Movie Review: Insidious

Insidious is a movie about a family that moves into a new home. The mother starts witnessing strange happenings like books being moved and other creepy incidents. The mother concludes that the house is haunted and wants to move out. Her son goes into an inexplicable coma after a small accident and is bedridden. Soon the husband is convinced that their new home is haunted and the family moves into another home. Whatever is haunting that home follows them to their new home! This is not the usual sequence of events in most haunted house films that I have seen.

However, when appraising the mother's conclusion that their home is haunted, the viewer should remember the definition of the word insidious. One definition of insidious is 'deceitful.' The title is extremely appropriate for the movie which holds many surprises for the viewer. Some of these surprises are startling and the movie is very suspenseful. It held my undivided attention even when watching it a second time. The movie does contain some graphic violence.

I found the movie to be an excellent thriller in the sense that the audience becomes aware of certain incidents before the family does.

Having said that, I did not find the movie to be all that horrifying nor all that frightening. This movie does not contain much bloodshed except in one scene and even that scene isn't very bloody. The 'demon' responsible for the haunting did not look all that horrifying to me. It looked aboriginal. There was never a moment when I felt the urge to look away from the screen.

To me, a horror movie is a gory movie wherein the plot is plausible. In other words, it is so realistic as to scare or horrify the viewer. The two movies I considered horrifying or scary were The Andromeda Strain and The Exorcist. I agree that the Andromeda Strain was more a science fiction thriller than a horror movie. But the concept of a disease that kills in seconds is horrifying.

However, this movie has so many twists and turns in it that it will keep the viewer guessing until the very end. I recommend this movie for teenagers and adults. I don't think this movie would frighten anyone except possibly children under thirteen years old.