Psychotik Review: Insidious

Ha Ha Ha! Hello, Freaky Darlings! Welcome to another Psychotik Review. The subject of tonight, the creepy craze sweeping the horror community, Insidious. This was a hard movie for me to review. It took me some time to organize my thoughts about it. I didn’t really know how the movie made me feel. I’ll get into all of that below, the most I will say before we get into this is: For once I have a movie I’m reviewing that I can actually dissect….

Psychotik Review: Insidious

-Story

The story starts out with a pretty regular concept of paranormal activity and moves to a more interesting one. You have some basic bump in the night sort of stuff, cheap thrills really. Then you move into the main act when one of the main characters little boys falls into a strange coma. You immediately get the feeling this coma is completely paranormal. Unless of course you think the ghosts and other activity have nothing to do with it. It get’s so bad our family moves to another place. Big surprise, it doesn’t go away. You are introduced to some rather cool characters through the course of all of this mess (I’ll get to that in a minuet). The story comes to a head when a psychic is called and she reveals a family secret that the father is astral projector as well as the boy. You see what happened is, the boy projected away from his body and is lost. It’s all up to super dad to go on a hunt through “The Further” to find his little boy before some ghost or a little Red Faced Demon (Code Named Darth Maul Demon…Seriously, check it out) posses’ him.

Now That I have that out of the way, let me explain what I thought of it. The plot is a good one…if only it would have decided where it was going. To me the movie felt like it was all over the place. Like it just kept jumping around without ever resolving anything. It was entertaining, but there was one spot toward the end that I was just like “How the hell did we get here?” That’s not the actors fault….Not even really the Director….thats more a writing sort of thing. Unless of course the Director cut a few scenes that would have made more sense. You just never really knew who the real threat was. It sort of settles on it…and then it just totally goes out of the way to piss on that as well. You’ll get it at the end.

Don't count on that though...these two stared in it and they don't...

(Here’s the trailer…maybe it can give you a better idea as to what the movie is about…I doubt it…)

-Acting

This is where I can give them a lot of credit. The movie really did have top-notch casting. Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye…even the creature actors J. Larose, Joseph Bishara, and Philip Freidman. They all do a wonderful job with the roles they have. I more give credit to Lin Shaye and her team of paranormal investigators…they were awesome. The creature’s did a good job at their being creepy. The old lady and The Long Haired Fiend are the things that horror legend is made of! I just wish they would have had more screen time. J. Larose and the Demon were the most frighening. They just didn’t offer them enough screen time. Again another problem with direction and writing…On the whole though, I say Acting was a big plus.

Look Kids! Darth Maul!!

-Overall Effect

My overall opinion of the film is it interesting but unorganized. It looks pretty, the concept is good, the creatures and ghosts are well done…but I just can’t get over the scatter-brained feeling it gives as well. I also would like to add that James Wan doesn’t deliver on attempting to be Sam Rami. I’m not kidding! Seriously, watch it and tell me you don’t get the feeling for a second Sam Rami Directed this. Maybe he was doing it as a nod to him, but I know it doesn’t work for him…It’s really good thought if you’re looking for a creepy cool time. I might also add that the use of “Tip Toe Through the Tulips” by Tiny Tim gave it a few creepy scenes. My only question is how they used it. The first time you hear it, a record player turns on and it’s playing. Why the hell did she have that just sitting on the record player? More importantly…WHY DID SHE HAVE THAT RECORD!? The second time is when that little Red Faced Demon is sharpening his nails….yeah by the way that Darth Maul Demon has a souped up Freddy glove…Oh, and apparently we also find out that a gas mask is a viable psychic tool…I’m not making this shit up…

I kept thinking through this whole scene...maybe it's hooked up to a bong...that would have made more sense...

-In Conclusion

The movie get’s a solid 3 out of 5 Top Hats. It really wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t that good either. Definately don’t go into it expecting a horribly frightening thing. I had to wait to do this review to form my own opinion because I went from the hype and was grossly disappointed. Think I was too harsh…Click Here for an alternate point of view!

That’s all for tonight Darlings…do stay tuned for more madness to come your way. Hopefully some short stories soon. Definately another review or two….

Until Next Time My Freaky Darlings,

Malice Psychotik

P.S. I found this scene while looking through YouTube. It had potential to be a very eerie scene, but due to poor judgement in cinematography, the scene is only visible if you are looking for it…This will show you a perfect example of my frustration with the films delivery on scares…enjoy!