INSIDIOUS

"It's not the house that is haunted. It's your son"

Director : James Wan
Stars : Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins
Release : April 2011
Genre : Fantasy, Horror, Thriller

A twist on the clichéd haunted house genre, the film finds teacher Josh (Patrick Wilson), pianist Renai (Rose Byrne) and their three children moving into a beautiful new abode. But while on the surface they appear to have achieved domestic bliss, there's something horribly amiss in their new home.

It begins in the harmless fashion that stories like this tend to; with books falling off shelves and possessions disappearing only to re-appear in another location. But their youngest son seems genuinely troubled by something within the building's walls; his fear compounded by a terrifying incident in the attic and culminating in the child going to bed one night and falling into an inexplicable coma.

Understandably distraught, the family rallies around their stricken son, and that's when the fun really begins. Doors mysteriously open, alarms go off for no apparent reason, the child's baby monitor spews forth ungodly sounds, and everything that can go bump in the night does.

The voice of reason, Josh refuses to believe that anything supernatural is occurring and instead avoids the issue by taking every opportunity to stay out of the house. And it's while he's at work that one of the film's spookiest sequences occurs, Renai experiencing a sustained attack in which she is terrorised and tormented by whatever forces are at work.(Chris Tilly)