Insidious Film Review

Year of Release: 2011 Director: James Wan

Insidious follows the story of a family in search of help for their son, Dalton, who fell into a mysterious coma one day. Little do they know that there is much more to this 'coma' than meets the eye as they explore the paranormal and discover that a number of demons are after his body. To help him they must force themselves to remember terrifying memories from the past.




One of the scenes which I found most impressive and effective was the one where the family walks in to Dalton's room to find a shadowed figure pointing its claw-like fingers towards his bed. The fact that we can't actually see what the figure is at this point puts the audience on edge because it allows their imagination to run wild with ideas about what it could actually look like. The lighting is so low-key that if it wasn't for the artifical light provided by the small lamp at the side of the bed, the shadow created wouldn't have been possible. In this scene we can also see the little boy's face peacefully sleeping from the use of a long-shot. The fact that he looks so helpless and small makes the tall creature at the side of his bed even more sinister.


The other scene I felt was most impressive was the scene where a demon shouts down the baby monitor. The voice sounds like a distored human's and this gives the scene a sense of realism. The fact that something as innocent and defenceless as a baby could be attacked is scarier than the idea of a teenager who could run away being attacked. The voice also gives the audience a chance to picture the owner of it.


Contrapuntal music is used while the demon is sharpening it's long claws in its workshop. This makes this scene more sinister because of the unusual contrast. The scene has taken something which creates a warm, happy feeling for most people and given it negative connotations. There are lots of close-ups used throughout, and the one which had the most impact for me was one of the final shots. Rather than being a close-up of an actual face, it is a close-up on a photo which proves that the father is possessed by an old lady demon. The face is distorted and is grinning in a sinister way, it's eyes focused on the audience, and really sticks in your mind afterwards. Restricted narration is used in the baby monitor scene - we can hear the baby crying and the evil voice, but have no idea what the owner of the voice has done in order to make it cry - which causes the audience to panic and forces them to imagine the things that could have possibly happened. This in a way is more effective than seeing what is actually happening, because everybody's greatest fear is different. It would also be too extreme and inappropriate for a baby to be seen in distress. The mise-en-scene feature of the make-up used on the human dolls in the demonic realm of the 'further' is made to make them look both scary and happy at the same time - resembling grinning clowns- which makes them extremely sinister and unnerving. What makes the human dolls even more frightening is the slow editing; they appear to be frozen while sat on the sofa and the camera focuses on this for what seems to be an excessive amount of time, before the characters quickly move their faces, forcing the audience to jump.


I would like to include the idea of an open ending in my trailer- especially the idea that the bad guy is still out there - because it leaves the audience wondering what they are going to do next and plays tricks on their mind. I would also like to include the use of low-key lighting to the point where the room is almost black, because it leaves the audience in anticipation of something jumping out or lurking in the corner, and would make it easier to move things around without having to stop filming which would make the editing smoother.


I would not have played as many tricks on my audience's imagination if I was going to end up showing them the main demon (which quite frankly was a let down) anyway. I would use restricted narration to hide the monster and use less red herrings to avoid annoying, or letting down, the audience.


I felt that the narrative was the best part of this film, because it did something different to other 'haunted house' movies by twisting the plot so that it turned out to be the son that was haunted. Although this had already been done in Paranormal Activity , writers took it to the next level by making it so that the person haunted was a defenceless child who was trapped somewhere virtually impossible for his parents to reach him. This could be recreated and taken to the next level in my trailer by having a child who is possessed and not in control of their body, who resorts to going after their parents and not being able to stop themselves. This would put the parents in an awkward position because they would not want to risk hurting their child in self-defence, keeping the audience wondering how they are going to get out of the situation.