My Simple Crib

Saw franchise veterans James Wan and Leigh Whannell team with Paranormal Activity writer/director Oren Peli to give the familiar haunted house story an exciting new twist with this tale of a family that moves into an old house and begins to suspect they are under siege from otherworldly forces when their young son inexplicably falls into a deep coma. As devoted parents Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) struggle in vain to uncover the root cause of their son’s condition, the stress of the situation gradually begins to take its toll on their once-strong relationship. Later, when darkness falls and specters appear to reach out for them from the shadows, the frightened parents realize they’re dealing with powers beyond human comprehension.

Frankly speaking it’s not that scary, I even find The Ring (the original Japanese horror movie) and Shutter (the original Thai horror movie) much scarier than Insidious.  The Ring was horribly disturbing, especially with that video thingy and Shutter gave me the goose bumps especially with the nightmarish shocking ending!

Insidious? Let’s just say I was not at all traumatized after watching it. Perhaps I watched too many horror movies and it’s getting harder to scare me? I think.  But that does not mean Insidious is not a good movie. It was simply not scary enough for me, but it was engrossing enough to keep me at the edge of my seat, at least for the first half of the movie. Yes, it was more suspenseful than it was scary, at least to me.

It may be an essentially shallow ride, but it will make you scared of the dark again. It is a strangely comforting to be reminded of what that feels like.  Director James Wan here proves himself very adept at building dramatic tension and making you anxious about the things going on in your peripheral vision.

Insidious is happy enough with elevating your breathing pattern every now and then, as opposed to choking you outright with one shock after another.  For the majority of its running time Insidious is a scary good time at the movies.