2nd Personal Film Review- Insidious

FILM TITLE: Insidious
YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 2010
GENRE/GENRES: Supernatural Horror
DIRECTOR: James Wan

Brief Plot Outline
The film begins with the Lambert family happily enjoying their new house and making it into a home. The family consists of Renai, Josh, Dalton, Foster and Cali.  While the eldest son Dalton is exploring the attic, he slips and falls from a ladder. The next morning, it is believed that he has fallen into a coma but the doctor says that he has never seen anything like it and can’t explain what has happened to the child. Three months later, Dalton has not reacted to any treatment and so he is taken home. The return of Dalton seems to cause supernatural activity around the house, terrifying the mother Renai. After she is attacked by some kind of paranormal being, she pleads to her husband that they move house and he agrees. However, at the new house these events still occur and the family still seem to be haunted. Josh’s mother reveals that she knows of someone who can help and so they decide to call paranormal investigators. The paranormal investigator called Elise searches around the house and comes to the conclusion that it is not the house that it haunted, it is the boy. She believes that his spirit has entered another world called ‘the Further’ and is lost and can’t find his way home and a number of entities are trying to steal Dalton’s body so that they can live again. At first, Josh dismisses this and sends the investigators away but soon realises he needs to save his son. Josh’s mother reveals that when Josh was a child, he experienced the same thing and visited the other world himself. Elise helped Josh at this time and so knows how to deal with it, and says the only way for Dalton to be saved is for Josh to enter the other world and bring him back. Josh does this with success but it is implied at the end that Josh was possessed by an entity while he was away from his body. The film fits Todorov’s narrative theory right up until the end, where it merges the new equilibrium of the restored happy family with another possible disruption.

Which two scenes impressed you the most? Why?

The scene which impressed me the most was when one of the paranormal investigators was taking pictures of where he thought an entity was and it was shot from the point of view of the camera so as he was taking each image which was a different colour. The screen would turn black to show the shutter effect and on one of the photographs he captured and there was an entity in the background. I really liked this scene because the build-up that was created when he was taking the pictures was very intense and I found that I was on the edge of my seat waiting for something to happen. Also, I really liked the fact that we were restricted to the point of view of the camera which adds tension and suspense to the scene as well as making us feel a part of the experience.
     Another scene which impressed me was when Elise was communicating with the other world and was talking to Dalton, and the demon possessed the boy and started attacking the characters. While this was happening, there was strobe lighting being created from the cameras around the room which added to the panic within the scene. I particularly enjoyed this scene because it was so unexpected and it felt like you were there in the room with the characters. I really liked how the scene was filmed and how they used fast paced editing to create the manic mood. It was filmed so well that even though it was mostly an action sequence, the tension and suspense was still present as we have no idea or indication as to what will happen next.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of filmmaking? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? When? How?
Watching this film has helped me to understand the making of horror films because it has shown me how important editing is in this genre, and how you need to use tense music and sound effects in order to create fear. You also need collision cutting to make the audience jump. Almost every single jump scare has a loud, dramatic sound effect edited into the scene which makes you jump more than a poorly edited scene would. I have realised that if I wanted to make my horror film a film with jump-scares in; I would have to be very careful but successful with editing otherwise it will not have the same effect.
     While watching this film, I noticed a number of the features from the genre checklist that were included. The characters were not the typical expectations and the only one that was obvious was the male hero, which would be the father as he saves his family from the entities. However, with a supernatural horror you don’t need the characters to fit the expectations in order for the film to work because that isn’t what the focus is on.
     The film was set in an enclosed creepy location which fits the mise-en-scene conventions. The house that the family moved into was an old, Victorian-style suburban house and had a creepy and mysterious mood to it. When Josh was in the other world, the house was filled with smoke and different lighting which made it seem more enclosed and creepy.

     Throughout the film, low key lighting was definitely a feature and not many ceiling lights were used. More often than not, the only light source was the lamps placed around the house. This created a very mysterious mood in the house which not only made the atmosphere more intense, but created a sinister mood compared to if it was well lit.
     The music used in this film was parallel and fit with the genre. An example of this was in the opening credits. While the camera was panning around the house and establishing the setting, chilling music was playing which foreshadows that the unnerving events occur in this house.
     Quick montage sequences were used when the entities attacked the characters in the scene after Elise was communicating with the other world and made the scene more powerful and gripping. It makes the audience feel like part of the experience in the sense that you can’t quite piece together everything that is happening because so much is going on.
     When Josh was walking into the other world, a slow montage was used and the scene was slowed down as well as being edited together with the sound of a heartbeat which resulted in an anticipating and tense scene which was the beginning of Josh’s journey to find his son.
     Collision cutting was used quite a lot in this film and was used extremely effectively. All of the jump scares were effective due to the fact that they went so drastically from quiet to loud. The loud, dramatic, deep sounds were added to the surprise of seeing something appear in the room to create a very shocking jump scare. An example of effective collision cutting in this film is when Renai could hear a whisper from the baby monitor and all of a sudden the voice shouted and shrieked which was followed by a theatrical loud sound effect.
     Close ups were frequently used to portray the emotion of the characters and how they were feeling about the different events in the film. My personal favourite close up is when the father is attempting to travel to the other world and the camera is close to his face and you can see how focused and determined he is to find and save his son which to me was a very powerful moment in the film. It also showed the connection between the father and son and also showed how Josh was determined to stop the entities as he had experienced similar events in his childhood.
     Expressionist angles were used to show power between the characters in this film. My favourite example of this was when Elise was looking at the demon on the ceiling and describing it to her colleague. The camera angle was a high angle and it implied that the demon had substantial power over Elise because there was little she could do to stop him from possessing the child.

     The main theme of this film was the threat to self and family, which was shown by the fact that the rare ability to travel to other worlds had become a danger to the family involved. This not only puts the travellers themselves at risk but also puts the family in the firing line of the entities.
     The ending to this film was both unhappy and open, because Elise was killed by the presumably possessed Josh and Renai found the camera and saw the evidence of this. A hand was then placed on her shoulder and the voice of Josh is heard before Renai turns and gasps. This leaves room for a sequel to be made, which it was three years later, but also is an unhappy ending.
     The only conventional ideology that was used in this film was sadism because the demon that was trying to possess Dalton wanted to be alive for one reason only which was to cause pain and harm to others.

Which aspects of the film would you like to INCLUDE in your own trailer? Why?
Aspects of the film that I would like to include in my trailer are the jump scares because they were so dominant in this film and every single one made me jump and I found that this impressed me. I would like to use this in my trailer because I feel that collision cutting is the most effective technique to create jump scares and I enjoy the tension and trying to anticipate what is going to happen.

Which aspects of the film would you like to AVOID in your own trailer? Why?
I feel like this film went a little off track with the ‘other world’ storyline and I started to lose interest as I thought it was a bit unrealistic. I would like to keep the storyline more unique, original and unexpected. I don’t want to get carried away with the events of what will happen in my horror trailer and I’d like to avoid clichés.

What was the best aspect/more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How?

The best aspect of Insidious in my opinion was the jump scares, and I felt that they were extremely effective. This was achieved by collision cutting which I feel is the most suitable and effective way to scare the audience. This would be easy to recreate in my own horror film trailer as long as I edit loud sound effects on top of the jump scare following silence. I know I’ll have to make sure I timed everything perfectly so that it works well.

How does the film show the influence of its “auteur” director? How does it show the director’s filmmaking style and soul? Give examples of three scenes from the movie which show their auteur style.
Insidious shows the influence of James Wan by using his well-known filmmaking style of anticipation and suspense. By looking at his other well-known films such as The Conjuring, Saw, and Dead Silence it is clear that he is a “stylist” when it comes to jump scares. He loves to create tension and build up to a moment where something pops out and scares the audience. This is proven many times in Insidious but my favourite one was when Renai hears the voice whispering through the baby monitor but then all of a sudden shouts.
     James Wan has a known trademark for old style dolls. This is clear in his other films The Conjuring which includes the creepy doll ‘Annabelle’ (now made into a 2014 film with the same name) and is most clear in his 2007 film Dead Silence which is about killer ventriloquist dolls. He does not play too much on this trademark in Insidious but he hints at it with the scene with the rocking horse moving by itself.
     When James was 14 years old, his father passed away and so he didn’t exactly have the happiest childhood. This is shown through his horror films because in many of them, children are victimised and traumatized by the events in the films and his trademark of dolls is also related to childhood and by making them terrifying, he has made a negative from a positive. An example of his childhood trauma in Insidious is the scene where Renai hears her toddler crying when Josh is investigating a strange noise, and when she goes into the nursery she sees a terrifying figure standing by the crib. This indicates that the baby has been traumatized by the entity, and also the narrative centres around a young boy who is in grave danger and at risk of being possessed by demons.
     Overall I would say that James Wan has definitely used his auteur style of filmmaking and has put elements of his soul into the film.