Halloween Bash...Reed Rothchild Reviews Insidious

 It's easy to see "from the director of Saw" and immediately lose interest in seeing this film.  But let's just remember that the original Saw was a very well crafted independent film and one of the better horror thrillers of the last decade.  Unfortunately, after sequel #287 many people seem to have forgotten how awesome the first installment was.  I also really enjoyed director James Wan's Repo: The Genetic Opera.  The songs were catchy as hell and the concept was just plain badass.  So despite how boring and by the numbers this looked I was still excited to check it out.

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Overall I thought this was very good.  I don't think the whole quite lives up to the sum of its parts, but it's much better and less generic than the previews would lead you to believe.  The film is rife with cliches and most of the acting is over the top and bland, but there ARE quality scares.  There were enough really well done creepy moments for me to overlook the film's many shortcomings.  The first act is nearly flawless thanks to a terrifying atmosphere that director James Wan sets up for us.  The less we see the scarier things seem.  There are only a couple scares in the first act, but the anticipation (at least for me) was through the roof and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.  The second act maintains the high standard set in the first for a little while, but then the majority of the plot is revealed and things kind of putter out.  I saw the big twists coming from a mile away, but the film did pick up a little steam once again when Josh headed into "The Further."  I can't say this was a great movie, but there were more legitimately scary moments in this than in any other movie I've seen in the last couple of years.  It was refreshing to see a director utilize old school scare tactics so well such as an eerie score, floating camera, shadows and lighting, inanimate objects, etc.  This was a PG-13 movie- thus it was low on violence but high on scares.  If you want a solid creepy movie to get you into the Halloween spirit then I'd say thins is the movie for you.  If you're looking for a game changer in the genre then I'd say skip it.

Funny or Scary: Very scary.  Your mind will plays tricks on you even when there's nothing scary happening on screen thanks to the eerie atmosphere that James Wan has established.
Scariest Scene: Either when Renai sees something in her daughters window in the middle of the night or when Josh first enters "The Further."  There are literally at least 5 more solid scares as well.
Overall Corpse Rating: 7 very creeped out corpses.