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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

“Insidious” the new best reason to lose sleep

    Photo via Sony Pictures Entertainment.

    One of the most common questions I receive as a film critic is “What is your favorite horror movie?” It’s actually a quite tough question because, after a while, many Hollywood horror techniques become rote and predictable. A music cue here, a splash of blood and guts there. It’s almost as predictable as a romantic comedy these days.

    This leads me to “Insidious,” the latest picture from Leigh Whannell and James Wan, the writer and the director of the first “Saw” movies. That’s right: the good ones.

    One would be forgiven for thinking that, with such a lead-in, “Insidious” is a new entry in my horror hall of fame. It gets mighty close and is probably one of the better mainstream attempts at horror since “The Strangers,” but it still misses greatness.

    The film follows a young family as they move into a new house. Strange things happen here and there, but they reach an apex when their son falls off of a ladder and goes into a coma. Or is it a coma? Of course, even weirder and more menacing occurrences begin happening around the house, forcing the parents (played by Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) to call for help to save their son and their sanity.

    The first two-thirds of “Insidious” are exceptionally well crafted. The pacing is deliberate, but that’s one of the key components of tension. Audiences nowadays are so used to easy jump-scares that startle, but Wan and Whannell want to chill your bones instead.

    That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some solid scares as well. One particular scene involving several people gathered around a table does a terrific job of delivering the unexpected and messing with the typical horror movie patterns. It’s a genuinely scary scene in a genuinely scary movie.

    The movie’s last act, unfortunately, is where “Insidious” loses its grip on greatness. Here, the film is still moderately creepy, but it attempts to explain the events going on and takes a wild turn into alternate dimensions and spiritual traveling.

    In horror movies, evil loses its spine-tingling ability when it gets explained rationally. It’s the reason why “The Shining” is so scary—little in the movie is explained, but that makes it all the more freaky. If you explain why Hannibal Lecter likes killing people, he’s not scary; he’s just a regular flawed human being.

    Once you get past the fact that characters are using words like ‘astral projector’ with a straight face, the film still has the ability to run shivers through your bones. Apparently writer Leigh Whannell had a looking glass into my mind and discovered that nothing freaks me out more than creepy smiles, because “Insidious” is all about freaky smiles.

    It may not reinvent the horror genre or maintain its creepiness, but by modern horror movie standards, “Insidious” is definitely worth a viewing. A viewing that will probably involve hiding your eyes behind your hands and tucking yourself into the fetal position, but that’s really the best way to watch a horror movie.

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