Insidious (film)
Encyclopedia
Insidious is a 2011 American independent
supernatural horror film written by Leigh Whannell
, directed by James Wan
, and starring Patrick Wilson
, Rose Byrne
, Lin Shaye
, and Barbara Hershey
. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose
state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension
. The film was released in theaters on April 1, 2011. In terms of cost-to-gross ratio, it is the most profitable film of 2011.
In present day, Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne
and Patrick Wilson
) have recently moved into a new house with their three children. One morning, Renai begins looking through a family photo album with her son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins
). He asks why there are no pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy. Dalton tells Renai he is scared of his new room. One day, Dalton hears something in the attic. When he goes to investigate he sees something off screen that scares him and takes a fall when the attic ladder breaks. The next day Josh goes to wake Dalton, but he does not move. They rush him to the hospital where the doctors say he is in an unexplained coma
.
Three months later Dalton is moved home, still in the coma. Disturbing events begin to occur. Renai believes the house is haunted when she begins to see and hear people in the house. She confronts Josh about the events and the family soon moves to another house. In the new house, increasingly violent and supernatural events begin to happen again. Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey
), contacts a friend, Elise Reiner (Lin Shaye
), who deals with paranormal
activities. The family, Elise, and her team go into Dalton's room. There, Elise sees and describes a figure to one of her two assistants, who draws a black figure with a red face and dark hollow eyes.
Elise explains to Renai and Josh of Dalton's ability to astral project
while sleeping, but has wandered too far in the 'further' to find his way back in to his physical body, which is susceptible to possession from any other spirits. Skeptical at first, Josh later relents when he discovers Dalton had been drawing pictures which resemble the demonic figure Elise described. Elise and Lorraine reveal to the couple that Josh also can astral project, and was terrorized by a terrifying spirit during his childhood. Josh's mother shows them pictures from Josh's childhood, revealing a shadowy old woman nearer and nearer to Josh in each picture. Elise suggests that Josh should use his ability to find and help return Dalton's soul. Josh agrees. Barely guided by Elise, who spends most of the scene silently--and uselessly--quavering in front of Josh's body without giving any instruction at all, Josh projects himself into the further and finds and frees his son who is captured and held by the red-faced demon. In search of their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demon who pursues them. Just before the two awaken, Josh abandons his son in order to confront the shadowy old woman who appears to be inside his house, along with several other spirits, even though he and his son were frantically fleeing the red-faced demon. As he shouts for her to get away from him, she retreats into the darkness. Moments later, Josh awakens, as does Dalton, just as all the spirits vanish.
With the family now happily reunited, Renai and Dalton and Josh's mother happily chat in the kitchen as Elise and Josh pack up from the long night. Elise senses something and takes a picture of Josh on her digital camera. He then goes into a rage, claiming she knows that he doesn't like to get photographed. Renai hears a scuffle and comes into the room to find Elise dead and Josh missing. She begins to run frantically about the house searching for Josh, and picks up Elise's camera. The old woman soul has inhabited Josh as shown in the picture taken by Elise before he attacked her. Just then, Josh puts his hand on Renai's shoulder. As Renai turns to face him, blackout.
was written by Leigh Whannell
, and the film was directed by James Wan
. Whannell stated that while writing the film he was inspired by Dario Argento
movies, and Wan also said his use of color schemes in the film, particularly the prominence of red, was influenced by Argento as well. The film was shot in Los Angeles in early 2010. The film was originally called The Further. This name was then changed to The Astral, before the name Insidious was eventually settled on. The film was shown at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
.
reports that 67% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 155 reviews, with an average score of 6.0. The critical consensus is: "Aside from a shaky final act, Insidious is a very scary and very fun haunted house thrill ride."
Roger Ebert
gave the movie 2 1/2 stars out of 4 saying "It depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread. This one is not terrifically good, but moviegoers will get what they're expecting."
A number of negative reviews reported that the second half of the film did not match the development of the first. Mike Hale of The New York Times
wrote that "the strongest analogue for the second half of Insidious is one that the filmmakers probably weren’t trying for: it feels like a less poetic version of an M. Night Shyamalan
fairy tale." Similarly, James Berardinelli
commented, "[i]f there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half." Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe
wrote that "[t]he film begins with promise" but "[t]he crazy train of Insidious runs fully off the rails when the filmmakers go logical and some of the strange gets explained away as a double shot of demonic possession and astral projection."
Positive reviews have focused on the filmmakers' ability to build suspense. John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal
explains "[w]hat makes a movie scary isn't what jumps out of the closet. It's what might jump out of the closet. The blood, the gore and the noise of so many fright films miss the horrifying point: Movie watchers are far more convinced, instinctively, that what we don't know will most assuredly hurt us... Insidious establishes that these folks can make a film that operates on an entirely different level, sans gore, or obvious gimmicks. And make flesh crawl." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune
wrote: "director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell admire all sorts of fright, from the blatant to the insidiously subtle. This one lies at an effective halfway point between those extremes." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
commented: "Here's a better-than-average spook house movie, mostly because Insidious decides it can haunt an audience without spraying it with blood." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press
stated: "Insidious is the kind of movie you could watch with your eyes closed and still feel engrossed by it. It's a haunted-house thriller filled with all the usual creaking doors, groaning floors and things that go bump in the night, but it'll also grab you with some disturbing, raspy whispers on a baby monitor, a few melancholy piano plunkings and the panicky bleating of an alarm as a front door is mysteriously flung open in the middle of the night."
" (1968)
Ludovico Einaudi - "Nuvole Bianche" (2004)
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
supernatural horror film written by Leigh Whannell
Leigh Whannell
Leigh Whannell is an Australian screenwriter, producer, and actor, best known for his work on the Saw franchise.-Life and career:...
, directed by James Wan
James Wan
James Wan is a Malaysian-born Australian producer, screenwriter, and film director of Chinese heritage. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw and creating Billy the puppet. He also directed Dead Silence, Death Sentence and Insidious.-Life and career:Wan was born in Kuching, Sarawak,...
, and starring Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (actor)
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
, Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
, Lin Shaye
Lin Shaye
Linda "Lin" Shaye is an American film, theatre and television actress.-Early life:Born in Detroit, Michigan, Shaye is the daughter of Dorothy , a homemaker, and Max Mendle Shaye, a painter and supermarket owner. Her brother is film executive Robert Shaye...
, and Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension
Astral plane
The astral plane, also called the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical , medieval, oriental and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions...
. The film was released in theaters on April 1, 2011. In terms of cost-to-gross ratio, it is the most profitable film of 2011.
Plot
During the first scene of the movie, an old ghostly woman is seen lurking in a house corridor while a young Josh is sleeping in his room.In present day, Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne
Rose Byrne
Mary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
and Patrick Wilson
Patrick Wilson (actor)
Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
) have recently moved into a new house with their three children. One morning, Renai begins looking through a family photo album with her son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins
Ty Simpkins
Ty Keegan Simpkins is an American child actor.-Life and career:Simpkins was born in New York City. He first appeared on TV when he was three weeks old. His first role was on One Life to Live where he shared the recurring role as John "Jack" Cramer...
). He asks why there are no pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy. Dalton tells Renai he is scared of his new room. One day, Dalton hears something in the attic. When he goes to investigate he sees something off screen that scares him and takes a fall when the attic ladder breaks. The next day Josh goes to wake Dalton, but he does not move. They rush him to the hospital where the doctors say he is in an unexplained coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
.
Three months later Dalton is moved home, still in the coma. Disturbing events begin to occur. Renai believes the house is haunted when she begins to see and hear people in the house. She confronts Josh about the events and the family soon moves to another house. In the new house, increasingly violent and supernatural events begin to happen again. Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey
Barbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
), contacts a friend, Elise Reiner (Lin Shaye
Lin Shaye
Linda "Lin" Shaye is an American film, theatre and television actress.-Early life:Born in Detroit, Michigan, Shaye is the daughter of Dorothy , a homemaker, and Max Mendle Shaye, a painter and supermarket owner. Her brother is film executive Robert Shaye...
), who deals with paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
activities. The family, Elise, and her team go into Dalton's room. There, Elise sees and describes a figure to one of her two assistants, who draws a black figure with a red face and dark hollow eyes.
Elise explains to Renai and Josh of Dalton's ability to astral project
Astral projection
Astral projection is an interpretation of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it...
while sleeping, but has wandered too far in the 'further' to find his way back in to his physical body, which is susceptible to possession from any other spirits. Skeptical at first, Josh later relents when he discovers Dalton had been drawing pictures which resemble the demonic figure Elise described. Elise and Lorraine reveal to the couple that Josh also can astral project, and was terrorized by a terrifying spirit during his childhood. Josh's mother shows them pictures from Josh's childhood, revealing a shadowy old woman nearer and nearer to Josh in each picture. Elise suggests that Josh should use his ability to find and help return Dalton's soul. Josh agrees. Barely guided by Elise, who spends most of the scene silently--and uselessly--quavering in front of Josh's body without giving any instruction at all, Josh projects himself into the further and finds and frees his son who is captured and held by the red-faced demon. In search of their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demon who pursues them. Just before the two awaken, Josh abandons his son in order to confront the shadowy old woman who appears to be inside his house, along with several other spirits, even though he and his son were frantically fleeing the red-faced demon. As he shouts for her to get away from him, she retreats into the darkness. Moments later, Josh awakens, as does Dalton, just as all the spirits vanish.
With the family now happily reunited, Renai and Dalton and Josh's mother happily chat in the kitchen as Elise and Josh pack up from the long night. Elise senses something and takes a picture of Josh on her digital camera. He then goes into a rage, claiming she knows that he doesn't like to get photographed. Renai hears a scuffle and comes into the room to find Elise dead and Josh missing. She begins to run frantically about the house searching for Josh, and picks up Elise's camera. The old woman soul has inhabited Josh as shown in the picture taken by Elise before he attacked her. Just then, Josh puts his hand on Renai's shoulder. As Renai turns to face him, blackout.
Cast
- Patrick WilsonPatrick Wilson (actor)Patrick Joseph Wilson is an American actor and singer. Wilson has spent years singing lead roles in major Broadway musicals, beginning in 1996. In 2003, he appeared in the HBO mini-series Angels in America...
as Josh Lambert - Rose ByrneRose ByrneMary Rose Byrne is an Australian actress.Byrne made her screen debut in 1994 with a small role in the film Dallas Doll...
as Renai Lambert - Barbara HersheyBarbara HersheyBarbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
as Lorraine Lambert - Ty SimpkinsTy SimpkinsTy Keegan Simpkins is an American child actor.-Life and career:Simpkins was born in New York City. He first appeared on TV when he was three weeks old. His first role was on One Life to Live where he shared the recurring role as John "Jack" Cramer...
as Dalton Lambert - Lin ShayeLin ShayeLinda "Lin" Shaye is an American film, theatre and television actress.-Early life:Born in Detroit, Michigan, Shaye is the daughter of Dorothy , a homemaker, and Max Mendle Shaye, a painter and supermarket owner. Her brother is film executive Robert Shaye...
as Elise Reiner - Leigh WhannellLeigh WhannellLeigh Whannell is an Australian screenwriter, producer, and actor, best known for his work on the Saw franchise.-Life and career:...
as Specs - Andrew AstorAndrew AstorAndrew Astor is an American child actor. He is most famous for his roles in The Hangover as Eli Wenneck, in Dirty Sexy Money as Robert Darling, and in Criminal Minds as the younger version of Matthew Gray Gubler's character, Spencer Reid.-Personal life:Andrew Astor was born on June 7, 2000 in...
as Foster Lambert - Angus SampsonAngus SampsonAngus Murray Lincoln Sampson is an Australian actor, voice-over artist, director and writer based in Los Angeles and Melbourne.-Early life:Sampson was born in Sydney, Australia. A former ward of the state, he was educated at the Trinity Grammar School in Sydney prior to winning a place at The...
as Tucker - Jeannette Sousa as Dr. Trimble
- Chelsea Tavares as Terri
- Philip Friedman as The Old Woman
- Joseph Bishara as Lipstick-Faced Demon
- J. LaRose as Long-Haired Fiend
- Kelly DeVoto as Doll Girl #1
- Corbett Tuck as Nurse Adelle / Doll Girl #2
Production
The screenplayScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by Leigh Whannell
Leigh Whannell
Leigh Whannell is an Australian screenwriter, producer, and actor, best known for his work on the Saw franchise.-Life and career:...
, and the film was directed by James Wan
James Wan
James Wan is a Malaysian-born Australian producer, screenwriter, and film director of Chinese heritage. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw and creating Billy the puppet. He also directed Dead Silence, Death Sentence and Insidious.-Life and career:Wan was born in Kuching, Sarawak,...
. Whannell stated that while writing the film he was inspired by Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento is an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, particularly in the subgenre known as giallo, and for his influence on modern horror and slasher movies....
movies, and Wan also said his use of color schemes in the film, particularly the prominence of red, was influenced by Argento as well. The film was shot in Los Angeles in early 2010. The film was originally called The Further. This name was then changed to The Astral, before the name Insidious was eventually settled on. The film was shown at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
.
Reception
Insidious has received generally positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 67% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 155 reviews, with an average score of 6.0. The critical consensus is: "Aside from a shaky final act, Insidious is a very scary and very fun haunted house thrill ride."
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the movie 2 1/2 stars out of 4 saying "It depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread. This one is not terrifically good, but moviegoers will get what they're expecting."
A number of negative reviews reported that the second half of the film did not match the development of the first. Mike Hale of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote that "the strongest analogue for the second half of Insidious is one that the filmmakers probably weren’t trying for: it feels like a less poetic version of an M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan
Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan,known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-born American screenwriter, film director, and producer known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots that climax with a twist ending. He is also known for filming his movies in and around...
fairy tale." Similarly, James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
commented, "[i]f there's a complaint to be made about Insidious, it's that the film's second half is unable to live up to the impossibly high standards set by the first half." Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
wrote that "[t]he film begins with promise" but "[t]he crazy train of Insidious runs fully off the rails when the filmmakers go logical and some of the strange gets explained away as a double shot of demonic possession and astral projection."
Positive reviews have focused on the filmmakers' ability to build suspense. John Anderson of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
explains "[w]hat makes a movie scary isn't what jumps out of the closet. It's what might jump out of the closet. The blood, the gore and the noise of so many fright films miss the horrifying point: Movie watchers are far more convinced, instinctively, that what we don't know will most assuredly hurt us... Insidious establishes that these folks can make a film that operates on an entirely different level, sans gore, or obvious gimmicks. And make flesh crawl." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
wrote: "director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell admire all sorts of fright, from the blatant to the insidiously subtle. This one lies at an effective halfway point between those extremes." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
commented: "Here's a better-than-average spook house movie, mostly because Insidious decides it can haunt an audience without spraying it with blood." Christy Lemire of the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
stated: "Insidious is the kind of movie you could watch with your eyes closed and still feel engrossed by it. It's a haunted-house thriller filled with all the usual creaking doors, groaning floors and things that go bump in the night, but it'll also grab you with some disturbing, raspy whispers on a baby monitor, a few melancholy piano plunkings and the panicky bleating of an alarm as a front door is mysteriously flung open in the middle of the night."
Box office
The film opened with $13,271,464, making it #3 at the domestic box office behind Hop and Source Code. It has since grossed a total of $53.9 million domestically with another $38 million internationally- for a total of $91.9 million worldwide.Soundtracks
Tiny Tim - "Tiptoe Through the TulipsTiptoe Through the Tulips
"Tiptoe Through the Tulips" is a popular song originally published in 1929. The song was written by Al Dubin and Joe Burke .‘Crooning Troubadour’ Nick Lucas’ recording of "Tip-Toe Through The Tulips" hit the top of the charts in May 1929. The song he introduced in the 1929 musical talkie Gold...
" (1968)
Ludovico Einaudi - "Nuvole Bianche" (2004)