Insidious: Creepy Kids, Big Houses, and Glenn Danzig

First of all, let me say that I do not like most scary movies. I can just generally do without the constant jump scares and barely explained supernatural explanations that usually needlessly complicate the plot. Apparently human insanity and weakness isn't scary enough so we need demons and ghosts to do the job for us. But I digress, Insidious is about 30% great, 30% good, and 40% terrible. All that terribleness comes towards the end when we are most invested in our characters which makes it all the more upsetting that the film fails to deliver in the second half.

The first half is an amazing exercise in restraint by the director, James Wan, best known for his involvement in the Saw franchise. Known as a flashy director for good reason (re-watch the scene in Saw where Cary Elwes saws off his own foot and then look up the word subtlety) the first half of Insidious is genuinely well-made in the tension-building department. It follows the struggle of one young couple, Watchmen's Patrick Wilson and Bridesmaids' Rose Byrne, as they attempt to solve the mystery of their son's coma after a terrifying trip up to the attic. Taking pages from much better directors playbook's, for the first half of the film the vindictive spirits are seen more than they are heard. In classic haunted house style, creaking noises are heard and doors are slammed without being touched. In our minds, the things making those noises are infinitely more terrifying than anything the director can show us. This is when Insidious is at it's best but it is also proof positive of the weakness of the second half of the film. Once the evil spirits and demons haunting the family begin to materialize and take on a more physical presence, Insidious slips firmly out of the terrifying into the ridiculous. 

Once a spiritual advisor of sorts arrives to do a spirit audit on the house, the film loses all credibility. Gone are the unseen threats and ominous sounds and in comes the talk of astral projection, a spirit world called The Further, and curses. Notice how awkwardly I introduced those concepts in this article. I swear the film does it worse. Most of the blame for my lack of investment of the second half can be placed on the unbelievable lack of imagination in the spirit's manifestations themselves. They are everything we have seen before and absolutely nothing we haven't. Red-faced demon? Check. Decrepit old lady? Check. Creepy smiling twins? Check. Glenn Danzig? Umm...OK, I guess. Check. My point being with the exception of the motorcycle jacket-wearing ghost who attacks the family repeatedly (and licks Rose Byrne's face in a scene that defines the saying "unintentionally funny"), there is nothing here to set it apart from anything that other movies have done much better.

To be fair though not many films live up to the expectations set by their first half. For my money, seeing Jack Nicholson slowly lose his mind in The Shining is more frightening than Jack Nicholson running after his wife with an ax. Give me the Gold Room Ball scene over "Here's Johnny!" any day. But, Insidious is criminal in the way it shapes expectations and then dashes your hopes. Honestly, it looks like they gave up from the beginning.