Film – Quick Thoughts: Insidious

Insidious, directed by James Wan
Written by: Leigh Whannell
Starring: Patrick Wilson & Rose Byrne
My rating: 4 of 5

I think it probably says a lot about the current state of horror films that something like Insidious can be rated PG-13 in the US and 15 in the UK purely because it lacks any real violence, gore or swearing, because I found it to be very creepy and a lot less immature than a Saw or Hostel.

It starts out like a typical haunted house story, a family moving into a new house only to have weird and spooky things start to happen to them. Before long one of the sons is left in an unexplainable comatose state, not waking up but with nothing obviously wrong with him. They do the sensible thing and move house straight away but it doesn’t help, the supernatural problems have followed them. They turn to professional help and learn the terrible truth.

The film relies mostly on being creepy rather than using any real gore, violence or swearing. Strange noises, figures moving in the background or who are only seen for a brief seconds, and just being atmospheric in general. It uses that musical sting noise a lot, making sure something scares you by having the soundtrack make a loud shriek, but that only works if the film is already spooking you and Insidious was definitely doing that for me. I really enjoyed it.