Insidious (2010)

Directed by: James Wan | 102 minutes | horror, thriller, fantasy | Actors: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey, Andrew Astor, Corbett Tuck, Heather Tocquigny, Ruben Pla, John Henry Binder, Joseph Bishara, Philip Friedman, J. LaRose

That ‘Insidious’ is a horror film, the string instruments already rub shoulders with you in the opening scene. Like claws with fungal nails, they try to scratch your soul. The white screen reflects a boy sleeping in his bed, while a teddy bear stands guard in a corner of his room. In vain…

The film is directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. This duo was also responsible for the gory psycho-horror of ‘Saw’, which largely reduced its predecessors in the genre to old-fashioned junk. ‘Insidious’, on the other hand, takes place between its predecessors in several respects. And not coincidentally: Whannell and Wan were expressly inspired by films such as ‘The Excorcist’ and ‘Poltergeist’. ‘Insidious’ begins between the moving boxes of the Lambert family, which consists of good high-school teacher Josh (Patrick Wilson), singing housewife Renai (Rose Byrne) and their three innocent children, the oldest of whom is Dalton (Ty Simpkins). They have just moved into their new home. A house so full of crackling, dark brown oak, that even during the day the light is still on. In the hall a grandfather clock is ticking and in the dusty attic the light of a bare bulb is overgrown by the darkness. It’s hard to find a logical connection between the good-natured couple Josh and Renai and this house. In short, it must have been a good real estate agent who could convince the Lamberts to ignore the goosebumps on their arms. “Mommy, I don’t like my room,” warns little Dalton. In the evening the boy hears noises in the attic. He goes to look, is startled, and falls down a rickety staircase. The next day he is in a coma, and the doctors cannot find a medical explanation for this.

From that moment on it becomes increasingly clear that the house that looks like a haunted house actually has ethereal visitors. Strange voices sound from baby monitors, doors swing open just like that, bloody handprints appear on snow-white sheets. The impotent Dalton is in danger. It’s up to Josh and Renai to do battle with their uninvited guests. However, they are no match for angry-looking devils and angularly dancing child males. The priest on duty is equally impotent. He offers Renai nothing more for comfort than some insecure gibberish about “having confidence.” Enter a couple of Ghostbusters, annex Jehovah’s Witnesses, annex nerds (screenwriter Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson), under the quasi-sober leadership of the medium Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). They have a battery of devices that would make James Bond’s equipment man, Q, jealous. Or would burst into a hiccup. The rest of the plot evokes memories of contemporary ‘Inception’ and carries a warning: never let your body down. As a viewer, you are effectively locked in their stuffy living space together with the Lamberts from the start. Wannell and co do not grant you as a viewer a breath of fresh air. The classroom where Josh teaches is a locked cage, the hospital where Dalton is, a sterile bunker. The little daylight that streams in through the windows of their house is like an overexposed wall.

Equally unyielding, Patrick Wilson (‘Hard Candy’, ‘Little Children’) and Rose Byrne (‘Get Him to the Greek’) land their roles, though they can’t get more out of it than what’s in it. The fact that Josh, Renai and especially Dalton have little to offer can make you as a viewer feel like you are looking at dolls, in the hands of a child with an evil fantasy. And it is precisely fear that requires emotional involvement. Accompanied by Tiny Tim’s falsetto sung ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ and smash-cuts like thunderclaps, the framework within which the roller-coaster ‘Insidious’ will make its route to the other side (a red, black, and fire-yellow colored world) is visible. Whether that route grabs everyone by the throat remains to be seen, but it certainly produces a curious, gothic spectacle. With a devilish scissors’ sleep as the climax. ‘Insidious’ partly harks back to time-honoured grime art and artisanal art direction. That’s a relief at a time when pixels can really conjure up anything on the screen – a fact that often tempts makers to stultifying overkill. In the case of ‘Insidious’, overkill only applies to the soundtrack. Noise is scary, seems the thought.