Movie Time! 'Insidious'

"After moving into a new home, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) confront terrifying tribulations when their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into a coma and his body starts to attract malevolent forces from a mysterious netherworld.  But when the family decides to move again, hoping to leave the evil spirits behind, they realize that their problems are just beginning.  James Wan ('Saw') directs."

While I enjoyed this movie immensely, I thought the timing was bad for it.  There are so many paranormal movies that have been made in the past five years at least.  It's too bad that it didn't come along sooner, because it's better than those movies.

I liked that it wasn't like either of the Paranormal Activity movies or Paranormal Entity, in that it didn't look like an amateur had shot the film and it actually had a plot to work with.  I appreciate both of those things.  Also, while I know this movie isn't reality happening and being caught on film, it made it feel real.  Not like those fake-feeling paranormal movies.

I didn't find this terribly scary, though I'll admit that I did jump a few times when creatures jumped out or doors randomly opened.  Also, dead old ladies are just plain creepy.  Just saying.

The whole "empty shell" or "body as merely a vessel for the soul" concept was great.  In my (admittedly minimal) experience as a movie watcher (I watch a lot of movies, but not a great variety), I can't say that I've come across this idea before and it was really interesting to see how everything turned out.

 The pacing at the beginning of the movie was a little questionable.  At times it felt like things were moving too slowly-- the family would turn around thinking that they saw something, and then dismiss that something as a trick of the light.  Of course for a horror film like this, that's necessary to do, but you can only drag it out so long before it's boring or it doesn't work any more.  Other times it felt like things were moving too fast-- jumping to conclusions and deciding to immediately take action.  Oh yeah, and Dalton's grandmother is involved.

As far as characterization, I wasn't too connected with the characters, but I wasn't totally disconnected either.  A little more back story from the other characters (not Josh, because he's such a big role in this story) would have helped.  I would have cared more.  Josh's mother was a cheesy character, acting like the warm grandmother one moment and then taking on a darker and somber woman with a secret.  Those things made her feel like two different characters.

Overall, a good movie to watch.  You certainly wouldn't be wasting your time, because this movie has so much to offer, despite what I mentioned above.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude