Oct 19: Insidious

"A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further."

Directed by: James Wan, Rated: PG-13, 103 minutes

I have always been against PG-13 horror movies, thinking they can never go places you'd never expect or that the violence and terror would be too tame. Insidious turns all of those notions on its side, and delivers a very scary movie that goes plenty of places you won't expect and has genuinely uncomfortable scares, as opposed to the constant jump-out gimmick so many movies utilize. The third act, however, is a little disappointing but the film as a whole still delivers on the creepy goods and sticks with you. 

F**k you, word!

Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson play a young couple, Renai & Josh, with three kids, Foster, Dalton, and a newborn girl. As any horror movie would start, the family is seen moving into a new house. It's beautiful, it's old, and it's the perfect setting for something haunted. Dalton (Ty Simpkins) goes to sleep one night and never wakes up. Worried, his parents rush him to the hospital but after plenty of tests, the doctors cannot figure out what is wrong with him, he's just simply slipped into a coma. Renai begins seeing things- apparitions hovering over her baby's crib and a figure standing outside a window. Convinced the place is haunted, Renai convinces Josh to move. Once arrived in their new home, the haunting continues and the couple is terrified. Not knowing what's going on, they call in a specialist (Lin Shaye), and she discovers that Dalton is an astral projector, someone who uses out of body experiences in his/her sleep to "explore" different realms. The reason Dalton is in the coma is because he's wandered too far into the darkness and his soul and mind are in danger. Thus, Renai and Josh must figured out a way to save their son from these demons haunting them, lingering around and waiting for his body to be "released" for possession. 

Rose is beautiful, but she keeps playing the same exasperated, overwhelmed characters. Let's see a smile already. 

Insidious crawls under your skin and plants itself deep inside you, festering and oozing out all sorts of psychological creep. Director James Wan (Saw- the good one) is a very good director, using an eerie edge to his films similar to what Fincher implemented in Se7en. There's a large attention paid to detail and sounds, drawing you only to hurl you across the room once the tables change. Sure, the jumpy gimmicks are still present and some scares are accentuated with loud music, but for the most part Insidious works slowly and burrows itself inside you. The entire idea behind the film is very original and it really changes up the idea of a haunted house story, turning it more into a haunted person tale. The entire film is full of dread, because you continually anticipate each new scare and the music has an almost-constant heartbeat to it, putting you on edge even further. It's a great buildup that actually delivers for once and makes you hate what you're watching. Seriously, Insidious has moments that just rape themselves into your mind, creeping you the f**k out.

And this song... why, why why? So. Creepy. No. Ass.  

Insidious is terrific for about 95 minutes. The ending leaves you very frustrated, almost hating how the entire thing is concluded. But moving past that, it's still a terrific horror movie in a day and age where the good ones are damn near impossible to come across. Insidious is a success in large part to the direction of James Wan and the acting, led by the ever-likable Patrick Wilson, a man you want to see no harm done to but continually gets tortured, scared, or abused (see Hard Candy). I don't scare easily. It really takes a lot to get me spooked but Insidious manages to tip-toe the line between the horrific and the cliche and deliver something worth watching. Sure, it'll most certainly be ruined by its sequels (you know they're coming), but in the meantime, I highly recommend it. Just turn it off when there's about 10 minutes left. 

The Good:
a continued layer of horror that leaves you very uncomfortable, with a dissonant score that exaggerates the bizarre and a constant heartbeat that leaves you on edge
The Bad:
a few scares that get you because of the jump factor and then immediately hate because they're so gimmicky
The Ugly:
f**k this movie's ending... it is so terribly lazy and reveals way too much, taking away a lot of the horror it hoped to create

Overall: 7.4/10

Trailer:

April 13: Knowing

"A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold"

   Knowing is a weird movie. It starts off as a kind of mystery thriller and ends as a wanna-be prophetic sci-fi epic. It takes itself way too seriously and instead of banking on being over-the-top campy, it's just bad. Yet, it's also confusingly good, explaining the weird. Earlier in Cage Week, in my National Treasure review (read here), I mention how much I would love to take a class taught by the great Cage. Well, in Knowing, my dream comes true and he plays a college professor of astrophysics named John (believable, right?). John discovers a piece of paper that came out of a time capsule at his kid's school. On the paper are a bunch of numbers that John connects to a bunch of disasters that occurred in the past fifty years, including 9/11. John sees that they are in chronological order, and that there are a few "events" remaining on the list. Cue the classic Cage and his wild attempt to save the world, thus Knowing. 

Astrophysicist right here. 

   Knowing suffers from a horrible script and a pretty terrible plot but, for some reason, it's not as awful as one would think. The film is directed by Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) and as always, he has a great sense of style for his films. Knowing is terrific to look at and each disaster scene plays out like the beginning of a Final Destination film (you know, the best part). The special effects are very well done and they really save the film from flushing down the drain of unwatchable. With the effects and one hell of a score, Knowing is rather unsettling at times. 

Cage has done worse. 

  Overall, I would hesitate to recommend Knowing. It has it's moments and the first part of the film is actually good. It's not until the third act that everything falls apart and you wonder what the f**k just happened. Knowing is not a film you'll love and certainly not something you'd run out and buy right away, but it's unique. Knowing borderlines the awful, and I can't help but think how much better it would be if it went all out over-the-top. It just takes itself too seriously, as something profound, and falls flat on its face at its conclusion. 

The Good:

great special effects and a score that reminds me of classic sci-fi flicks

The Bad:

weak dialogue and a ridiculous plot

The Ugly:

a somehow decent first and second acts only to be completely ruined by the finale

Overall: 5.9/10

Trailer:

Watch These Instead:

Sunshine- one of the best sci-fi films of the last twenty years, with similar themes to Knowing

Dark City- another apocalyptic tale from Alex Proyas

Children of Men- end of the world kind of story done right, with very memorable long-take scenes that make you wonder how they did it