James Wan's Insidious (2010)

[Anthropophagus]

I do think the last thirty minutes were a little bit of a letdown after the initial buildup but still for a recent haunting film this was pretty stellar. For once, the every thing plus the kitchen sink approach worked and Wan threw in just about every ghost/demonic possession cliche and still made it work.
The film relied a lot on the ambiance built up within the theater with the imaginative use of darkness and that creepy and unnerving musical score, I don't think this will fully translate to dvd but will add it to the collection nonetheless.

[JGrendel]

I live in a small town & we won't be getting this one so I'm gonna have wait until it comes out on Blu-ray. But it looks pretty cool & I actually like Wan's other films.

[Katatonia]

I found this one to be a very pleasant surprise. There were genuinely some very creepy moments in the film, which seems rare in horror these days. If it holds up as well on a second viewing, I might just say I loved it. And it looked like a far bigger budgeted film than it was apparently filmed for.

Yeah, it did seem like a blatant ripoff of Poltergeist at times, but it did have enough originality to set it apart.

The Blu-ray transfer has excellent A/V quality too.

[SaviniFan]

This one didn't work for me overall. While it did sport some creepy moments and a good few scares, that last scene felt tacked on as a cheap "gotcha" twist and the main protagonist looked like a Star Wars fan boy dressed up as Darth Maul. I'm not saying that it is a bad film, just not what I unfortunately expected from the positive word of mouth it had. 6/10 for me.

[Franco]

Just watched it! Great horror movie with lots of scares and fun as well...

That whole scene when he's in The Further and finds the girl that holds a shotgun is simply INCREDIBLE!!! Totally loved it!!!

[Zombie Dude]

I found it hard to sleep easy after watching this. It had some really creepy moments (like the old lady in the photos). I thought some of the scares could have worked out better, but maybe I was just expecting them. Still, it's good to finally see a really scary film come out.

[tropical marsh]

Originally Posted by Zombie Dude

I found it hard to sleep easy after watching this. It had some really creepy moments (like the old lady in the photos). I thought some of the scares could have worked out better, but maybe I was just expecting them. Still, it's good to finally see a really scary film come out.

I'm kinda shocked any real horror vet would find Insidious scary. Personally, I thought it was fairly lame with the dimension warping, body swapping, ghosts popping up in the real world, etc. It was just way too silly to be scary. I was literally rolling my eyes for the duration of the last 30 minutes.

[Zombie Dude]

Originally Posted by tropical marsh

I'm kinda shocked any real horror vet would find Insidious scary. Personally, I thought it was fairly lame with the dimension warping, body swapping, ghosts popping up in the real world, etc. It was just way too silly to be scary. I was literally rolling my eyes for the duration of the last 30 minutes.

Films about ghost really creep me out. Probably because there's some truth to them. Sure some things in the film weren't scary, some even funny, but the ghost stuff usually gives me tingles down my back.

[Matt89]

Originally Posted by tropical marsh

I'm kinda shocked any real horror vet would find Insidious scary. Personally, I thought it was fairly lame with the dimension warping, body swapping, ghosts popping up in the real world, etc. It was just way too silly to be scary. I was literally rolling my eyes for the duration of the last 30 minutes.

So because someone watches horror films more than the average person, no matter what, it should have no effect on them? Isn't the point of a ghost/haunted house movie to have ghosts enter the real world? Poltergeist has dimension warping, The Exorcist has 'body swapping'. I don't see how you found it to be so 'silly' because other well-respected horror films have these same ingredients. Insidious had some genuinely creepy moments and some scenes totally scared the shit out of me (the porch scene??!) I actually had trouble sleeping too after this one. I haven't had a film unsettle me like this since I was a kid. One of the best horror films to come out in recent years, definitely.

Also, anyone else think the score was fucking awesome? The strings really add a lot to the tone of the film.

~Matt

[Mok]

Spoiler: What I liked: - The initial ghost scare in he baby's room with the pink light. I thought that was genius and it really gave me a shock. - The overall effort to do something akin to the Exorcist. It was no where near as disturbing but it had some great moments and I could tell there was influence there. - The miserable ending. Yeah that's right, that just happened! Deal. What I disliked: - Calling limbo "The Further". It's lame contrivances like this that check me out of a movie like this. Why do we have to give it a new name? It's annoying. How about this: I have a device with which I can create fire. I flick a tiny metal wheel and press a plastic button that sparks a flint as fuel is released. I call it....."The Igniter". OooooOoooooOooooo!!! - The two ghosts. Why couldn't it just be one? Or why couldn't Darth Maul and Darth Insidious be related in some way? It seems too random to just have two separate (demons?) after two different members of the same family.

[Mok]

Also adjectives turned into nouns is generally annoying. Just saying.

[allmessedup]

I thought this was better than average, although I liked DEAD SILENCE more.

They should have had it be more about the old lady, she was the scariest part of it. Old people are scary. I agree that the demon looked too much like Darth Maul. The ghosts in the movie were the scariest part of it, they should have just had it be about them.

I agree with ZombieDude about the jump scares. Although they were kind of scary, I felt they were too expected. The movie never threw me off balance. You'd expect something to pop up and startle you, and then it happened, basically at the point that you thought it would, so in the end it generally wasn't all that startling after all.

Still not a bad movie at all, I agree the soundtrack really packed a punch.

[Ash28M]

Who the hell is Darth Maul? Is he from the Star Wars prequels? I didn't think anyone actually watched those.

[JGrendel]

[QUOTE=Zombie Dude;683229]I found it hard to sleep easy after watching this. It had some really creepy moments (like the old lady in the photos)./QUOTE]


Yeah I thought that was alittle creepy myself but the one thing that really bugged came when watching the special features. Anybody else catch the smugness of the of the creators when they were explaining the concept of the movie?

[Anthropophagus]

Originally Posted by Matt89

So because someone watches horror films more than the average person, no matter what, it should have no effect on them? Isn't the point of a ghost/haunted house movie to have ghosts enter the real world? Poltergeist has dimension warping, The Exorcist has 'body swapping'. I don't see how you found it to be so 'silly' because other well-respected horror films have these same ingredients. Insidious had some genuinely creepy moments and some scenes totally scared the shit out of me (the porch scene??!) I actually had trouble sleeping too after this one. I haven't had a film unsettle me like this since I was a kid. One of the best horror films to come out in recent years, definitely.

Also, anyone else think the score was fucking awesome? The strings really add a lot to the tone of the film.

~Matt

Well put, I agree with all of this. The use of the strings was a big part of the consistently unnerving tone of the film.
I thought Insidious was great, I have watched it four times and it still stands up.
The theatrical experience for this one was best though.