2 out of 5

Director: James Wan

So I get it – it’s PG-13, it loves Poltergeist, and it’s aiming more for creeps than brilliance – but Insidious, sinks lower and lower during its 103 minute runtime thanks to sabotaging itself with an amazing title sequence and opening that waaaay overshadows the back-to-modern-horror-expectations last third. In case you couldn’t piece it together from the film’s tagline – ‘It’s Not the House That’s Haunted’ – and here’s a picture of a kid and, yeah, let’s explain it in the trailer as well – ‘Insidious’ isn’t directly a haunted house or serial killer movie, it’s about a demon possessing (or in this case kidnapping) a kid and trying to make its way to the land o’ the living. Even though we know this is coming, Insidious builds up to it… which is respectable. As mentioned, the titles are great. It makes it seem like it’s okay that we already know what the movie is about, and that director James Wan is going more for atmosphere. This feeling continues for about an hour which, also, is respectable to keep it going that long. A steady camera, some pretty beautiful lighting and good use of makeup for the creepers, as we progress from normalcy to haunted house to haunted kid, all is in good standing. The music stings when someone jumps out and says boo are annoying, but again, was acceptable in the context of what was being done. But then… geez. Who knows what happened. A completely underwhelming visit to the spirit world, 100% lacking in the patience of the opening, and hey, why not, suddenly we have quick cuts and lens filters. Had the movie stuck to its initial style – this would’ve been great. Had it been the second style all the way through… not great, but acceptable. The combination of the two KILLED it for me, and is such a bumming removal of suspense that you can’t help but laugh when the writer and director try to sprinkle it with poorly-choreographed scares. Oh well.