Insidious
United States
2010
97 Min
Color
2.40:1
English
Synopsis
When the news broke that the creators of Saw and Paranormal Activity were working on a film together, horror fans took notice. Insidious sees director James Wan re-teaming with Saw writer-actor Leigh Whannell, and this time they’ve turned their terrifying focus from blood-letting to the uncanny unknown of the spiritual realm.
Evoking the family set-up of Poltergeist, Insidious follows proud parents Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) as they move their new family into an old house. Before you can say “redrum,” their son Dalton has an accident and lapses into a coma. His devoted mother tends to him at home, but late-night disruptions and sightings of shadowy apparitions become too much for the couple to handle and their relationship begins to fracture. The atmosphere becomes heavy with an ominous dread, spreading from the dark corners of a house that once promised hope and happiness.
Insidious transcends the real-estate spookiness of previous concepts like Amityville Horror, forging a genre-bending experiment that has more in common with Carnival of Lost Souls. By crafting a believable family and endangering the life of the youngest child, Wan and Whannell deliver shocks that are equal parts intimate and emotional. A return to their grassroots beginnings, Insidious’s scaled-down budget serves as a springboard for more innovative ideas and creative freedom than what’s possible on bigger, studio-driven productions.
Joining the household of restless spirits and malevolent entities are Barbara Hershey (known for her battle against supernatural forces in The Entity) as Josh’s mother Lorraine, and character actor Lin Shayne as a paranormal medium whose assistants provide comic relief with their outdated phantom-detection gear.
Wan and Whannell have spurned their hasty induction into the Splat Pack by summoning phantasmagoric scares and thrills, injecting an overdue shot of originality into a genre suffering from debilitating remake syndrome. –TIFF
Director
James Wan
James Wan (born 27 February 1977) is a Malaysian-born Australian producer, screenwriter, and film director of Chinese heritage. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw and creating Billy the puppet. He also directed Dead Silence, Death Sentence and Insidious.
Wan was born in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia of Chinese ethnicity. He was raised in Perth, Western Australia from a young age. It was his dream to make films from the age of 11. He went on to study at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, completing his Bachelor of Arts degree.
Before becoming popular in the film industry, he made his first feature film Stygian with Shannon Young, which won ‘Best Guerrilla Film’ at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2000.
He met future business partner Leigh Whannell while studying at RMIT. He would later go on to co-create and direct the 2003 horror film (and franchise), Saw with the help of Whannell, who wrote the script. Wan and Whannell made a… read more
Wall
Displaying 4 of 95 wall posts.
Frankly, Mr. Shankly
22Apr13
Poltergeist meets The Entity meets The Amityville Horror. I'm probably alone in this, but I enjoyed Insidious pretty much. It gets so delightfully old-school from the second half to the ending that I couldn't not love it. Also, it was quite effective in giving me the creeps.
Troy Savory likes this
Related Films
Fans
Displaying 5 of 313 fans.
Articles
Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
"Source Code," "Super," "Insidious," "Circo," More
By David Hudson on April 2, 2011
"Duncan Jones has skills; he's an architect of emotional dislocation." Elvis Mitchell in Movieline: "The filmmaker reenters that purview
INSIDIOUS Sequel In The Works. Scare Everyone. Surprises No One.
By Twitchfilm.com on February 3, 2012
It is hard to argue with success. Insidious, the little horror film that could, proved to be a very, very profitable venture. Created for a mere 1.5 million dollars the film went on to pull in nearly 100
INSIDIOUS on BLURAY
By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
I’ve seen this film twice now. The things that annoyed me the first time annoyed me much less the second and everything I liked about the film had the same effect. Plus the pleasure of watching it with
James Wan And Leigh Whannell Live Video Q&A
By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
At 9pm PST tonight Insidious and Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell will be conducting a live video Q&A to field questions about their latest creation on the eve of Insidious’ arrival on DVD and
30 Seconds Of Awesome In New INSIDIOUS Teaser
By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell created another hit with low budget creep out Insidious. Early festival circuit buzz led to theatrical success and with the film arriving on DVD and BluRay July
Won't anyone think of the Belgians: INSIDIOUS Review
By Twitchfilm.com on December 16, 2011
I’m usually quite fast picking up on Asian films, but when you live in Belgium and you’re waiting for theater releases, you’re doomed to lag behind. A lot. So once in a while I review a “new” film that
Canfield talks horror with James Wan and Leigh Whannell INSIDIOUS
By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
I’ll never forget seeing Saw for the first time. I was a brand new baby critic feeling completely out of place in the Lake Street Screening Room wondering how I had wound up there with the likes of Roger
SXSW 2011: INSIDIOUS Review
By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
[With James Wan’s Insidious now screening at SXSW we revisit Todd Brown’s previous review.]Though it breaks down some in a final act sees the tightly wound story seemingly split into a pair of competing
Film Comment Selects 2011 Reviews: BURKE & HARE and INSIDIOUS
By Twitchfilm.com on May 17, 2011
On Thursday night John Landis, James Wan, Patrick Wilson, and Leigh Whannell helped close the 2011 edition of Film Comment Selects in grand genre style. Curated by the editors of the U.S.’s “most respected
First Teaser For James Wan's INSIDIOUS
By Twitchfilm.com on April 29, 2011
Though there’s a little part of me that wishes the film had held closer to the ultra serious tone of the first half throughout the entire running time there’s still very little room to dispute that James
TIFF 2010: First Image From James Wan's INSIDIOUS
By Twitchfilm.com on April 29, 2011
When first director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell crossed paths the result was Saw and while many fans may now roll their eyes at that accomplishment the fact is that the duo launched by far the
Win An INSIDIOUS Prize Pack
By Twitchfilm.com on April 29, 2011
Saw creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell created quite a stir when they debuted their latest offering, Insidious, at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and audiences across North America
TIFF 2010: First Clip From James Wan's INSIDIOUS!
By Twitchfilm.com on April 29, 2011
With the premiere of Saw director James Wan’s latest effort, Insidious, just around the corner the first clip from the picture has just arrived online. I’m not able to crank the audio up on this one, sitting
Lists
Displaying 5 of 203 lists.
Reviews
Displaying 3 of 3
T'as une belle enveloppe charnelle toi
By Benoît on November 11, 2011
Après un superbe générique d’introduction, Insidious se fait un peu poussif au démarrage (les dix quinze premières minutes de présentation de la famille trainent en longueur) avant de voir petit à… read review
Old fashioned spookiness.
By Wilsonjd2 on May 1, 2011
“Saw” co-creator James Wan has returned with another horror movie, and this time he takes on a haunted house story written by his fellow “Saw” creator, Leigh Whannel. With “Insidious,” Wan moves away…
Wan & Whannel's Insidious
By Miasma on April 3, 2011
This review @ my blog
Insidious
2010
Alliance Films, Blumhouse Productions… read review
Forum
Displaying
0 discussion topics.