Horrors! The ghost-like story “Insidious” is a psychological thriller. Despite some hokum, it’s intended to shake you up, rattle your nerves, and elicit shrieks. Akin to “Poltergeist” a couple’s young son may/may not be demonically possessed. Teacher Josh Lambert (Wilson), his wife Renais (Rose Byrne), and their three children move into a suburban house when strange things start happening. Standard haunted house occurrences (e.g.) doors open and close by themselves, cartons mysteriously move around, and bloody hand prints appear. After the couple’s eight-year-old son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) mysteriously doesn’t awaken and is comatose, the family believes the house is spooked, and they move again. Settled into the new digs, the Lamberts soon realize it’s Dalton who’s haunted, and they welcome ghost- buster/medium Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) to hopefully end the siege of terror.
With a keen sense of the occult, James Wan directs and maintains a high level of tension and suspense. The choice cast including Barbara Hershey as Josh’s authoritative mother, add realism to the atmospheric mood of the mind-bending incidents.
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