Astral projection will never be the same after “Insidious,” a blunt but effective new horror movie from the team behind the original “Saw,” director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell.
Used to be you could leave your body and astral-project yourself all over the universe with cheerful abandon. (Or that’s what people who believe in astral projection say.) But “Insidious” ushers in a collection of demons and spirits who want to snatch not only your amorphous traveling spirit but also your empty physical body.
Before this element enters the scene, “Insidious” is content to be a haunted-house picture. A typical couple, played by Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson, move their three sons into a new home.
The place is gorgeous, and would seem to be beyond the reach of a schoolteacher and an aspiring songwriter. And like many overreachers in the 21st-century economy, the family is soon living in a smaller, cheaper place.
But not because of money. Their eldest son has fallen into a coma, weird noises come from nowhere and the wife is seeing ghostly forms scampering through the house while Tiny Tim’s “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” echoes through the house.
“Tiptoe Through the Tulips”? This movie is either a work of genius or a crazy attempt to throw everything it can think of into the mix.
I think it’s the latter, but for its first hour, at least, “Insidious” generates some tingly moments. And it brings in comic relief, in the form of two geeky ghostbusters (played by Whannell and Angus Sampson), at just the right moment to break the tension.
“Insidious” gives the actors more of a chance to do their thing than many horror movies allow. The soulful Rose Byrne gives it her all as the distraught mother and Patrick Wilson (from “Watchmen”) does his best Patrick Swayze.
There’s also Barbara Hershey adding a bit of intensity as Wilson’s mother, and well-traveled actress Lin Shaye does nicely as perhaps the least exotic paranormal investigator you’ve ever met.
As a director, Wan looks like he’s studied his Stanley Kubrick, which is not a bad thing. Until it starts dithering in the astral plane, this movie works up a batch of creepy scares, some of them eerie, some of them nonsensical (er, I guess the first house actually is haunted, but not in a way that relates to the story at hand?).
Consumer warning: This movie is, ludicrously, rated PG-13. If you are insanely contemplating taking a child to the film, do so only if you want that child traumatized for life. Spring for the babysitter, please.
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