A gripping story of a family in search of help for their son, Dalton, who fell into a coma after a mysterious incident in the attic. Little do they know that there is much more to this endless sleep than meets the eye as they explore the paranormal, and rediscover the past; the key to getting their son back once and for all.Written by
David Murray Arthur
(at around 6 mins) In the opening scene where Dalton and Renai are looking through the photo album, they are both wearing the same pajamas. See more »
Goofs
(at around 30 mins) On the chalkboard behind Josh is a sketch of the Jigsaw puppet's face. When he wakes up, about two minutes later, the drawing is gone. However, there's a scene in between which clearly sets the "second chalkboard" on a different day, beside the fact that Josh's clothes and the names on the detention list are completely different. See more »
I was pleasantly surprised with the direction of this film. It differed slightly from what I was expecting when watching the trailer with me thinking along the lines of a demon possesses the son and it would go down an exorcism path. While there was a fleeting moment in the film however that wasn't the case in the overall story here.
Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye are the ones to watch but it was the M rating that intrigued me in the first place as I had read so many positive reviews about how well the film was executed with plenty of genuine horror moments.
Unfortunately it didn't quite reach the level and hype I hoped it would. It was in a lot of ways different in what you would normally expect from a standard possession film which made it all the more pleasingly fresh and I quite liked the astral projection concept.
The film is really well paced which gives you honest jump scares and only brief moments to calm down before the next paranormal occurrence keeping you keenly focused on the story and regularly on edge.
For the first two thirds of the film the Lambert family moves out of their current residence thinking the paranormal hauntings are linked to their new home. Unfortunately they soon realise that it is in fact their son who is haunted and who takes an entity with him.
James Wan does a brilliant job of creating an entertaining story and branches it into three concepts Haunting, Possession and Astral Projection without the need of resorting to cheap scares, heavy violence and a high body count.
Some moments in the film feel new and are greatly executed such as the gas mask in the seance scene. Another moment is the smiling family scene which feels like memories and souls of real people trapped in another time.
The red faced man could have been the next Horror icon with it's slick movements and Freddy Krueger like claws, the real let down here is when the creature scales the walls with rapid pace chasing the boy and you do notice blatantly obvious CGI which takes away most of the fear and realism and just makes you feel far less terrified of the demon.
But overall this does make me interested to want to watch the remainder of the Insidious films and see where the story takes us and for that it was a success.
7/10
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
I was pleasantly surprised with the direction of this film. It differed slightly from what I was expecting when watching the trailer with me thinking along the lines of a demon possesses the son and it would go down an exorcism path. While there was a fleeting moment in the film however that wasn't the case in the overall story here.
Patrick Wilson and Lin Shaye are the ones to watch but it was the M rating that intrigued me in the first place as I had read so many positive reviews about how well the film was executed with plenty of genuine horror moments.
Unfortunately it didn't quite reach the level and hype I hoped it would. It was in a lot of ways different in what you would normally expect from a standard possession film which made it all the more pleasingly fresh and I quite liked the astral projection concept.
The film is really well paced which gives you honest jump scares and only brief moments to calm down before the next paranormal occurrence keeping you keenly focused on the story and regularly on edge.
For the first two thirds of the film the Lambert family moves out of their current residence thinking the paranormal hauntings are linked to their new home. Unfortunately they soon realise that it is in fact their son who is haunted and who takes an entity with him.
James Wan does a brilliant job of creating an entertaining story and branches it into three concepts Haunting, Possession and Astral Projection without the need of resorting to cheap scares, heavy violence and a high body count.
Some moments in the film feel new and are greatly executed such as the gas mask in the seance scene. Another moment is the smiling family scene which feels like memories and souls of real people trapped in another time.
The red faced man could have been the next Horror icon with it's slick movements and Freddy Krueger like claws, the real let down here is when the creature scales the walls with rapid pace chasing the boy and you do notice blatantly obvious CGI which takes away most of the fear and realism and just makes you feel far less terrified of the demon.
But overall this does make me interested to want to watch the remainder of the Insidious films and see where the story takes us and for that it was a success.
7/10