When I was younger I had a pretty huge obsession with horror films. Whenever my parents went to Blockbusters, my only request was that they brought me home a horror film, and such was my interest in them that the first DVDs I ever owned were The Shining, Nightmare On Elm Street, and Halloween. So I think it's safe to say, I've watched a fair few horror flicks in my time. Insidious could quite easily have been one of the better ones if it hadn't disintegrated into something so ridiculous.
As soon as I knew Insidious was written by Leigh Whannel and directed by James Wan, the two geniuses behind Paranormal Activity and Saw, I expected both of these masterminds put together to make something amazing.
Wrong.
The film begins very promisingly and is genuinely scary; there are a few jump-out-of-your-seat moments and a good build of tension. But about halfway through after two Ghostbuster-style idiots enter the scene (I assume as a form of light comic relief. Why? I HAVE NO IDEA) followed by a longwinded explanation of what is actually going on, I have to say I was incredibly bored/irritated. After that, the tension had well and truly dissipated for me, and the rest of the film was all downhill from there anyway.
It seems the brains behind the film forgot that what made Paranormal Activity so scary was the fear of the unknown; in PA you never actually see the demon, but in Insidious you see a truckload, and they all look like actors from a low-budget ghost train ride. Even with the more effective jumpy moments, once the initial shock of the loud, unexpected noise had worn off, what the audience was faced with was not visually scary at all. The last five minutes of the film almost made up for the forty five minutes of drivel that led up to it, as it's really one of the only scenes I can remember as being frightening. But in hindsight, I'm sure the only reason it affected me so much was because it reminded me of a play I saw about 5 years ago called The Woman In Black. Now that is something terrifying. They're making it into a film with Daniel Radcliffe: DO NOT WATCH IT until you have seen the play - there's a reason it has been in the theatre for over 20 years, and when the reviewers say it is "nerve-shredding", they are not exaggerating. I'm generally not easy to scare, but there's something about that play that I still can't shake to this day...
Unfortunately, in five years time I don't think I'll even remember that I watched Insidious.
