Insidious (2010)

I almost watched Insidious many years ago when I mistook it for Ingenious, a dramedy starring Jeremy Renner which was awful by the way. As soon as I realised it was the wrong movie, a horror moreover, I put it off. Today, since I enjoyed James Wan's Conjuring movies, I decided to check out this series. 

This first film follows the Lambert family, Josh (Patrick Wilson), his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) and their three children, two boys, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) and Foster (Andrew Astor), and a little girl, Cali, after they move into a new home. One night, while exploring the attic, Dalton falls from the ladder and hits the head on the floor. The next morning, he is in a comatose state. Three months later, horrible things start happening in the house, Renai believes the house is haunted and asks the help of Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye), a medium and paranormal investigator. 

It basically starts off as your typical haunted house story; actually, it's your typical, simple and rather predictable haunted house story there are several elements of it that don't quite make sense and yet it still manages to pull off some interesting twists and turns, specifically at the end, and keep you interested as the story unfolds the characters explain the plot to you.

As for the characters, they are quite a mess aka your typical horror movie characters. They lack development and personality, and couldn't possibly get any more generic than this: the possessed kid, the mother/wife who can see the demons, the clueless father/husband who stays away from home as much as possible for God only knows what reason --does he have an affair with a student? Or is he just fed up with it all?--, the creepy/menacing mother-in-law and the, of course, the medium.

The cast does exactly what one would expect them to do with such a poor script, they struggle but they somehow manage to stay afloat. Rose Byrne gives a sympathetic and believable performance as the mother, and Patrick Wilson expresses his character's feelings pretty well. Lin Shaye has a great screen presence which gets her the work done.

FilmDistrict

James Wan's direction is what elevates Insidious, what makes it a little bit better than your average horror. Although The Conjuring has a way more interesting and stylish camera work that did wonders for it, the atmosphere Wan has created here is still pretty creepy. The tension and suspense throughout the film are more than decent and they deliver genuine chills and scares. Also, there's absolutely no blood and gore, and there's very little violence.

Ultimately, Insidious is not as good as The Conjuring but at least this time having a sequel makes sense. Three sequels though? You'll know in the next few days.