Insidious

Here’s a low budget film that doesn’t look like it. Every dollar is up on screen and invested in the story. The screenwriter and actor Leigh Whannell (he plays Specs in the film) stated at the Toronto Film Festival that he had a list of horror cliches posted next to his computer so he would make sure to avoid them as he  wrote. It worked. Although there are still some jump-out-and-scare-you moments, they are largely earned, which makes them more powerful. The film really focuses on what you can’t see, and that can be quite affecting if you are watching alone at night. In fact, when I was watching this, in the middle of the third act, my son had a nightmare and began screaming. Scared the crap out of me, moreso because of my heightened state of tension. One thing that confused me is the father’s backstory. We are given glimpses, but never any real answers. Why does he stay at school late “grading papers”? The success of the film has spawned a sequel (hey why not, a $1.5 million budget grossed $54 million). I am confident that Whannell will deliver.