Cast: Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson, Lin Shaye
Directed by: James Wan
Written by: Leigh Whannell
Genre: Horror

The Lambert family have just moved into a new house. While Josh (Wilson) teaches at a local high school, Renai (Byrne) stays home to work on her music and look after their three children. But after one of their boys falls into a coma-like state for three months, Renai begins to see apparitions appear around the house. These specters seem to be quite malevolent, which leads the Lamberts to pick up and move, only to find that the spirits have followed. It’s only after they bring in an experienced psychic (Shaye) that they begin to believe that the haunting seems to be attached to their son.

James Wan and Leigh Whannell have sporadic success in the horror genre over the last decade. On one level, they have played a major part in shaping horror for a new generation with the original Saw back in 2004, but have also produced the likes of 2007’s entirely forgettable Dead Silence. Insidious isn’t likely to have an impact on the genre the way that Saw has, but it is a very worthy contribution to the supernatural side of horror.

For the most part it avoids most clichés that plague the haunted house story: once it gets dangerous, the characters actually get out of the house; there is no eye-rollingly long argument where no one believes the character experiencing the ghostly incidents; and it sidesteps passive characters being left merely as victims to the supernatural wrath. In opposing these clichés, Insidious finds its way into unexpected territory that admittedly sometimes doesn’t work, but most of the time presents horrifying dream-like imagery.

Simply put, Insidious can get a bit ham-fisted, but is for the most part very effective. Even in its bizarre circus-of-horrors-like third act, it at least strives to take risks. The whole movie is drenched in frightening visuals that seem to allude to some forgotten and repressed nightmare that we’ve all had. And dare I say that in Insidious’s best moments, there are moments that are as haunting as anything Ingmar Bergman has produced? That’s stretching it a bit, but setting aside some of the clumsy attempts at cheap scares, there is some truly scary imagery here.

Any advocate of horror will tell you that a film is only as psychologically penetrating as its cast’s talent. That is certainly the case here with underused favorite Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) and Rose Byrne (Damages, TV) leading the film supported by the brilliant Lin Shaye and Barbara Hershey. Their talent elevates Insidious to an ethereal treat.

USA. 103 minutes. Rated PG-13.

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