Thoughts on... Insidious

Creepy kid?  Check.  Scary thing in the background?  Check.
Red?  Check.  Rating... wait what???  PG13???  o_O

Hey there.  Last night, I sat down with the wife and caught the movie Insidious on Netflix.  I love me a good a horror flick and the wife... well...  she gets spooked.  lol  Don't get me wrong, she'll sit down and watch them, but it usually has to be day time or she'll freak out.  The fact that the movie is rated PG-13 made me believe that it will not be as disturbing as other movies that I have watched.  The idea of the film is a good one, but I think it could have been better.  I really think that the rating hurt this film more than anything else as I'll explain below.  There will be spoilers below, so if you have not seen this movie and plan to... go do that now and then come back!  You have been warned!  So here are my thoughts on... Insidious.

The idea of this film is a good one.  Astral projection experience.  I'm a huge nerd for paranormal stuff and when I first read the description of the film, I added it to my Netflix Instawatch list.  For those of you that are not familiar with the term, it's the same thing as an "out of body" experience.  There are people out there that believe and claim that they were able to leave their bodies while asleep, or in a trance, and have experiences that can be mistaken for dreams.  I can't really say what "leaves the body".  It could be a soul... a conscience.  I don't know.  But to be able to leave your body and project yourself elsewhere is very interesting to say the least.  However, it is said leaving your body leaves you vulnerable to other projections, spirits, souls, demons, and what not that are lingering about.  Of course, normal people like you and I cannot see these "things" but an accomplished medium can.

So when young Dalton believes that his experiences are dreams, in reality he's having astral experiences.  Being a kid, I believe the fact that he'll draw what he sees in his dreams.  The interesting part is that a demon wants Dalton's body and ends up capturing him to keep him from going back into his body.  This is a neat premise.  What is your having an astral experience and you cannot get back to your body?  It definitely blurs the line between the metaphysical and the physical world.  It could have been explored more closely but the film failed in that aspect and I strongly believe that it's because the film was going for a PG13 rating.

Fire?  You sure you don't mean fire paint, son?

The "scares" where of the cheap variety.  A figure over the crib, images appeared out of nowhere, loud banging from far distances, and weird mumbling and grumbling.  The only thing that I was really looking forward to uncover was "the man with fire on his face", but even that was cheaply done.  What we ended up was a film with a great idea that was wasted.  Even the climax of the film seemed watered down.  Dalton's farther fights with a demonesque type creature only to defeat it by pushing it and screaming, "Get off me!"  Really?  The wife and I laughed out loud, literally, when watching this scene.  I'm sure that if you're making a horror film, you don't want viewers to laugh at during tense moments.  And because this was a horror film, I was expecting some sort of "twist" at the end of the film.  The film didn't end the way I thought it would, but my guess was pretty close.

You can't knock a film for trying something a little different.  I don't mind some originality.  But even though they tried to work with something a little different, they played it safe and created an average film.  There are many films with sounds that go bump in the night and images that are there one minute and gone the next.  Insidious could have gone a different route and explored the astral realm a little further as opposed to just making it 2 houses and a dark nothing.  The film is not a bad film, but it's not a great one either.  It just falls into the sea of what could have been.  It was perfect for the occasion.  Nothing on TV and not in the mood for video games.  I suggest you give it the time of day when your day begins to slow to a crawl.  Later!

Love the film?  Pick it up at Amazon for the below great price!