The big release this weekend is Pixar’s latest, Lightyear. I tend to like Pixar’s work, often grading it on a curve, but if I do go see it this weekend, maybe I should see something that is in some way the exact opposite of a kid-friendly sci-fi comedy. What would that be? Probably a horror movie. And hey, Insidious has a kid in mortal danger, so that seems like a good way to go if I want the opposite of a Pixar movie.
Besides, the most shocking jumpscare is rather well-known, so maybe I could see how it works out if I know it’s coming.
Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) have just moved into a new home with their three kids. Some odd things start happening, mostly in the form of strange noises and doors that open and close on their own. But then one morning their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) doesn’t wake up. He’s in a coma that seems to defy all medical explanations. Three months later, he’s still in that coma. However, odd ghosts and seemingly demonic presences keep appearing, enough to get Renai to convince Josh to move. Unfortunately, the house may not have been the thing that was haunted.
That may be especially apparent when Josh’s mother Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) recounts creepy dreams she’s had and even sees things herself. She knows a psychic named Elise (Lin Shaye), and Elisa can maybe get to the bottom of all this. Apparently, Dalton’s coma isn’t something that can be explained by medical science because it’s got a more supernatural origin. And it may have connection to something from Josh’s own childhood, something he’d rather not think about even if he doesn’t quite remember it. Can Josh find a way to save his son?
This all came from director James Wan, so I knew it would be put together in his usual masterful way. And indeed he does. Many of the scares here are of the jumpscare variety, but Wan earns each and every one of them with longshots that follow a character around as odd things happen around them, only for something to pop out at the last minute when tension reaches its highest point. If anything, this is a movie that accomplishes most of that with what I am guessing are simply editing tricks and a lot of shadows. Seriously, this is a pretty dark movie, and I mean that in the literal sense. There are many moments where the only way to relieve tension for a character is to turn a light on. Whatever these things are, they like darkness.
But then again, this is a movie that made Tiny Tim’s rendition of “Tiptoe through the Tulips” about the creepiest song imaginable. I can honestly say I didn’t see that coming. Wan knows how to put together a good haunted house story, and if this is more of a haunted person, well, this is a movie that shows the same rooms that, with a change in lighting, goes from normal to possessed with the flip of a switch and where a child’s drawings provide clues if a parent will just look. Sure, the movie ends on what may have been a sequel hook, and I don’t know that I’ll go any further with these movies, but for what it was, Insidious was a good and creepy movie that, yeah, probably is the opposite of a Pixar movie.
Grade: B+
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