NIGHTMARE influenced demon lair. Wan films lot of his sequences from just behind his subject forcing the viewer into journeying along with the character and leaving us wondering what is lurking just out of frame but undoes this work with a jolting musical sting. The movie may scare and excite people first time through but on repeat viewings this will wear off leaving the watcher to decide if the off-kilter journey into The Further is for them or not.

Produced on $1.5 afforded to the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY producers after the success of their low budget feature INSIDIOUS is a creator controlled property that may not live up to its hype but is certainly more successful, certainly in box office takings having already accrued receipts of $30 million, than more expensive horror films that are bloating up theatres. The lesson here is keep it cheap and take a risk.

Half a hard on.