Insidious Blu-ray review

            Insidious banks heavily on the success of Paranormal Activity, hoping to scare audiences with a lot of flash and little substance. It is a film far more frightening when there are no attempts to explain the paranormal occurrences, but once the truth about the plot is revealed there is little left to be scared of. It seems to me that the unexplained is far more likely to send shivers down the audience’s spine, but when that gives way to traditional Hollywood storyline, the film has nothing but jump scares left for the audiences.

            Writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan were the team behind the creation of the Saw franchise, and once again they show that they have a working knowledge of what is frightening and unsettling in film. This does not necessarily always coincide with good filmmaking, but it has all of the expected elements from the genre. Rarely are they able to reach any deeper than surface, but this is yet another fun and mindless horror viewing experience. They jumped on the gore porn bandwagon, and now that haunted house films are back in popularity, they went ahead and made one of those as well. The way they make films seems more determined by the success rate than it does any place of true creativity.

            There are some frightening images amongst the expected scenarios in this ghost story of sorts, until the end when it goes a bit too far with its imagination. It involves a family with a son in a coma, and a house that seems haunted. When experts are brought in to determined the cause of the paranormal activity, the family discovers that it isn’t the house which is haunted.

            The Blu-ray allows for a high definition experience, which essentially just means loud and clear soundtrack and a visually enhanced perception of the frightening images. There are some unforgettable images within the film, which is altogether much more forgettable. The Blu-ray special features also include a featurette which gives a short seminar on the horror film, as done by Wan and Whannell. There is also an on-set featurette and a featurette on the ghosts.