Insidious [Blu-ray]

A family moves into a new home, and spooky things start happening. Eventually they realize the truth -- they are being haunted by a malevolent supernatural force.It's a plot so common that it has become a cliche, but there is still some creative juice to be squeezed from it -- and in "Insidious," it scares the pants off you. James Wan (the guy who gave us the original "Saw" and "Dead Silence") crafts a slow, eerie drift through a ghostly nightmare, which is only flawed because sometimes it feels like he's throwing every single scary thing imaginable into it.Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) have just moved into a lovely new house with their three children, and everything seems fine.... until their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into a coma, and the doctors don't know why. Then weird things start happening -- Dalton's brother reveals that Dalton sleepwalks through the house every night, faces appear in the windows, and a mysterious specter attacks Renai.So they do the sensible thing: move to a new house. But then Josh's mother Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) spots a horrifying figure lurking near Dalton's body, and they realize that whatever was haunting them before has followed them.So Lorraine calls in an old psychic friend, Elise (Lin Shaye); Josh believes that she's just a fraud, but she soon shows that she can detect the Darth Maul-looking creature that is haunting Dalton. It turns out that Dalton's soul is lost in a spiritual in-between zone that Elise calls The Further -- and if they don't save him soon, something terrible will steal his body.In a lot of ways, "Insidious" reminds me of "Poltergeist" -- a family, a new home, a terrifying ghostly presence that is stalking a gifted child, and a parent who is forced to go into an "in between" death dimension. And like "Poltergeist," this movie takes well-worn ghost story cliches and makes them scary once more... just by doing them really well.Even before the spooky stuff begins, director James Wan gives the movie an eerie atmosphere. Every scene is full of pale grey light, with lots of empty shadowy rooms and sudden bursts of loud wild sound (including "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," which is terrifying enough). And he gives you the feeling that something is lurking in the corner just out of sight -- something cold and hungry, something utterly merciless. Even worse, it's not alone.Gradually, Wan builds up a sense of building horror, throwing in glimpses of dead-faced men, gas masks, and finally a venture into the Further itself. This is basically everything that James Wan finds terrifying -- a hellish, eerie dimension filled with the grinning puppet-like dead, victrolas piping eerie music, and a demon who looks like a Darth Maul minotaur. It doesn't sound scary, but it will have you clawing the arms of your chair.The only problem with the Further is... well, it feels like Wan flung every single scary thing he could come up with into the Further, without much of a plan. It's wildly effective on a visceral level, but it leaves you wondering how some parts of it (the laughing kid, for instance) gel together with Darth Maul Demon.Sympathetic characters in horror movies are about as common as frogs who can do algebra, so it's refreshing that... well, pretty much everybody in this movie is likable. While Josh seems insensitive at times, it's gradually revealed that there's a reason why he shies away from all things supernatural, and Patrick Wilson really gives a powerful, intense performance as a guy desperate to save his son, yet resistant to what could save him.Byrne is at the other end of the spectrum -- Renai is crumbling slowly under the constant onslaught of specters and scares, and Byrne captures her raw terror for her family. Shaye and Hershey give solid performances as well... and my only complaint is that the baby is ALWAYS crying.With excellent direction and a very talented cast, "Insidious" is a haunting ghost story that builds up to visceral, nightmarish terror -- and while the horror seems random sometimes, it's still very effective.

A film like "Insidious" makes it look easier than it is for most filmmakers. It's, at its core, an old-school ghost story done with such modern flair . . .from everything to writing, acting, casting, score, cinematography, sound, and special effects, that it leaves me to wonder why more filmmakers can't make horror films this superbly. I am a jaded horror fan. Horror fans are like drug addicts...we keep chasing the cherry high. "Insidious" by description sounds like a story we have seen a thousand times. Young couple buys first house, nice kids, lots of high hopes for the future, all of which is wrecked by a pesky haunting. "Insidious" takes these tired ingredients and gives them more than a facelift...it has set a new bar for this sub-genre. Patrick Wilson (Little Children, Hard Candy) and the lovely Rose Byrne (TV's "Damages", "Get Him to the Greek", "Knowing") star as the young, idealistic couple, Josh and Raneigh, who find themselves plunged into a nightmare when they come to believe their house is haunted and means them harm as their 7 year old son ends up in an unexplained coma after a ghost encounter. Josh's mother (played by the aging ever gracefully Barbara Hershey) brings in a psychic to investigate (another cliche), but what again, sets this apart is the panache brought to the character by Lin Shaye, a terrific character and stage actress. She believes Dalton (the little boy) is a gifted astral-projector who has ventured too far away from his body. I won't explain more so as not to spoil the twists, but the ensuing action is as terrifying as movies get. Director James Wan, who cut his teeth on the original "Saw", infuses the films with energy, tension and unbearable suspense. My heart was pounding through most of the film. Did I mention there is a rather terrifying demon lurking about the house?"Insidious" was made on a shoestring budget of only $1 million. You would never know it in looking at the value per dollar on the screen. First-rate actors, superb art direction and special effects, it looks like a $40 million film. This gave Wan tremendous freedom to make the movie he wanted to make and the results are truly unnerving. The movie has an uncommon intelligence...this is a couple that actually talks to each other and believes each other, where lesser movies hang the plot on this communication not happening. I especially liked the fact that after a few incidents at their first home, they move. This usually harkens the end of the film. Instead, to the sickening realization of our characters and we the audience, the ghosts follow them, as it is not the house which is haunted, but the boy. The characters make logical decisions making them easy to indetify with and enormously likable. It helps to have actors of Wilson and Byrne's caliber. I was riveted to this film, and if you're a fan of ghost stories, especially those which rely on atmosphere, story and suspense over blood and guts, you will be richly rewarded and long haunted even after the credits roll. This is superior film, well worth purchasing. I recommend the Bluray version strongly to see the nuanced details in the art direction and the perfect replication of the original photography. Extras are light, which is disappointing, but the film more than makes up for it.*Also available on Netflix streaming.

Astral Projection is real,but Sorcery=Satanism. Anteon Levey died in the Astral realm. The founder of the church of Satan in 1966. His silver cord(soul),got sliced through a real Christian Pastor that was praying to God and fighting for his daughter. The last words were,"Oh my,Oh my something is very wrong here. Something is very wrong here!" Were the last words he uttered. Draw your own conclusions,but I know he was seeing Judgement by God's white throne and probably being thrown into hell.

As advertised, works well