Big Picture Big Sound

Home is where the Haunt is

From the opening frame the terror is palpable. An almost overwhelming sense of panic and shock ensues as a title card comes roaring to the screen, accompanied by the unmistakable sounds of someone taking a flame-thrower to the violin section while scraping a piano down a chalkboard. All at eye-bleeding volume.

"How long is this thing?" "What have I gotten myself into?" "If Ebert can write a review based on only the first 5 minutes, can I?"

These crazed thoughts wash over the theater.

Fortunately, things quiet down fairly quickly as the action shifts to a young married couple settling their growing family into their new home which, based on architecture and interior layout alone, is obviously haunted. After a series of strange events occur - including but not limited to strange noises, strange
visions, and the doctor-baffling coma of their young son - they quickly arrive at the conclusion that the place has too many ghosts to allow for enjoyable occupation and move elsewhere. Sadly, this simple solution doesn't work and the strange events continue to surround them. After an initial attempt to enlist the help of a priest goes nowhere, they move on to the more extreme solution of bringing in some ghost chasers.

On the whole, "Insidious" plays in fits and starts, never quite finding its identity. The writing / directing team of Leigh Whannel and James Wan, who are best known for creating the "Saw" franchise, achieve their stated goal of moving out of the blood and guts of the horror-porn subgenre, but seem to be brain-storming rather than committing to a new style. There are occasional blasts of Vincent Price camp and hints of Stephen King in the allusions to a troubled-marriage backstory, but these moments come off as disruptive and isolated, and detract from the genuine scares that come at the atmospheric and subtle moments, which are actually very well done. There are some genuinely unnerving moments and outright scares resulting from a deft use of incongruous imagery (creepy giggling children, the grinning man, and gas masks are guaranteed 100% spooky), but they are overshadowed by the unfortunate choice of increasing bombast as the story unfolds, culminating in an absurd and unsatisfying climactic confrontation with the antagonist.

The writing doesn't really help the situation. There is never any real tension between the players, as everyone on screen pretty quickly comes to the conclusion that ghosts and hauntings are a perfectly plausible explanation for what's going on, which doesn't allow for much character or relationship development. To their credit, Rose Byrne ("28 Weeks Later") and Patrick Wilson ("Watchmen") work well together and give everything they have to the premise, but it's difficult to feel any real concern for the well-being of such underdeveloped personalities. Ms. Byrne, in particular, does a very nice job of modulating what could have easily been a shrieking cardboard role. Barbara Hershey ("Black Swan") and Lin Shaye ("There's Something About Mary") do the heavy-lifting in the exposition category as the mother-in-law and the medium, respectively, and do so with their best (after)life-worn stares. Some of the best moments, though, come from Angus Sampson ("Where The wild Things Are") and Mr. Whannel as the ghost chasers. The semi-comic byplay and humanity is both refreshing and effectively sets-up some of the most frightening scenes.

There's a good movie in "Insidious", but it never quite emerges from the shadows. A little more story development and a commitment to a single style would have gone a long way to achieving Mr. Whannel and Mr. Wan's stated goal of creating this generation's "Exorcist".