Insidious (film)

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Insidious
Insidious poster.jpg
Theatrical film poster
Directed by James Wan
Produced by Jason Blum
Oren Peli
Steven Schneider
Written by Leigh Whannell
Starring Patrick Wilson
Rose Byrne
Ty Simpkins
Barbara Hershey
Lin Shaye
Andrew Astor
Leigh Whannell
Music by Joseph Bishara
Cinematography John R. Leonetti
Editing by James Wan
Kirk Morri
Studio Stage 6 Films
IM Global
Alliance Films
Distributed by FilmDistrict
Release date(s)
  • September 14, 2010 (2010-09-14) (TIFF)
  • April 1, 2011 (2011-04-01) (United States)[1]
Running time 102 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1.5 million [2]
Box office $97,009,150[3]

Insidious is a 2011 independent American[4] psychological horror film. Written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan, the film features Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Barbara Hershey in starring roles. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension. The film was released in theaters on April 1, 2011.[1]

Contents

Plot [edit]

In the beginning of the film, there is a shadowy old woman that is seen through a window.

Renai and Josh Lambert have recently moved into a new house with their three children. One morning, Renai looks through a family photo album with her son, Dalton, who asks why there are no pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy and disliked taking photos of himself. One day, Dalton hears something in the attic and goes to investigate. As he enters inside he tries to climb a ladder to turn on the light but falls when the ladder cracks. As he falls to the floor he seems to stare in horror at the darkness as if looking at something terrifying. Shaken he is put to bed by Renai and Josh and told not to play in the attic. The next day, Dalton does not awaken from sleep. Renai and Josh rush him to the hospital, where the doctors say he is in an inexplicable coma.

Three months later, Dalton is moved back to his home while still in a coma. Shortly after, disturbing events begin to occur. The first was when Renai began hearing strange voices from the baby monitor, a bloody handprint on Dalton's bed, and a strange man in her infant daughter's bedroom. Renai becomes more disturbed when their youngest son, Foster, says he doesn't like it when Dalton 'walks around' at night. Renai tells Josh about the events and the family soon moves to another house.

In the new house, the supernatural events continue to occur. Lorraine, Josh's mother, recalls having a strange dream of going inside Dalton's room and seeing something standing in the corner, before it said that it wanted Dalton. Subsequently Lorraine sees a red-faced figure standing behind Josh and Dalton is then violently attacked in his bedroom. This prompts Lorraine to contact a friend, Elise Reiner, who specializes in the investigation of paranormal activity. The family, Elise, and her team enter Dalton's room and Elise sees and describes a figure to one of her two assistants, who draws a black figure with a red face and dark hollow eyes on the ceiling of Dalton's room; the same figure that Lorraine had seen before in the house.

Elise explains to Renai and Josh that Dalton has the ability to astral project while sleeping and that he has been doing it since he was very young. The reason that Dalton is in a comatose state is because he has fearlessly traveled too far into different spiritual worlds (he believes the projections are dreams) and has consequently become lost in a land called "The Further"—the land is a place for the tormented souls of the dead. While Dalton's spirit is in this other world, he has left nothing but a lifeless body. The tormented souls crave another chance at life through Dalton's state, while the demon wants to use Dalton for a more malicious intent. However, for a spirit to consume a body, a period of time and energy are required.

Skeptical at first, Josh later relents when he discovers Dalton had been drawing pictures which resemble the demonic figure Elise described. They run a session to try to communicate with Dalton where the demon uses Dalton's body to fight the group, along with 3 other spirits who want Dalton's body. After the session, Elise calls Lorraine and the two reveal to the couple that Josh also can astral project, and was terrorized by an evil spirit during his childhood. Lorraine shows them pictures from Josh's childhood, revealing a shadowy old woman (the same woman from the beginning of the film) behind him. The more photographs taken of Josh, the closer the shadowy woman begins to get to Josh until she is inches away from him, explaining his fear of photos. Elise suggests that Josh should use his ability to find and help return Dalton's soul, to which Josh agrees.

Josh projects himself into "The Further" and enters the red-faced demon's stronghold. He discovers Dalton chained to the floor and frees his son, but the demon has discovered Josh's presence and attacks them. In search of their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demon, who is pursuing them. Just before the two awaken, Josh leaves his son to confront the shadowy old woman who appears to be inside his house. As he shouts for her to get away from him, screaming that he isn't afraid of her, she retreats into the darkness. Moments later, Josh and Dalton both awaken, just as all the spirits vanish.

With the family now happily reunited, Renai, Dalton and Lorraine chat in the kitchen as Elise and Josh pack up from the long night. Josh hands Elise the pictures from his childhood, and as she takes them from his hands, she senses something and takes a picture of Josh. He promptly goes into a rage, claiming she knows that he doesn't like to get photographed, and chokes her to death. Renai hears Josh yelling and goes into the room to find Elise dead and Josh gone. She searches for Josh and finds everyone is gone, the house dead silent. She looks and comes across Elise's camera, seeing a picture in it of the shadowy old woman. It's revealed that what Elise saw was Josh's old and dirty hand and nails, similar to the old woman's, implying that she has possessed him. Josh then puts his hand on Renai's shoulder, saying "Renai, I'm right here," and horror envelops her face as she looks behind her.

In a post-credits scene, the shadowy, old woman can be seen blowing out a candle and the screen fades into total darkness.

Cast [edit]

Insidious Entities [edit]

  • Kelly Devoto and Corbett Ruck as Doll girls
  • Joseph Bishara as the Lipstick-Face Demon
  • Philip Friedman as the Old Woman
  • J. LaRose as the Long Haired Fiend
  • Caslin Rose as the Ghoul / Contortionist (uncredited)
  • Lary Crews as the Whistling Ghost Dad

Reception [edit]

Insidious has received generally positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 68% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 200 reviews, with an average score of 6.0. The critical consensus is: "Aside from a shaky final act, Insidious is a very scary and very fun haunted house thrill ride."[5] Roger Ebert gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4 saying, "It depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread. This one is not terrifically good, but moviegoers will get what they're expecting." Steve O' Brien from WCBS-FM says " Most Terrifying Film since The Exorcist".[6]

A number of negative reviews reported that the second half of the film did not match the development of the first. Mike Hale of The New York Times wrote that "the strongest analogue for the second half of Insidious is one that the filmmakers probably weren’t trying for: it feels like a less poetic version of an M. Night Shyamalan fairy tale."[7] Similarly, James Berardinelli commented, "[i]f there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half."[8] Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe wrote that "[t]he film begins with promise" but "[t]he crazy train of Insidious runs fully off the rails when the filmmakers go logical and some of the strange gets explained away as a double shot of demonic possession and astral projection."[9]

Positive reviews have focused on the filmmakers' ability to build suspense. John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal explains "[w]hat makes a movie scary isn't what jumps out of the closet. It's what might jump out of the closet. The blood, the gore and the noise of so many fright films miss the horrifying point: Movie watchers are far more convinced, instinctively, that what we don't know will most assuredly hurt us... Insidious establishes that these folks can make a film that operates on an entirely different level, sans gore, or obvious gimmicks. And make flesh crawl."[10] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune wrote: "director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell admire all sorts of fright, from the blatant to the insidiously subtle. This one lies at an effective halfway point between those extremes."[11] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented: "Here's a better-than-average spook house movie, mostly because Insidious decides it can haunt an audience without spraying it with blood."[12] Christy Lemire of the Associated Press stated: "Insidious is the kind of movie you could watch with your eyes closed and still feel engrossed by it. It's a haunted-house thriller filled with all the usual creaking doors, groaning floors and things that go bump in the night, but it'll also grab you with some disturbing, raspy whispers on a baby monitor, a few melancholy piano plunkings and the panicky bleating of an alarm as a front door is mysteriously flung open in the middle of the night."[13]

Box office [edit]

The film opened with $13,271,464, making it #3 at the domestic box office behind Hop and Source Code. It has since grossed a total of US$54,009,150 domestically and US$43,000,000 internationally, for a total of $97,009,150 worldwide.[14] Insidious was the most profitable film of 2011.[15]

Awards and nominations [edit]

Year Result Award Category Recipient
2011 Won Fright Meter Awards Best Horror Film James Wan
Leigh Whannell
2011 Nominated Fright Meter Awards Best Director James Wan
2011 Nominated Fright Meter Awards Best Actress Rose Byrne
2011 Won Fright Meter Awards Best Supporting Actress Lin Shaye
2011 Nominated Fright Meter Awards Best Screenplay Leigh Whannell
2011 Nominated 2011 Scream Awards Best Horror Film −
2011 Nominated 2011 Scream Awards Best Horror Actor Patrick Wilson
2011 Nominated 2011 Scream Awards Best Horror Actress Rose Byrne

Sequel [edit]

A sequel for Insidious has been announced and is scheduled to be released in 2013.[16] In November 2011, it was reported that Sony Pictures had registered online domain names for a second film.[17]

As of February 2012, Leigh Whannell has been confirmed to write the sequel, while James Wan was in negotiations to direct.[18]

On November 19, it was announced that filming would begin in January 2013 and be released September 13, 2013 under the name Insidious Chapter 2.

Home media release [edit]

Insidious was released on DVD and Blu-ray on July 12, 2011.[19][20][21]

Soundtracks [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b Karen Benardello (December 30, 2010). "Haunted House Film Insidious To Be Released on April Fool's Day". Shockya.com. Crave Online. Retrieved 28 August 2012. 
  2. ^ Kaufman, Amy (March 31, 2011). "Movie Projector: "Hop" will jump over rivals this weekend". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved April 1, 2011. 
  3. ^ "Insidious (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-07-18. 
  4. ^ Hoovert, John (March 28, 2011). "SXSW: Interview with Insidious Director James Wan". Lost In Reviews. 
  5. ^ Rotten Tomatoes by Flixster (2011). "Insidious (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes by Flixster. Flixster, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2012. 
  6. ^ Ebert, Roger (March 31, 2011). "Insidious". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 
  7. ^ Hale, Mike (2011-03-31). "Movie Review - Insidious". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  8. ^ James Berardinelli (2011-04-02). "Insidious". Reelviews.net. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  9. ^ Ethan Gilsdorf (2011-04-01). "Insidious". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  10. ^ John Anderson (2011-04-01). "'Insidious': Scary Eyeful of the Unknown". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  11. ^ Michael Phillips (2011-03-31). "Insidious Movie Review". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  12. ^ Peter Travers (2011-03-31). "Insidious". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  13. ^ Lemire, Christy (2011-03-30). "Review: 'Insidious' mixes shocks and laughs". Yahoo News. Retrieved 2011-04-09. 
  14. ^ Box Office Mojo (Unknown). "Insidious". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.com, Inc. Retrieved 1 August 2012. 
  15. ^ WorstPreviews.com Staff (February 3, 2012). "James Wan in Talks to Direct "Insidious" Sequel". WorstPreviews. WorstPreviews.com. Retrieved 1 August 2012. 
  16. ^ McNary, Dave (2012-02-02). "'Insidious' sequel in the works". Variety. 
  17. ^ J.B. (November 30, 2011). "Insidious 2 is in the works according to domain registrations by Sony Pictures". Fusible. Fusible.com. Retrieved 28 August 2012. 
  18. ^ Mike Fleming (February 2, 2012). "Fright Film Hit ‘Insidious’ Scares Up Sequel". Deadline New York. PMC. Retrieved 1 August 2012. 
  19. ^ 22 Insidious Blu-ray and DVD Arrive august 22nd -movieweb.com
  20. ^ Insidious [Blu-ray] (2011) on Amazon.
  21. ^ Insidious Blu-ray-Blu-ray.com

External links [edit]

Films directed by James Wan
2000s
2010s
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