Insidious

The title Insidious is not a come on, it’s a turn off. But you only realize why such a stupid label was chosen halfway through this horror movie. That’s when a clairvoyant "house-cleaner" (Lin Shaye) explains the plot to a family haunted by malevolent ghosts: She says it’s about tormented souls enticing victims to go into "The Further."

How would "The Further" look on a marquee or a DVD renter’s queue? Probably a little less commercial than Insidious, which blatantly indicates some sort of foul doings or hatefulness designed to lure viewers whose ideas of horror movie fun have been warped ever since The Blair Witch Project and, more recently, Paranormal Activity.

There’s no ingenuity in Insidious (from James Wan, director of the blatantly repugnant, if not insidious, Saw). Its plot, ripped off from The Amityville Horror, shows so little psychological or occult logic that it exposes its own sheer dumbness as just a series of spookings. The victimized family (Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and grandma Barbara Hershey) hold back their history of haunting until the film passes the 90-minute point, as if something complex or deep has been dramatized.

Wan (well-named for an unoriginal storyteller) strings along his obvious horror effects: rumblings, creaks, booms, over-dubbed screams, clowns, puppets— even highlighting a Darth Maul mask from Star Wars. Clearly, the new mode of horror film has forgotten advances made by classics The Innocents, The Heretic and Poltergeist. Wan wants audiences to react to jolts and sensation, not ideas. Despite blather about "the universe," all you’re certain of is noise and violence to spell boredom and banality. "The Further" indicates Wan’s commitment to starting another lame horror flick franchise. Calling this "Insidious" indicates how he’s turned Grand Guignol into petit Guignol.

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Insidious

Directed by James Wan 

Runtime: 102 min.