Insidious

Insidious made its way to theaters this weekend. It's a very simple story about a young boy who, through astro-projection, gets stuck in another dimension. This other world is called "The Further" and is occupied by creeeepy people (aka 'woolly boogers'). It turns out the only way the boy can be saved is by his father joining him in the other world and bringing him back. This movie features performances by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen's Nite Owl), Rose Byrne, Andrew Astor, and Lin Shaye (English teacher in A Nightmare On Elm Street, 1984).

The main thing I liked about Insidious is the genuine scares it puts out there. I feel sorry for the girl sitting in front of me during the showing. She's probably gonna have nightmares for a while. Or maybe she just likes to scream out whenever she gets the chance. I was impressed to see the use of real people in "The Further" instead of CGI stuff like was used in I Am Legend. The creepy stuff seemed well timed and not always predictable. From the poster at the top you read that some of the people who made the two Paranormal Activity movies made this one. That's very easy to see. A lot of the scary stuff you see early on is very similar.

My main problem with Insidious however comes from the basic premise of the movie. You may notice that the opening paragraph of this review sounds very familiar. That's because it's identical to Poltergeist (1982). One reviewer out there in internet land acknowledges this by saying that Insidious is a "love letter" to Poltergeist. I don't know about that. It just seems to be they re-imagined Steven Spielberg's and Tobe Hooper's classic movie and stuck a new name on it. That along really hurts Insidious's rating...

it'll be on one the Encore/Starz channels this summer............FX/TBS It...