Insidious - I'm Not Sleeping Easy Tonight

Today, I watched Insidious, a film by James Wan (Saw), and had one of the most enjoyable and frightening experiences watching a horror movie I had ever this year. I urge anyone who loves a good horror movie, to watch this movie. I must admit, I hadn't heard of the movie before, but when a friend of mine decided we should watch it together, I could only tell you that manly screams of terror were heard in the quiet silence of the theater room. It's ok though, because I love to get scared, that's what horror movies are about, and manly screams and jumps of terror means this movie delivered!

So if you have not heard of the movie, I'll give you a quick summary of the plot. A young boy goes into a coma, and his parents realize this is no ordinary coma. Now they are trying to save their child and prevent an outside entity from taking over his body before it's too late!

If this summary doesn't entice you, I apologize for not sounding original. That's probably because the idea has been heard before, right? However, I must mention that this movie isn't a typical exorcism movie, in fact it's not really about exorcising demons, but if I gave away what I truly meant, it would ruin part of the surprise in the movie. Needless to say, we're not bearing crosses, having children speak in tongues, and vomit all over their room. Insidious is a terrifying movie, that takes some themes from many great classic horror films, and implements its own ideas and executes them perfectly!

What got me the most about this movie, is that it brings terror to people not through blood and gore, because this movie is actually PG - 13 (and it's FREAKY!!), but instead it brings the chills and tension through wonderfully produced scenarios, settings, and a little imagination. Also, I must say the sound design and soundtrack are really fitting.

I never like to talk about things I can't quite word or because I don't know the correct terms, but the sound design in Insidious is really excellent. The soundtrack uses a mixture of more classic horror movies, with the long reverberating strings echoing as the scene builds up for a next scary scene, or how the music and sound begin to gradually descend and deafen into a near silence audible that creeps along the back of your spine. Also, the sound of a crackling tree branch will perhaps never sound the same to you again. The movie executes a perfect mixture of audio and silence that it never feels like you know what to expect, just because something begins to "build up" or "slow down."

Now, the horror movie isn't just scary because the sounds make you think of the things you don't see behind the door, but also because the movie does have some original creations and mixes them with some classical horror elements that truly give the movie a nice unique and chilling world. We're not dealing with mutating corpses, viral infected zombies, raging menaces, or other things. Insidious retains a bit of a classical horror feel that feels more in modern day.

Let me just say, that this movie does not start off slow. It starts off from the beginning, and does little in introducing us to the characters to make us "know them" better. However, the horror is still strong, because this movie doesn't waste much time by prolonging scenes with explicit background details, or motives beyond simple survival and fear of the unknown. Insidious gave me chills running up and down my body all throughout because it focused on simple ideas and settings with perfect execution and timing. It moves along at a great pace, never letting down the tension long enough, but never over staying its welcome too.

To wrap this up, I implore you to watch Insidious if you haven't already. It's a great movie that scared this viewer more times than once, and made me love every second of it.