A couple of weeks ago I was scanning Project Free TV for good horror flicks I’d never seen and soon found the 2011 supernatural horror movie Insidious. Given the mostly positive reviews and the potentially creepy supernatural subject matter of Insidious, I was rather surprised I hadn’t heard of it before, even though I don’t track the big screen like I used to due to budgetary constraints. Here’s the lowdown on Insidious, hopefully sufficient to help you decide if it’s a horror movie for you.
Country: U.S. – April 2011 Director: James Wan Horror themes: Haunting, intruders, coma, astral projection, paranormal investigation Verdict: 65/100… A good horror film Official trailer:Insidious movie trailer at IMDb
Brief synopsis of Insidious
A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
Synopsis of Insidious
Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) and their three kids just moved into a new house. As son Dalton is playing, he has a scare in the attic; when he cannot be awoken the next morning, he is rushed to the hospital where they learn Dalton is in an unexplained coma. Three months later and still in a coma, they bring Dalton home to care for him there. Escalating paranormal events occur and they end up moving to a new house – but this proves fruitless, as increasingly violent and supernatural events occur again. Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey) contacts a friend of hers, Elise Reiner (Lin Shaye), a paranormal investigator. But can she discover the root problem and restore normalcy to the Lambert family?
My thoughts about Insidious
I watched Insidious a couple of days ago and I thought it was significantly better than the average horror movie. The cast performed superbly.
Resources: Insidious, 2011 supernatural horror film
Synopsis of The Haunting of Helen Walker
Helen Walker, a young American woman, is hired as a governess for two English children, a boy and a girl, whose parents are dead. The children live with their many servants in an old English mansion. Gradually Helen notices the weird behaviour of the children and finds out that some strange events from the past seem to be haunting the present and concentrating on the children…
Country: Britain Director:Jack Clayton Verdict: 85/100… Excellent, chilling horror classic
Until now, I’d found it rather unlikely that I could be creeped out by a so-called horror movie as old as 1961… Not that I think that pre-70s horror always fails to be frightful; I was scared half to death on more than one occasion by Twilight Zone episodes and the like. But now, at age 42, I am a bona-fide horror movie junkie – I have a real addiction to movies featuring those things that go bump in the night – and as such, sometimes I feel a bit jaded. Well, suffice to say that 1961′s The Innocents retains its creepiness, even today.
The Innocents, 1961 horror: Scariest scene (2:46, YouTube)
Plot summary of The Innocents
In late 19th century England, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) becomes governess of Flora, a young, orphaned girl living in a lonely stately gothic mansion inhabited only by the child, the housekeeper, Ms. Grose (Megs Jenkins), along with a small contingent of servants. Her initial misgivings allayed by the child’s angelic nature, her anxieties are once more aroused when the girl’s brother, Miles – equally captivating, but oddly clever and flirtatious for such a young boy – is sent home from boarding school for serious misbehavior of an unknown sort.
Eerie apparitions and inexplicable behavior on the children’s part cause her to wonder about the house’s history, especially about the fate of the previous governess, Miss Jessel and the former valet, Peter Quint (Peter Wyngarde). She fears for the children’s souls and for her own sanity. Miss Giddens comes to believe that the spirits of Jessel and Quint are possessing the children. Convinced that there is an unnatural force at work, perverting the innocence of her charges, she sets out to secure the children’s salvation by wresting them from its power. Though her struggle reaches a resolution of sorts, the real nature and outcome the the clash ultimately remains ambiguous, as intended by the film’s director.
The Innocents, 1961 horror: Scary scenes (9:36, YouTube)
Miles’ poem from The Innocents
This was the poem recited by Miles, the young boy in the psychological horror film The Innocents. It’s beautiful and even more than that, it’s creepy as hell. . . you simply must watch The Innocents to receive the full effect of the poem. (Thanks to YouTube and embedded HTML code, you can watch it here, now – just scroll down a bit…)
At first, the governess is smiling, impressed at the cute little boy reciting this poem; however, by poem’s end, she’s no longer smiling. . .
What shall I sing to my lord from my window?
What shall I sing, for my lord will not stay?
What shall I sing, for my lord will not listen?
Where shall I go, for my lord is away?
Whom shall I love when the moon is arisen?
Gone is my lord, and the grave is his prison.
What shall I say when my lord comes a-calling?
What shall I say when he knocks on my door?
What shall I say when his feet enter softly, Leaving the marks of his grave on my floor?
Enter my lord, come from your prison. Come from your grave, for the moon is arisen.
[Whispers]: Welcome, my lord…
The Innocents, 1961: Miles recites creepy poem (1:13, YouTube)
Psychological horror, supernatural horror – or both?
It’s my take that The Innocents is both psychological horror and supernatural horror – that is, I believe the 1961 film does include a legitimate haunting, that the ghosts were there – not just in the mind of the governess. However, I think it is important to note that the film was designed to require the viewer to make his or her own interpretation on this.
Resources: The Innocents, 1961 gothic supernatural horror film
retains its creepiness, even today.