October 2012 Edition #26: INSIDIOUS

Director: James Wan
Screenplay: Leigh Whannell
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey
Release Date: April 1st, 2011


Within the first minute of James Wan’s INSIDIOUS I found myself pressed back into the corner of the couch, the hair on my neck standing on end as a dark brown stain formed in my pants and trailed down my leg to mingle with a puddle of my tears. This is my subtle, incredibly tasteful way of saying that the flick definitely had an effect on me. I don’t believe in ghosts and I do not scare easily, yet the imagery, sound design and intense score in this film combined to deliver one of the most consistently pants-shittingly creepy horror films in recent memory.

The premise is very simple, following Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Byrne) Lambert, who move into a new house with their two young boys and a baby. On their first day in the house their oldest son, Dalton, has a nasty spill from a ladder while exploring the attic, and though he doesn’t appear hurt at all, when they go to wake him they find they are unable to. Dalton has slipped into a coma that leaves every doctor baffled. As the months pass and Josh and Renai try to cope with the financial and emotional burden of the situation, Renai begins to notice strange activity around the house. Strange voices can be heard over the baby monitor, objects seem to move without explanation, and eventually sinister, often confrontational apparitions begin appearing in the late hours of the night. Convinced that the house is haunted, Renai persuades Josh to hastily move the family to another, smaller location. But the poltergeist activity continues to torment her at the new house as well, and all of it seems to be centered around her comatose young son. At the behest of Josh’s mother (Hershey), they eventually call in paranormal expert Elise Reiner (Shaye) and her team of ghost hunters to investigate the phenomena, at which point Elise comes to the conclusion that it is no the house that is haunted, but the boy. Dalton, it seems, is an astral projector, one who’s spirit is able to leave his physical body as he sleeps. Not knowing the danger of his hidden talent, Dalton his accidentally gone beyond the spheres of mortal conscience into a place Elise refers to as “The Further”, a dark domain full of spirits and demons who yearn for a physical body to claim as their own. It is these spirits that have been tormenting the family, and one in particular, a black shape with a fiery face full of burning hate, has staked a claim on Dalton, intending to use his body to cause great pain to the ones he loves. I do not want to spoil the rest of the movie, except to say that someone will have to venture into “The Further” to rescue the spirit of the poor child, but it will not be easy, and will come at great personal sacrifice. Perhaps, even, the loss of one’s soul.

With INSIDIOUS director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell, who previously collaborated on the original SAW, apply a much more restrained approach in weaving this tale of a family being torn apart by some very literal demons. From the very first frame Wan establishes a mood of constant pervasive evil that never waivers, using tried and true low budget techniques to keep audiences on edge. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY director Oren Peli is credited as a producer on this flick, and his influence can be felt not only in the “haunted person” storyline, but in the relatively low-key camerawork. The beginning of the movie features many wide shots of the first house’s interior that recall the angles of the hidden cameras of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. These shots not only effectively establish the layout of the home, but also lend the movie a certain banality that helps ground it in reality, which only intensifies the scares. When the shits begins to hit fan and certain characters have to investigate strange noises, the camerawork switches to an unsteady handheld style that provides the uneasy sensation that we’re seeing things from the perspective of a demon about to lunge upon them. It’s these little stylistic flourishes that really amped up the tension for me, and to me signal great growth from the director compared to the fast cutting and sensationalism of SAW.

None of this would be at all effective without some damn fine performances from the leads. I’ve always liked Patrick Wilson for his ability to come off as an everyman, despite his pretty-boy appearance and his relationship with Rose Byrne as his wife serves as the emotional anchor of the film. The family seems like a real family, with very relatable problems. I also enjoyed the kooky performance of Lin Shaye as the medium who comes to help the family through their crisis, and her two ghost hunting assistants (one of whom is played by Whannell) who provide some much needed comedic relief to ease the tension.

But much of what made this flick work for me is the amazing sound design and intensely eerie imagery. While a lot is left to our imaginations, we do eventually get to see quite a bit of the ghoulish ghosts terrorizing the family, and for once someone was actually able to deliver the goods when it comes to revealing an initially shadowy antagonist. The main demon in particular is fucking horrifying, a ghastly obsidian figure with a fleetingly-seen red -tinged that is the stuff of nightmares. He looks like Darth Maul, if Darth Maul was the fucking antichrist. Wan even manages to get some good scares in broad daylight, when Renai sees the ghost of a small child dancing in front of a record player playing Tiny Tim’s “Tiptoe Through The Tulips”, a scene which manages to forever ruin that song, and children in general.

The flick did eventually begin to lose my attention during the finale, during which Wilson is forced to venture into “The Further” in order to save his son’s spiritual body. This entire section of the flick is very reminiscent of POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE, which featured a similar demonic figure in the guise of Kane taking Carol Anne into his supernatural realm. INSIDIOUS isn’t at all as embarrassingly goofy as that flick, though, and while the final act didn’t quite work for me as well as the first two third of the film, Wan was still able to provide ample disturbing imagery that kept me on edge all the way to the harrowing end.

I’m really upset with myself for waiting this long to see this flick, as I would have loved to see this in a packed house back when it opened. Regardless, INSIDIOUS is an immensely effective film that, much like it’s chief inspiration, POLTERGEIST, knows what scares you.

My Rating: 9/10