The Insidious franchise is one of my favourites, due in no small part to Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and her young friends, Specs (Leigh Whannell) & Tucker (Angus Sampson). The franchise relies on the chemistry between those three characters.
Oh, and there's also the fact that these movies scare the living crap out of me. That too.
Insidious starts, as horror movies often do, with a family moving house. Moving house plays a large part in a lot of horror movies. Why do you think that is?
"It's the upheaval. Moving is one of the most traumatic events of your life so it's not surprising that bad stuff starts to happen. I mean that we're already sort of expecting things to go wrong - or they've already gone wrong and that's the reason for the move. Horror just takes it one step further."
Like when your parents say, "Keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about?" Keep picturing things going wrong and things are going to go very, very wrong...
"I sometimes worry about your childhood."
You should. But, it's not my messed up childhood we're talking about. It's Josh Lambert's (Patrick Wilson) messed up childhood that forms the basis for Insidious.
Insidious is well paced. You learn just what you need to know to get from A to B. Everything is revealed exactly when you need it. Horror movies that give you a massive information dump all at one time are guilty of putting scares before story - something Insidious doesn't do.
There are certainly plenty of jump scares in this one. So, so many. Even though I've seen Insidious half a dozen times, I still went to bed rattled after watching it again. It gets me every freaking time. Even when it's not throwing surprises at you, Insidious is a dark, twisted, eerie movie.
"It's a nervy jump-fest. I love the jumps but don't find it frightening. Even a movie like this one doesn't get me. It's fun to watch, though."
He means that it's fun to watch me jump like a little bitch.
"Yes. Yes, I do.
"Seriously, though, it's a top rate horror movie. It's terrifying, well-shot, and delivers scares in spades. They all are, even though the first one is the best of the lot.
"It's a solid franchise. They did fuck up by killing off Elise in the first one, mind. I don't think they expected the movie to be as popular as it ended up being. Whoops?"
Whoops.
It does sort of limit the scope of a franchise when you kill off the best character in the first movie - though, apparently, not that much. The Insidious movies have been very clever in the way they've placed the movies in the timeline in order to keep Elise in them. In fact, the most recent addition, The Last Key, might just be my favourite of the lot.
"I haven't seen that one so I'll have to reserve judgment until I catch up. It's rare for any sequel to beat the first one, though, especially one that far down the line.
"It's interesting that the first couple of Insidious movies deal with astral projection. That's something I don't know much about. I know it doesn't appear in horror movies often, though, and I have to wonder why that is. Seems like something that could be a really useful tool, like sleepwalking, etc."
Well, my first introduction to astral projection came thanks to LJ Smith's Dark Visions trilogy when I was a kid. They weren't really horror novels but the astral projection brought a real horror element to the story. Trained psychics used astral projection to attack kids on the run from a powerful (and slightly psychotic) rich guy who wanted to force them into industrial espionage - which is a pretty lousy description for what was an awesome trilogy, but you get the idea.
"It's quite a clever idea, actually. Astral projection as a weapon. Surely some horror writer/director has to pick up on that one...
Anyway, we were going to talk about the score."
Yes. It's quite unsettling.
"It is. The music is... jangley. Grating. It's designed to keep you on edge and it works. The score is so disjointed that it's shocking to your senses."
And just one of the many reasons I had to sleep with the lights on after watching Insidious.
I have to say, before I forget, that I love the fact that Patrick Wilson is in both this and The Conjuring, in very different roles. What's the male version of a scream queen? That's what we should be calling him now...
"Or, maybe not..."
"My favourite part of the whole movie has to be the ending. I love that moment you realize Josh is gone. It certainly makes the second movie interesting because you're constantly wondering if it really is him - or if it's the old woman in black. Very clever."
Pretty much the whole sequence inside the house in The Further is my favourite part. It's so weird and just wrong. My heart nearly gave out every freaking time one of those creepy bastards moved! At the same time, it was darkly beautiful to look at, so you have to appreciate that. You know, when you can breathe again...
And I think that's a good place for us to leave Insidious. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this franchise so do get in touch.
There are certainly plenty of jump scares in this one. So, so many. Even though I've seen Insidious half a dozen times, I still went to bed rattled after watching it again. It gets me every freaking time. Even when it's not throwing surprises at you, Insidious is a dark, twisted, eerie movie.
"It's a nervy jump-fest. I love the jumps but don't find it frightening. Even a movie like this one doesn't get me. It's fun to watch, though."
He means that it's fun to watch me jump like a little bitch.
"Yes. Yes, I do.
"Seriously, though, it's a top rate horror movie. It's terrifying, well-shot, and delivers scares in spades. They all are, even though the first one is the best of the lot.
"It's a solid franchise. They did fuck up by killing off Elise in the first one, mind. I don't think they expected the movie to be as popular as it ended up being. Whoops?"
Whoops.
It does sort of limit the scope of a franchise when you kill off the best character in the first movie - though, apparently, not that much. The Insidious movies have been very clever in the way they've placed the movies in the timeline in order to keep Elise in them. In fact, the most recent addition, The Last Key, might just be my favourite of the lot.
"I haven't seen that one so I'll have to reserve judgment until I catch up. It's rare for any sequel to beat the first one, though, especially one that far down the line.
"It's interesting that the first couple of Insidious movies deal with astral projection. That's something I don't know much about. I know it doesn't appear in horror movies often, though, and I have to wonder why that is. Seems like something that could be a really useful tool, like sleepwalking, etc."
Well, my first introduction to astral projection came thanks to LJ Smith's Dark Visions trilogy when I was a kid. They weren't really horror novels but the astral projection brought a real horror element to the story. Trained psychics used astral projection to attack kids on the run from a powerful (and slightly psychotic) rich guy who wanted to force them into industrial espionage - which is a pretty lousy description for what was an awesome trilogy, but you get the idea.
"It's quite a clever idea, actually. Astral projection as a weapon. Surely some horror writer/director has to pick up on that one...
Anyway, we were going to talk about the score."
Yes. It's quite unsettling.
"It is. The music is... jangley. Grating. It's designed to keep you on edge and it works. The score is so disjointed that it's shocking to your senses."
And just one of the many reasons I had to sleep with the lights on after watching Insidious.
I have to say, before I forget, that I love the fact that Patrick Wilson is in both this and The Conjuring, in very different roles. What's the male version of a scream queen? That's what we should be calling him now...
"Or, maybe not..."
"My favourite part of the whole movie has to be the ending. I love that moment you realize Josh is gone. It certainly makes the second movie interesting because you're constantly wondering if it really is him - or if it's the old woman in black. Very clever."
Pretty much the whole sequence inside the house in The Further is my favourite part. It's so weird and just wrong. My heart nearly gave out every freaking time one of those creepy bastards moved! At the same time, it was darkly beautiful to look at, so you have to appreciate that. You know, when you can breathe again...
And I think that's a good place for us to leave Insidious. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this franchise so do get in touch.
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