Horror in the Caves: Insidious

Having more or less invented the torture porn genre with Saw (though they’re not to blame for any of the sequels), director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell struck out in a different direction with this gore-free, franshise-launching 2011 spooker. Although it boasts some effective sequences alongside the unintentionally funny ones, there’s no originality here. Insidious kicks off by grabbing a slice of the Paranormal Activity haunted house market, adds some Spooky Child fun, takes a turn into Exorcist territory and winds up with a series of familiar Poltergeist-style shenanigans. There’s even a pair of bumbling paranormal investigators, seemingly on loan from the superior low-budget Britflick Skeletons.

As in the Paranormal Activity franchise, the set up involves Sceptical Bloke and Credulous Woman. While one yearns for a film in which the former is vindicated, it wouldn’t be much fun. So, as usual, he must be taught a hard lesson about the errors of his rational ways. Anyhoo, he’s schoolteacher Josh (Patrick Wilson) and she’s housewife Renai (Rose Byrne), who seem to be able to afford to have hordes of children and buy a lovely, new, rambling spooky house where every creak is amplified to an absurd degree. (Memo to self: must look into this exceptionally well-rewarded teaching lark.) When Renai starts seeing weird stuff and hearing nasty voices over the baby monitor, Josh naturally doesn’t believe her and opts to work late at the office. Then eldest nipper Dalton (Ty Simpkins) lapses into a coma from which he can’t be roused. And the spooky stuff continues even when they move house. What’s going on? Well, tradition dictates that the first port of call is the local Catholic priest. But unless this is a conventional exorcism flick, he’ll turn out to be useless. So it proves. Luckily, weirdo spiritualist Elise (Lin Shaye) is on hand to explain everything. It seems Dalton has been inadvertently astral projecting himself into The Further, “a dark realm filled with the tormented souls of the dead” and has managed to get stuck there. The little scamp. In the hope of hoiking him out, she dons a hilarious gas mask device for a seance…

Wan delivers a handful of good scares in the first couple of reels, mostly, it must be said, by amping up the soundtrack. But it all gets very silly indeed once we’re dragged into The Further following a ‘surprise’ revelation. It doesn’t help that the evil demon eventually revealed is strikingly reminiscent of Dave Grohl’s Beelzebub in Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny.

It’s back on screen in spooky old Redcliffe Caves as part of Bristol Film Festival‘s ever-popular Halloween week Horror in the Caves season. Go here for ticket information.