Insidious (2011) Movie Review, Trailer and Poster

USA 2011
Director: James Wan
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Andrew Astor, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Philip Friedman
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: 1 April 2011 (USA); 4 June 2011 (Indo)
Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

The Movie Review

Whew, I'd made it to post review of Heartless on time :-) But it's almost Maghrib, so I'd better be hurry before Jakarta Traffic messed up our plan. Off we went to Senayan City --a mall in South Jakarta-- for another MidDateNite movies. I wasn't sure whether it's because of Jakarta Great Sale or not, but Senayan area seemed more crowded than usual.

So we're thinking "What will it be? Blitz or Indisious, Insidous or Blitz or Serdadu Kumbang?" But oh, I'd have to cross the traffic to see Serdadu Kumbang (2011) on Plaza Senayan --another mall across Senayan City--. And Blitz (2011) has this cool tagline of Cop-Killer versus Killer-Cop and hasn't been released in too many countries. But Insidious is looking fine and is somehow guaranteed by the names of Rose Byrne and James Wan which implies something serious. And yup, seeing Insidious was a good choice to feel the tense.


INSIDIOUS
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Insidious revolves around a family with three kids moving to a new Big classical-looking house. Husband Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson), wife Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne), and their children Foster Lambert (Andrew Astor), a baby and the oldest Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins). Soon enough, Dalton already experiences scary things and Renai discovers weird happenings. On the contrary, Josh doesn't see any single strange event. On one night, Dalton eventually is lured into the attic and having an accident, sending him into a comma. Apparently, supernatural entities are surrounding the house, and Josh is forced to seek help from an expert in paranormal activity, Elise (Lin Shaye), to do something extreme and bizarre to cure Dalton.

That's it, that's all you need to know about the plot, because I sincerely recommend Insidious for you to watch. It may not be as silently-terrifying as Paranormal Activity (2007) for some audiences, but it's a seriously scary summer movie for most moviegoers. And by casting Barbara Hershey (as Dalton's grandmother), it's pretty obvious Insidious links to The Entity (1982) in some ways.

I don't have many critics to say because I really witnessed how this flawed horror movie could literally leave the viewers stunned. But I do need to say something because there are definitely seasoned horror fans reading this or about to buy the ticket to Insidious today. Insidious is vaguely divided into 2 parts. The first half is gonna really make you glued to your seat in fear. Girls might cower to their seats or boyfriends, and boys may try hard to look tough while trying not to look tense! :-D Seriously, this horror movie really is terrifying in scenes such as Baby-alarm-device, or when Renai sees a person walking around.

The second half of Insidious is inferior to the aforementioned. I mean there's even a comedy relief in form of Elise' assistants which somehow make this horror film some sort of action comedy and with formation of one middle-aged woman and her 2 young male assistants is a direct reference to The Entity (1982). Don't worry, the comedy is very subtle and MIGHT BE A GOOD THING since it made the audience in the cinema suddenly bursted into laugher (probably a good break after long minutes of tension) :-)

And since this is supernatural horror then we are dealing with supernatural creatures which -in this case- range from scaring-u-shitless to merely-monster-madness. And if finally you decide to see this movie and scared of the old woman in black dress with creepy hair carrying a candle, then fear not and be ready to smile because that person is actually this guy. And concerning monster figure, well it's actually rather cliché and action-like but believe it or not, that figure is also known in Indonesia, especially in Papua (Irian Jaya), as SUWANGGI.

But even with all the minor-flaws-easily-overlooked-by-casual-moviegoers, Insidious does deliver terrifying moments full of tension and disturbing images of ghostly appearances. Solid performances, chilling musical score, dark blue colouring throughout, and anything necessary to scare the heck out of you. Even the song of "tip-toe" still ringing in my ears. Insidious is really recommended as date movie as long as you male viewers don't get scared too.

Usually after the movie ends, Jakartaensis hurriedly walk out of the movie theater (or Bioskop as we call it here), but in Insidious, those around 100-to-130 viewers were seen sighing in relief and smiling discussing about the movie. I could see them catching their breath and try to sit for a while to ease the tense :-) so congrats Insidious filmmakers, I think your movie is accepted by general moviegoers.

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
posted: Tuesday, 21 June 2011 04:03 pm