Insidious

James Wan. The guy needs some therapy. Known for writing and directing the original "Saw" and "Dead Silence", he gives us a new horror film. This time he avoids all the blood and gore, and delves deep into the paranormal.

Story:

Renai Lambert(Rose Byrne) and her husband Josh(Patrick Wilson) are the loving parents of three children.  They have just moved into their new home in hopes of improving their lives. Not long after their stay do things start to happen. Objects become knocked over or misplaced. Doors open themselves. Then the worst happens. After they had put their son Dalton(Ty Simpkins) to bed the previous night, they find he didn't wake up the next morning.

In the next scene, Renai and Josh are told by the doctor that their son is in a coma. Though the coma is not just any coma. It's as if he's gone to sleep and not woken up. After three months, they take him home. In order to keep him alive, they have to insert a feeding tube.

Strange events continue to bother family in greater severity. After a night of a terrible event, Renai begs Josh to have them move.

We next see them when Renai and Josh's mother, Lorraine(Barbara Hershey), are finishing unpacking the last box in the new home.  Lorraine is surprised to find a family picture. What was surprising was the fact that Josh was actually in the picture. As he hasn't allowed himself to be photographed in years. After a few supporting words, Lorraine leaves.

Not long after Lorraine has left, Renai has another encounter from a different entity.

When Josh comes home from work, he finds Renai and his mother talking with a priest.  The priest leaves, and Lorraine tells her son that she believes Renai. That she had dreamed that something had followed them from the previous house. In the dream, she found she was in their current home. After looking around, she came upon Dalton's room. Inside was the silhouette of a monster. She asked the being what it wanted.  With it's clawed fingers it pointed to her grandson, and said, "Dalton".

Review:
It's something different for James Wan to pull out of movie like this. Typically being a man who loves to dish out the blood and gore in one of his horror flicks. He gets you with suspense and the creative design of the entities within the movie.  I don't usually jump in movies anymore, but this movie brought a real sense of dread. If your of light-hearted and not used to regularly seeing these kind of movies, I would suggest avoid seeing it. There may be no blood and gore in this movie, but it can still be pretty disturbing.

I was real intrigued with the story. It did kind of pull a 180º on me. I thought I had the plot all figured out, but it went into a direction I didn't see coming. It left many loose ends, with no sight of a sequel. Because of that, some may dislike how the movie ends.

Cast:

I'm surprised I haven't heard of Rose Byrne until this movie. Being the mother, her character received a lot of attention and it was very easy to empathize how she was feeling. This movie has also helped me realize Patrick Wilson exists and I think I'm going to watch some of his movies. Ty Simpkins was good at playing the scary little kid, but he was sleeping throughout most of the movie. That's just lazy.



Note:
There's a clip after the credits that lasts three seconds.