THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When something goes wrong, we’d like to assume we can figure it out fast. But the more we learn from the origin, the more we wish it didn’t happen to us.
PLOT
Insidious follows the Lambert family who have recently moved into a new home: The patriarch school teacher Josh, his wife Renai, their firstborn Dalton, middle child Foster (Andrew Astor) and infant daughter Cali. Just when they appear to settle in, peace is not what comes their way. When Dalton sneaks into the attic, he falls when climbing up a ladder and encounters an unseen entity. The following morning, he would inexplicably slip into a coma. When three months go by, no doctor can find an explanation on why he can't wake up. Paranormal events would even occur when Renai would hear frightening voices within the house and in one night, the home security alarm would go off multiple times without explanation. Foster would even claim to have seen Dalton sleepwalk when he's supposed to be in comatose. Renai would share her fear to Josh that the house is haunted when showing a bloody handprint on their son's bed sheet. The night after that, she would be attacked by a long haired apparition of a man, which is what convinces Josh to move again. That would surprisingly not be enough as the supernatural would follow, proven when Renai would encountering the ghost of a child she's never seen before. When she shares this to Josh's mother Lorraine of what she's been experiencing, the latter confirms that it's real as she recently had a nightmare of a red faced demon lurking in Dalton's bedroom. Just as she shares this, the said demon would briefly appear in the kitchen, only to ransack the boy's bedroom. Not believing a priest to be enough, Lorraine calls the aid of psychic Elise Rainer and her co-workers Specs & Tucker who are paranormal investigators. When the former observes Dalton's room, she sees the same demon Lorraine saw. She would then explain to the Lambert family that their son is in comatose because he has the ability to astral project his consciousness and has been doing so in his sleep, mistaking them to be dreams. Now that he's travelled too far, he is stuck in a purgatory dimension dubbed 'The Further', inhabited by tortured spirits. Now that he's stuck in the said dimension, those same spirits like the red faced demon will try to possess his body to re-enter the physical world. Josh would eventually agree with the idea of a seance when accepting what's going on is real after seeing Dalton's drawings. The attempted seance would backfire as multiple spirits would interfere. After this failed attempt, Elise would admit she last helped Josh suppress his memories during his childhood when Lorraine discovered a parasitic spirit trying to possess him at that time. His mother show proof of the spirit as it would get closer with each picture ever taken of him and after the suppression, he avoided taking pictures ever since (minus the portrait with his wife and kids). With this confirming he can astral project as well, he agrees to travel through the Further to save his son. Elaine helps him do so by putting him in a hypnotic trance and from there, he travels on his own. As he finds Dalton's spirit and frees him, both evade the red faced demon but multiple spirits attack the family again. They would stop once both Lamberts return to their bodies. Just as the reunion appears to satisfy everyone else, Elise senses something is amiss with Josh. When she takes a picture of him, he aggressively reacts by strangling her to death. When Renai finds her boy, she also sees the picture she took. The film would end in a shocking cliffhanger as the picture would confirm the same spirit from Josh's childhood has finally succeeded in possessing him.THOUGHTS
As I grew to have an interest in horror, this was something I didn't checking out. When I first saw it streaming on Netflix in 2012, I was completely shook of what I experienced. Director James Wan finds a new way to get under your skin by taking you in unexpected directions. There have been many ghost stories, but this is the most different of the bunch. A setting where ghosts/spirits are following you after you move out is definitely a refreshing perspective to invest upon. Thanks to a bone chilling score by Joseph Bishara, every jump scare from the various figures of the Further catch you off guard and on cue. Each time, we make clear we'll be surrounded by entities who have no intention to stop what they're doing until they get what they want. The red faced demon is the most distinguishable because it was the prime example of how some threats can't go away, no matter what you do. And that thought is what makes the whole movie terrifying. On top of that, this movie continues to make an impact with each viewing one gives is because of the echoes of a conversation it sparks about inherited trauma. In a way, each generation can be a product of something that's happened before and it is always up to the current generation to break the cycle. It's something I find very powerful and I caught on to this thanks to an impressive ensemble. From the get go, we're rooting for this family because Renai is the first one to take notice something is wrong. Rose Byrne easily makes her a standout lead due to showing her off as such a gentle person who can't believe what's unfolding and it gets tragic to realize her only solution backfired. However thanks to her will to seek help from others, things would slowly get back in motion. It does get hard to like Josh at first, because he chooses to act distant when originally being unable to find a solution either but Patrick Wilson makes clear he is more complicated than that because he's still deeply determined to save his son and had no idea the situation started with him. Like Dalton, he didn't even know what he was capable of but was able to figure it out as fast he could to succeed. However, tragedy would strike again as we see the 180 we didn't think we'd see from him by the end. You don't blame him for confronting the spirit that was after him first, but it gets to tough to watch because he basically walked into a trap and although this would blow over within Chapter 2, it sucks how easy it could've been avoided. Speaking of Dalton, you're rooting for him throughout because Ty Simpkins reminds us he's just a kid that didn't know better. Because of his powers, he was bound to encounter the spirits but you still wish he knew what was going on. Thankfully once he came back, he had the chance to be more self aware of what he can do. You even got to root for Lorraine as well because Barbara Hershley showed her as another loving mother who acted as fast as she could to protect her own son. You feel bad for her big time when realizing this is a second batch of terror she's encountering. Luckily for this family, they had an unordinary hero to help them deal with a complex problem. Lin Shaye truly made Elise an icon in her own way because she is extremely empathetic of an individual. She knows how important it is for families to be stronger, which drives her compassion to make that possible. Even though she found a way to stick around for the rest of the franchise in spirit, it was still a bummer for her death to eliminate her physical sense of helpfulness. Thankfully, she had two sidekicks that held up on that end. Leigh Whannell (writer of this film and following two afterwards) & Angus Sampson also had memorable impressions when both playing Specs & Tucker as a dynamic duo: Whannell would play Specs as a guy who is mostly passive while Sampson portrays Tucker who is too nonchalant in comparison to his other half until shit were to hit the fan. What they have in common is the passion for uncovering the supernatural because it's important for people to know what's out there. This movie ages well in being a frightening story, but I can’t say the same with some points within. For example, was there really a point for Renai to discover the handprint on the sheet instead of the nurse at the time? It’s not like Renai knew in advance, so it would’ve been much more wild of a revelation if the nurse saw it first. Elise does have a point that the demons need a lot of time to possess a human body, but how is three months not enough? I’m amazed it wasn’t for the red faced demon. And how come Josh never saw Dalton’s pictures before his comatose? It would’ve been easier to believe something beyond comprehension was going on. I’m even thrown off on how come Tucker couldn’t get a clear pic of the other demons surrounding the bedroom. He gets a good one of the red faced demon, yet couldn’t at least get one of the other harassing Renai. I know the device was automatic, but it’s insane how the main threat was the only one to get more proof. And even if the demon that was haunting wasn’t following him due to his suppressed memories, how come the new family portrait didn’t trigger its return? It appeared to get closer within every picture of his childhood, I’m surprised it didn’t pick up where it left off until Josh entered the Further to save Dalton. It’s even one hell of an ending for Josh to be possessed by the end, but how come heard him yelling when he was killing Elise? It ain’t that big of a house to ignore. In short, Insidious is one of the most inventive horror films of the decade by letting everything strange scare you. If it is the strange that interests you, this is most likely up your alley.
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