MOVIE REVIEW - Insidious

With Spring Break on the way for many, it's a great time of the year for a real young person scary flick. Insidious, though not great..is scary.

Insidious is a scary and well done thriller of a flick, that takes a more traditional approach to scaring you. This movie is not laden with blood, or gore like many of the cheap thrill flicks of today. Skillful film makers know that stuff isn't scary. It's just tasteless, and is targeting the lowest common denominator film goer. Real fear at the movies comes from a place of real. Being able to picture yourself in the same situation as the characters. Although Insidious a bit far fetched, does have strong elements of being real, and easier for most to possibly believe.

This young family with three young kids move into this grand old house. There, all kinds of weird things start happening. Basically the usual, doors slamming blah, blah. But their youngest son Dalton slips into this deep coma like state, and remains there for months without medical explanation. Even after this family moves to a new house, he remains coma-like and the weird stuff continues to plague this family. In fact, it escalates. Why the terror? Why the sleepless nights, and why is this young boy seemingly dead among the living.? That is Insidious.

To be honest, I am not easily frightened at the movies, but many moments in this one made me take notice. The nighttime terror scenes, especially in the first house are very well done, and equally compelling. Insidious does NOT rely on silly special effects to make you jump. It's just the dark, the house, the sound, the music, the situation you can't help but feel the helplessness our our characters. Although Insidious' plot does make a turn that is a bit more difficult to relate to, and somewhat harder to choke down there are still some rather scary moments for the duration.

Overall, Insidious has a plan...to scare you. And for the most part sticks to it. It doesn't sell out to ridiculous, underfunded and overused special effects. It goes more the Paranormal Activity route and finds what would frighten you, and puts it out there for you to jump and judge. Young people in packs will love this movie.

You want to be scared, and want a jolt at the movies? For what this is, Insidious is pretty good.