Insidious

[mattymc13]

I just returned from the secret horror preview at Leicester Square's Vue. It was of James Wan's latest film, Insidious. It's basically another demonic possession film, which didn't scare me as much as I wanted it to. I like to test myself on these things. First thing to note - the visuals aren't scary. The volume of the music played over the alleged scary visual will induce shock, but not because it's scary - simply because it's so damn loud. And why does the main demon look like Darth Maul reborn?

Second thing to note is - it is completely stupid, but not in a bad way. My friend and I disagreed on what I am about to say, but here goes: I thought it was a massive dig at psychics. The initial two bumbling idiots who come to investigate the haunting, followed by Lin Shaye turning in a display so absurd it has to be seen to be believed. She speaks in riddles. You would have to be a nutjob to understand all the melodramatic nonsense she is spouting. And then the scene where they attempt to make contact with her putting on a gasmask. Are you serious?! It's by no means an awful film. I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. But it's crazily melodramatic, and the hysteria is in overdrive from the start. But I raise the point I always raise when I see a demonic possession film. If the demons wish to possess the child, would they start moving a music box to the attic? Would they start messing around with your alarm system? It's a problem that needs to be addressed.

One final thing! There was one point in the film where I was genuinely moved, and I don't really know why. The dad (Patrick Wilson) is watching over the comatosed child, and he discovers some pictures the child has drawn when he is supposed to have been in his coma. One of them is of Darth Maul, one of them of a big, red door. But the one that really moved me was the one that read "I watched myself sleep, and then I flew away". Sweet.

I know all of this will make little to no sense, but it might when you watch it!

[EthanRunt]

Man, what a shame they showed all of that creature, the first shot was almost iconic in it's terror and simplicity, but they then ruined him, Spider Darth Maul? Really?
I thought it was a well crafted film in terms of the scares, the final 20 minutes relied too heavily on the imposing threat of the spider thing and loud jump noises, but the first hour was full of nice subtle details and some actual jump moments, as a horror hater I was glad to appreciate the work.

If only the story, the characters, anything else worked. It's respectable in terms of the work for the genre elements, but my goodness, the basics of film were lost here. I cared not for Wilson or Rose Byrne, despite the child in danger element being an easy way to get the audience alongside them, the premise felt like Drag Me To Hell meets Being John Malkovich, with some Paranormal Activity vibes (Unsurprising given the fact that the director Oren Peli was a producer here), nothing seemed original, heck the final segment reminded me a whole lot of Joe Dante's The Hole.

I'm sure people will enjoy it more than me (If they use my footage it'll just be me clutching ears to avoid the jump scare noises and in one segment looking away because I knew the scare was coming but had no time to play silly games) but it really wasn't as good a film or a horror as it could have been.
James Wan's best film remains Death Sentence.

(Oh, and the 'music', yeah, screechy strings to suggest and invoke horror, not working on me)
6/10 nonetheless, it did a lot of it's job.

[TheOnes]

Right there with you Matty. I couldnt stop laughing during this film. Yeah there were some scares and the atmospherics genuinely did enhance the mood. But it as time went on the scares just went into comedy. Those bumbling nerds were hilarious (although i think those were the only ones that were meant to be funny). The demon was so over the top. Bad make up ftw!

Not to mention how cheesy alot of the ghosts interactions were with the dad and the child as they left the "astral house". Oh, and as Matt pointed out, the Gas mask seance was just unbelievable (in a bad cheesy way).

So yeah, go to this for good cheesy fun. But if your looking for a smart strong story with alot of genuinely frightening moments that actually sets up a premise and sticks to it, look somewhere else.

(Oh, and dont judge me if they use my vox pops. Was trying to see how well i could spin it into a positive light)

[kobbing]

Frustrating film because it could have been quite good actually, I liked the cast and I think Rose did really well to try and keep the film a horror because without her I would have been laughing non-stop as opposed to intermittently. The ending is VERY predictable however and I felt that the film, generally, was way too long and kept going off into random tangents, first it was a haunted house, then a demon, then we needed a priest, then a private investigator, it was as if the film couldn't decide what it wanted to be. The music was woeful and as some have said above, just way too darn loud. Basically the film was over-cliched and pretty dire. I wouldn't recommend watching this in the cinema (it actually looked and felt like a B movie) or on DVD and instead waiting for it on TV.

[soonforgotten]

Last night was certainly interesting. Upon entering, we made our way up for some free drinks. I promptly bumped the wine glasses on the bar, sending at least one to it's shattery doom on the floor below. Whoops. By the time we were herded up the the screen, I had 3 Magners (small bottles though) and the tab was up to £1024. The ushers attempted to get us to sit from the front on back, but that didn't exactly work. It also didn't matter because there were plenty of people there to fill the seats.

There were several cameras trained on the audience to film our reaction for the entirety of the film. I have to wonder how much useable footage they came away with. This film is a joke. I don't think it's meant to be but it gets so absurd, that I thought surely, they're just taking the piss now. There are so many plot holes, that the film is one massive plot canyon and it's pointless to even ask why or how something happened because there was no rhyme or reason to any of it.

According to IMDB, the budget for this was only $1 million and it looks it. Those demons and such were so not scary in any way, shape or face-painted form. They also were never established as any kind of threat. It's only at the end of the film that one of them does any real harm. As others have already mentioned, the music is glaringly bad. It tries far too hard and fails miserably.

The acting itself if fine for what it is, though you can almost see in Patrick Wilson's eyes, him wondering why he took this gig. The one good thing I'll say about this film, is that while it is certainly bad, it's at least bad in an amusing way. I also have a new term for anything that is beyond incredibly ridiculous- insidious.

For anyone who does go to see this, be sure you stay until the end of the credits otherwise you'll miss out on one more bit of totally underwhelming and pointless cinema.

3/10

[EthanRunt]

What happens? I had no time to bother with the credits.

Yep, Darth Maul: http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/689/ ... idious.jpg

[kobbing]

That just made me LOL

[June]

Last night was certainly interesting. Upon entering, we made our way up for some free drinks. I promptly bumped the wine glasses on the bar, sending at least one to it's shattery doom on the floor below. Whoops. By the time we were herded up the the screen, I had 3 Magners (small bottles though) and the tab was up to £1024. The ushers attempted to get us to sit from the front on back, but that didn't exactly work. It also didn't matter because there were plenty of people there to fill the seats.

There were several cameras trained on the audience to film our reaction for the entirety of the film. I have to wonder how much useable footage they came away with. This film is a joke. I don't think it's meant to be but it gets so absurd, that I thought surely, they're just taking the piss now. There are so many plot holes, that the film is one massive plot canyon and it's pointless to even ask why or how something happened because there was no rhyme or reason to any of it.

According to IMDB, the budget for this was only $1 million and it looks it. Those demons and such were so not scary in any way, shape or face-painted form. They also were never established as any kind of threat. It's only at the end of the film that one of them does any real harm. As others have already mentioned, the music is glaringly bad. It tries far too hard and fails miserably.

The acting itself if fine for what it is, though you can almost see in Patrick Wilson's eyes, him wondering why he took this gig. The one good thing I'll say about this film, is that while it is certainly bad, it's at least bad in an amusing way. I also have a new term for anything that is beyond incredibly ridiculous- insidious.

For anyone who does go to see this, be sure you stay until the end of the credits otherwise you'll miss out on one more bit of totally underwhelming and pointless cinema.

3/10

Oh great, now you have me wondering what I've missed and I could not bring myself to watch the film again just to find out. Please put me out of my misery and enlighten me with what happened on the extra bit of film at the end of the credits.

[soonforgotten]

Last night was certainly interesting. Upon entering, we made our way up for some free drinks. I promptly bumped the wine glasses on the bar, sending at least one to it's shattery doom on the floor below. Whoops. By the time we were herded up the the screen, I had 3 Magners (small bottles though) and the tab was up to £1024. The ushers attempted to get us to sit from the front on back, but that didn't exactly work. It also didn't matter because there were plenty of people there to fill the seats.

There were several cameras trained on the audience to film our reaction for the entirety of the film. I have to wonder how much useable footage they came away with. This film is a joke. I don't think it's meant to be but it gets so absurd, that I thought surely, they're just taking the piss now. There are so many plot holes, that the film is one massive plot canyon and it's pointless to even ask why or how something happened because there was no rhyme or reason to any of it.

According to IMDB, the budget for this was only $1 million and it looks it. Those demons and such were so not scary in any way, shape or face-painted form. They also were never established as any kind of threat. It's only at the end of the film that one of them does any real harm. As others have already mentioned, the music is glaringly bad. It tries far too hard and fails miserably.

The acting itself if fine for what it is, though you can almost see in Patrick Wilson's eyes, him wondering why he took this gig. The one good thing I'll say about this film, is that while it is certainly bad, it's at least bad in an amusing way. I also have a new term for anything that is beyond incredibly ridiculous- insidious.

For anyone who does go to see this, be sure you stay until the end of the credits otherwise you'll miss out on one more bit of totally underwhelming and pointless cinema.

3/10

Oh great, now you have me wondering what I've missed and I could not bring myself to watch the film again just to find out. Please put me out of my misery and enlighten me with what happened on the extra bit of film at the end of the credits.

It's just a close up of that old woman demon-ghost whatever blowing out a candle. It's nothing even remotely interesting.

[kobbing]

It's just a close up of that old woman demon-ghost whatever blowing out a candle. It's nothing even remotely interesting.

Oh.