Insidious (15) ***

May 1 2011 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury

INSIDIOUS (15)

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CAST: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey

PLOT: Josh (Wilson) and Renai (Byrne) Lambert are a happily-married couple with three children who move into a large new house – it’s never explained quite how they can afford it on his teaching salary. Straight away, they start hearing funny noises and objects move by themselves. Then their eldest son Dalton just doesn’t wake up, falling into a mysterious coma. His parents eventually bring him home, setting up his bedroom like a hospital ward.

Renai hears a creepy voice on her baby monitor saying “There’s nothing you can do” and “I want it now!”. She’s convinced the house is haunted and insists on moving – but the malevolent forces just follow them.

GOOD POINTS: You wouldn’t know that it was made for less than £500,000 by the creators of the Saw movies. It looks better than that and starts in promising, atmospheric style, with quite a few jumps and scary moments as the scene is menacingly set.

BAD POINTS: It’s quite amusing when they turn to two nerdy ghostbusters and a psychic, Elise, but this is where it veers off course and just gets silly, especially when Elise puts on a gas mask to talk to demons. Her explanation of the realm of ‘the further’ as “a dark world filled with the tortured souls of the dead” is a little hard to swallow, while the screeching score is OTT. The plot is very derivative of other horror films like The Orphanage and Poltergeist.

SHOULD IT SEE IT? Yes if you like being scared, but don’t expect it to maintain the high standard of the first half.