Insidious (2010) review

INSIDIOUS 2010

Patrick Wilson (Josh Lambert), Rose Byrne (Renai Lambert), Ty Simpkins (Dalton Lambert), Lin Shaye (Elise Rainier), Barbara Hershey (Lorraine Lambert), Leigh Whannell (Specs), Angus Sampson (Tucker), Joseph Bishara (Lipstick Demon), Philip Friedman (Old Woman)

Directed by Leigh Whannell

The Short Version: Absolutely terrifying low budget horror show turns on the terror to an alarming degree proving you don't have to bombard an audience with dollops of blood and guts to spread a rash of goosebumps. Sights and sounds combine to create some of the scariest imagery and audible sensations to hit the screen in a long, long time. It's the classic haunted house template told in a modern style that takes a familiar scenario and reinvents it in the most chilling fashion. Whether watching with your eyes closed, or your face covered, INSIDIOUS has the power to scare the hell out of you. And that's no ghost.

A family moves into a new home and after their son falls into a mysterious and unexplainable coma, they discover that otherworldy forces are haunting the grounds. Believing that moving to another home will solve the problem, the couple realize to their horror that it wasn't their previous residence that was haunted. Their sons comatose body has become a potential home for evil spirits and demonic forces that relentlessly wish to enter the world of the living.

Old school spook tactics have finally come home in what is essentially an ectoplasmic concoction of vintage thrills that range from everything from THE HAUNTING (1963), to POLTERGEIST (1982), to PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2009). The creep factor is off the charts in this excellent goosebumper from the director of the wildly successful SAW from 2004. The key to this films undeniably high level of palpably impending horror is in its meticulously creeping aura and oppressive sense of dread. The film rarely takes time to breathe in between numerous sequences infected with nerve shredding terror and soul shocking suspense.

Shots like these above and below are undeniably creepy and a welcome change from the neverending splatter that passes for fear these days.

Scriptwriter and frequent Wan collaborator, Leigh Whannell has fashioned a strikingly shock filled script that features some of the spirit showcased in the occasionally forbidding, but failed DEAD SILENCE (2007). Obviously the duo have a fascination with the morbid and the macabre and a penchant for dolls, dummies and puppets. This preoccupation with these frightening, inanimate chunks of wood was also eerily apparent in the first SAW film with the seemingly Argento influenced puppet that heralds a characters doom throughout that film. Incidentally, Argento was reportedly an inspiration for INSIDIOUS as well. If anything, a Grimm's Fairy Tale styled sense of foreboding evil pervades much of the time.

The Gothically enhanced sequences herald a return to the elder statesmen of horror from the Universal days and including those fog enshrouded landscapes present in Britain's trademark examples of fear filmmaking. It should be noted there's no gore here, no blood spraying across the screen at regular intervals and no overly complex prosthetic/CGI special effects. Granted, there are a couple moments where the film goes wild, momentarily taking you out of the domain of skin crawling fear and into a bombastic showcase akin to the finale of POLTERGEIST. But this is never to the detriment of the overall product. It may seem slightly jarring for some that a movie whose first half carefully and expertly builds an air of doom and gloom (in much the same way as PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, but without that films shaky cam theatrics) to lose itself in a few abrasively loud set pieces that involve lots of heavy winds, bodies flying through the air and lots of flashing lights.

Arguably this films most vital attribute would have to be its flesh crawling, nerve jangling musical score by Joseph Bishara (who also plays the cloven hoofed, red tinted lipstick demon). An incredible cornucopia of strings, violin, piano keys and any other ear piercing sound effect that could be drudged up, this score instantly recalls the similarly scratchy, seethingly evil score by Carl Zittrer heard in Bob Clark's classic BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974). The inclusion of Tiny Tim's 'Tiptoe Through the Tulips' adds an eerie aura all its own.

The cast and acting are all top notch and the appearance of horror heroine Lin Shaye adds volumes to this creeptastically high class fright fest. Wan and Whannell know their ghosts and the terrifying imagery they concoct for this movie is the stuff nightmares are made of and it's all the more impressive that a number of the scares occur in broad daylight. Also impressive is that it's PG-13 and shot on a relative "shoe string" of a million dollars. Back in the day, a million was a lot of money for a low budget horror picture. Nowadays, with movies costing an average of $40 million and up, a single digit in the millions could be viewed as chump change. The devilish duo of Wan and Whannell worked wonders with SAW on a similarly small budget and work that old black magic here, too.

This is a splendid and highly recommended example of fear filmmaking at its finest. No doubt there will be a contingent of horror lovers that will find this lacking because of the absence of blood and grey matter splattering across the screen. But if you're in the mood for an old fashioned spooker told with a modern sensibility, look no 'Further' than this astrally projected horror show from beyond.

This review is representative of the Sony Pictures DVD

TV Movie Terror: Don't Go To Sleep (1982) review

CULT FILM FAVES NOT ON DVD presents: TV Movie Terror!

DON'T GO TO SLEEP 1982

Dennis Weaver (Philip), Valerie Harper (Laura), Robin Ignico (Mary), Kristin Cumming (Jennifer), Oliver Robins (Kevin), Ruth Gordon (Bernice)

Directed by Richard Lang

The Short Version: Underrated TV horror movie has a great cast, performances, script, music, photography and nifty story about a vengeful girl returning from the grave to exact vengeance on her family. Psychological overtones also give the impression that the horror may hit closer to home. A cult favorite to many who saw it back in the early 1980s, the scene with the pizza cutter is what everybody remembers and is a stand out moment that acts as an inadvertent tip of the hat to the slasher movie. Released to tape, no DVD has yet to surface. This tense little spooker is well worth losing sleep to watch.


A family moves into a new home after a terrible accident cost them the life of their oldest daughter, Jennifer. Something sinister has followed them into the new house and begins haunting the youngest, somewhat disturbed daughter, Mary. Bizarre accidents begin claiming the lives of the family members, but is it Mary, or has Jennifer come back for revenge?


I'm sure that all of us--at one time or another--have been deathly afraid of climbing in, or out of bed for fear of some monster reaching out and grabbing a leg, or two. No doubt many of us share that old mainstay of the monster in the closet and the resident creeper hiding under our bed. DON'T GO TO SLEEP focuses on the latter as well as touching on the fear generated by being in a darkened room with the door closed. As a kid some of you may even recall lying in bed surrounded in darkness and imagining your toys or dolls looking back at you as if they were alive. Tobe Hooper touched on this in POLTERGEIST (regardless of the controversy over who actually directed it) which hit theaters several months earlier. Actually, DON'T GO TO SLEEP seems more like what Hooper's version would have been like had Spielberg not been on board for the big budget studio production. Incidentally, Oliver Robins (who plays Kevin here) played Robbie Freeling in the first two POLTERGEIST movies.

Original TV Guide ad for the films premiere December 10th, 1982

TV movies used to be a big deal back in the day and this is one of the best of a pretty proud pack of goosebumpers that includes such fondly remembered examples as DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK (1973), TRILOGY OF TERROR (1975) and DARK NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW (1981). That Aaron Spelling was behind it in a producers capacity adds some additional value to the overall prestige of this picture. Back then, to license theatrical blockbusters for television viewings was a costly endeavor. Luckily for the major television stations, there were alternatives. The 'Big Three', ABC, NBC and CBS resorted to shooting less expensive clones, or films that capitalized on a theme or idea from a big ticket extravaganza. The cult favorite, THE INITIATION OF SARAH (1978) being one example aping the plotline from De Palma's CARRIE (1976).


Lang's entry into the ghost/killer kid sweepstakes is an occasionally stirring supernatural horror film that also builds an even more stable home within psychological thriller territory halfway through. The main question that arises is who exactly is doing the killing. Is it Jennifer back from the dead to exact a cruel revenge using Mary as her instrument of death, or is the tortured and increasingly unstable Mary calculatingly killing off her family one by one? The scenes with Mary and Jennifer plotting the deaths of their family are shown laced with this echoing, dream-like effect that would hint to us that the vengeful ghost of Jennifer is all in Mary's mind. Coincidentally, Mary drastically changes immediately after she accepts Jennifer's proposal of destroying the family unit. Mary becomes a spiteful, uniformly evil child who is rebellious towards her psychiatrist, plays mind games with her parents and sports a devilishly cherubic visage for the remainder of the film.


One of the films strengths is its script and performances that elevates this TV tale of terror above the confines of the medium. The themes of loss, the shifting of blame, regret, alcoholism and the depression brought about by repressing a past tragedy are all explored here. That the family unit attempts to cope with the loss of a child by moving into a new home only for this change of scenery to exacerbate the situation is well written by the hand of Ned Wynn. Boasting a few sincerely suspenseful and frightening moments, this could easily have been a theatrical release and Dominic Frontiere's musical score is a fantastic composition whose fanciful and foreboding cues lend a nightmarish quality to this picture. The cinematography of Chuck Arnold (THE BEAST ARE ON THE STREETS, MORE WILD WILD WEST) is exceptional with a lot of probing crane shots that add an extra punch to the movies most memorable moments.


Packed with some great actors of television and screen, Dennis Weaver had long enjoyed a grand career in TV westerns like GUNSMOKE before making the transition to major star status on shows like McLOUD. He had appeared in the taut, terror filled Spielberg TV movie classic DUEL (1971) and the STRAW DOGS styled small screen thriller, TERROR ON THE BEACH (1973). Valerie Harper was Mary Tyler Moore's best friend, RHODA, a series spin-off from THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW. Ruth Gordon essentially reprises her Ma Beddoe role from both of the Clint classics, EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978) and ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN (1980). Fans will also recognize Oliver Robins as the little boy from AIRPLANE 2: THE SEQUEL (1982) in addition to his two similar ghost acting gigs from the first two POLTERGEIST movies.


The notion of a murderous child was obviously a heady topic back then. BAD RONALD (1974) had also dabbled in the subject matter, but Lang's film goes the extra mile. Some of the shots of Mary and Jennifer discussing the impending deaths of their brother and parents as if it's some sort of kids game is more than a little unsettling. The suspense is ratcheted up to an alarming degree during the last half which contains the films most famous sequence involving a pizza cutter and a stairway bannister wherein the picture briefly tinkers around with slasher conventions.


The flashback to the initial tragedy is telling as is the padded room banter between a doctor and her Michael Myers-esque subject that surrounds it. The final scene rewards the viewer with one last shock that yet again blurs the line between the viewers perception of the psychological and the supernatural. It's a shame this has yet to make it to DVD, or show up in a restored version on cable. It did get a VHS release which is the source of the numerous bootlegs out there. Highly recommended, it's one of the best TV horror pictures that bears at least one shock sequence that has kept the film alive some thirty years after it first aired. I, like a lot of those that saw this back in the day when it premiered, will never look at pizza cutters the same way again!