Insidious

Fred Pytl's residential monster cabaret with an elephant grandmother, a gerontophilic bride, a necrophile metal-head and the pedophile devil Bertík. On earth it is possible, in the astral plane it is astral garbage filmed as a Saturday television party with a Vampire and its grave sewers. The scariest part of this is the number of non-flowing dialogues, from which Bela Lugosi would also grow old. (15/04/2013)

Wan is a scholarly student of all the genre textbooks and manuals, which is fine on the one hand because then he can afford to subvert Paranormal Activity in two or three scenes. On the other hand, he doesn't bring us anything new, so when Whannell shoots it down (again) with his script, it runs out of steam. The self-ironic insert with the arrival of the "ghostbuster" duo still works, but the exorcism scene sends it down the drain. The second half was obviously not meant to be scary, but as a bizarre trip to another world, it is actually too tame, meaning that any positive impressions disappear as quickly as the flash of a camera. This is especially true when you guess the point halfway through the film. 3 ½. (06/09/2011)

The introduction of the movie did not really excite me. The teacher, who has so much work at school that he cannot be at home, did not sit well with me and the film did not make things easier for me. Simply just a person sitting in the classroom doing nothing. If he didn't have work, it would turn out the same, just as if he were doing something else. The fact that the main character of the film "Sinister" was a writer became the driving force of the plot. I generally didn't connect with the characters, but I also had to accept that there were no new ideas here. Maybe if I had seen the movie "Insidious" before the horror film "Sinister," I would have a different perspective, but like this, it just became another supernatural film for me, which brought primarily a new mythology, a new world in which it is possible to continue. It is somewhat similar to "Paranormal Activity," but fortunately, it didn't try to be a handheld camera, which I definitely understand as a plus. Illogical behavior and predictable scares are completely normal, but here, the illogical actions bothered me a bit. Especially in the first half, it was evident that it was mainly about the effect, the script, and not about a genuine effort to get as close as possible to the real world. However, I must positively evaluate the ghosts and demons; they look good. "Insidious" deserves an above-average rating, but it is definitely not the blockbuster I expected. (19/11/2013)

As long as Wan sticks to classic waters, it’s nothing miraculous, but it works. But as soon as he strays into uncharted, astral waters, everything goes up the pipes, because everything suddenly turns so dumb and ridiculous that there is no room for atmosphere or tension; which of course I expect, when watching similar genre movies at three in the morning with the volume on full. (26/06/2011)

Nowadays, James Wan is a horror movie god. It’s just a shame that when I saw Insidious, he started going around saying that he already has enough horror movies in his portfolio and that he’d love to focus on other genres. Because he just makes great horrors. He can do amazing jumpscares, he can create an absolutely magnificent atmosphere and the best of all, he keeps paying homage to other people in his industry. It’s obvious that movies are a great hobby of his. And even though I’m “only” giving this movie three stars, it’s still a movie that had everything a proper horror should. The story itself just didn’t sit right with me. But it got on a pretty good road in the sequel. (07/05/2014)