The Basics Cast
Genre: Horror (Supernatural/Occult) Rose Byrn/Patrick Wilson/Lin Shaye/Ty Simpkins
Director: James Wan
Run Time: 1h42m
"Opening Week: $13,271,464
National Release Date: April 1st, 2011
_________________________________________________________________________________
Synopsis
Insidious tells the story of the
Lambert family. Shortly after moving into a new home, Renae (Rose Byrn) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) Lambert's son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into
a deep coma. As it turns out, Dalton's coma cannot be diagnosed or
explained in any sort of way, by any tool of modern medicine. As one
thing starts to unravel after the other, The Lambert family soon
finds themselves facing the reality of Dalton's coma, and its paranormal induction. The Lambert family is pit in a race against time to save their son Dalton, and his soul, from being trapped forever in a supernatural world called "The Further".
______________________________________________________________________
Why Everyone Needs to See Insidious
-Even though "Insidious" is a horror film, there is a lot to be taken from it. So much so that any fan of drama/"rites of passage" stories can enjoy the film just as much.
For most people, the horror genre may seem pretty "cookie cutter", but the reality of horror movies is that the devil is in the details. One of the more prominent features that establishes Insidious apart from other iconic ghost stories, (The Shining, Poltergeist, Paranormal Activity) is that the human characters in the story have a (relatively) great deal of power to hold against the monsters that threaten their son's life.
In The Shining, the hotel itself, and the dreaded Room 237 plays host to what unravels Jack Torrance's sanity. In Poltergeist, the spiritual world crosses over through television static after telecast sign-off, and in Paranormal Activity the ghost is simply an entity all its own. The common thread linking all these stories, is that there is a single (almost omnipresent) paranormal figure following the characters, or that the characters are thrown into with out any choice in the matter. Insidious on the other hand, gives the people a little more charge of the situation. In the world called "The Further", where Dalton Lambert is lost during his comatose state, he wanders amongst the trapped, agonized souls of the dead. He is, what later characters will refer to as, "An Explorer", and a very seasoned one at that. The niche is though, that Dalton has traveled to, and and back again, The Further many a time in his dreams. Dalton was not always lost. What brought Dalton into his coma, among other things, is simply that he "wandered too far, and became lost." The entities within The Further did not seek him out personally from the get go (like Paranormal Activity's spectre). Neither did they become trapped eternally within a hotel. In the case of The Explorers, their body's can be seized by the spirits, giving them a chance to live again. The Further is a world Dalton walked into, all his own, and the spirits seized their opportunity. They didn't just happen. The film later divulges details about Dalton and his family history that further endows The Lamberts' abilities.
Another enticing aspect of Insidious is its powerful atmosphere and imagery. After being raised on horror movies, there is only so much that can scare you anymore, so personally I look for atmosphere in modern horror movies more than anything.
The imagery and its associated double meanings throughout Insidious, creates powerful, and sometimes moving, metaphors as well as instances of foreshadowing. One of the first and foremost imagery concepts in Insidious, just like in most horror films, is its association with light. These instances are cited by the cinematography, whether it's a camera shot focused on the light/bulbs themselves, or the sense of inclusive lighting (and its diminish) around the characters. One quick example of this, is when Elise is first introduced to the story. As she describes what she sees to her assistant Specs, he begins to sketch it. The final product is a character who will later be referred to as "The Man with Fire on his Face". Even though the demon isn't actually shown outside of the sketch, when Renae goes to look where Specs doodled the demon would be, the light around its location shrouds more and more as the camera pans until it simply disappears; right where he is watching them.
Another case, is when Elise's associate Tucker explains one of his devices to the Lamberts. The machine is a take on the "ViewMaster" toy, and allows him to detect changes in the UV light spectrum, since the spirits of The Further are virtually invisible to the naked eye.
