DVD Reviews

Insidious - DVD Review

By Dana Rae Jul 12, 2011, 17:39 GMT

From the creators of "Saw" and "Paranormal Activity", "Insidious" is the terrifying story of a family who shortly after moving discover that dark spirits have possessed their home and that their son has inexplicably fallen into a coma. Trying to escape the haunting and save their son, they move again only to realize it was not their house that was haunted. ...more

From a dictionary definition: Insidious-operating or proceeding in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect; an insidious disease. The film is well titled, as the audience will come to realize.

There are twists and turns to this movie that you can only appreciate after having watched it.

It is hard to write a review as such and discuss the movie, and I will try in this review not to give away too much.

From the producers of Paranormal Activity comes this chilling tale of an average family dealing with extraordinary circumstances of supernatural proportions. Rose Byrne plays Renai Lambert, the mom, who has to deal with most of the phenomenon.

Her husband, Josh Lambert, played by Patrick Wilson, is a teacher that works late and leaves most of the stressful situations to his wife to deal with (it is unclear if it is avoiding his home and family---who grades papers until 10 at night?).

The family unit includes three children, all under the age of about eight, two boys, and a baby girl. Renai is a stay-at-home mom and also an aspiring songwriter.

The movie takes its time setting up the haunting, and there is a first chilling scene with Renai at the piano and she stops playing to hear voices coming through on the baby monitor mumbling things like ‘Mine now’ and ‘I will kill you’.

The voice is made more horrific because it is almost indistinguishable but the threat is definitely there and aimed at the baby, a parent’s worst nightmare.

The movie uses old school horror tricks to build terror and suspense. And it works very well. Renai, at one point, runs up the stairs and into the nursery where wispy curtains surround the baby bed. A face can be seen through the curtains, someone---or something---watching the baby.

But Renai isn’t the only one who begins to feel and see that something is very wrong. The dad, Josh, responds to knocking at the front door, which he carefully opens and locks back, and then he goes into the kitchen. When he comes back, the door is wide open and the chain of the lock swinging rhythmically like Renai’s metronome.

To add to the chaos that begins to surround their family, their oldest son goes into the attic and climbs a ladder. He falls, but seems fine. The next morning, Josh goes to wake him and cannot. The boy, Dalton (played by Ty Simpkins), is in a coma.

Skip three whole months. Dalton, still in a coma, has had doctors say nothing is wrong with his brain, and there is no reason why he shouldn’t wake.

Still, Renai has to deal with her son being kept alive by a feeding tube as he lies immobile in his bed. Renai starts to unravel when she sees a bloody hand print on the sheet near Dalton’s feet. She demands that the family move to a new house. Josh complies.

In the new home, Josh’s mother, Lorraine Lambert (played by Barbra Hershey in perhaps a nod to The Entity), helps Renai organize and take care of the kids. But it doesn’t take long for Renai to realize that moving to a new house has only escalated the haunting.

She sees another ghost - a laughing child-like being runs down the hall and into a cabinet in the immobile Dalton’s room. She saw a long-haired man (played by J. LaRose) outside her window at the old home, but this ghost is new.

She shares her misgivings with her mother-in-law, and Lorraine divulges some pertinent information about her son, and this leads to perhaps a solution to their haunting problems.

Enter creepy old lady, best friend of Lorraine, ready to give advice about the spirit world. Lin Shaye plays Elise Rainier, who has dealt with things like this before. In fact, she has a team and equipment ready to go.

The geek-squad of two, Specs and Tucker (played by Leigh Whannel and Angus Sampson) that she brings in provide some comedic moments as they argue some and seem to have a competition going between the two of them.

Whereas the film began slowly, taking its time, things swirl out of control as the five of them try to communicate with the spirit world through a séance-like circle. Elise puts on a creepy gas mask for communication and things go from really bad to even worse.

No spoilers here - the audience will have to see the ending and gasp as I did. The movie has a very good ending that perhaps sets things up for a sequel, which I wouldn’t be opposed to.

I am still thinking about the lipstick-face demon (played by Joseph Bishara), but the one who really, really creeped me out was the Old Woman, ironically, played by a man (Philip Friedman).

Friedman didn’t say a word but I get chills still thinking of her/him. Now that is spooky! And a definite nod to the great costuming in this movie.

There are three special features worth taking a look at after watching the movie. There is a featurette, Horror 101, and two other featurettes, On the Set with Insidious, and Insidious Entities. Any fan will appreciate this in-depth looks into them making of the film and the making of a horror movie (especially that is done as old school as this one).

Give Insidious a try, you won’t be disappointed, and will think about it long after you hit the stop button. I thoroughly enjoyed Insidious. I loved the old-school horror effects, and I loved how it took its time setting the stage to terrify.