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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 05/14/2011 : 19:14:14
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Yes, there are a couple of good things in this low-rent unhorrorble film. First is the camerawork team who deliver some superbly confident framing and a marvelous facility to slip almost unnoticed from clarity to deliberate fog; and the crisp editing, also by a duo, one of whom is director James Wan himself.
As for the rest, it's a watchable jaunt that borrows much from lotsa horror films before it - and I ain't talking homage.
The two little boys are fine, Barbara Hershey doesn't overact, and Lin Shaye as a not-quite-medium is suitably business like. The main relationship between Patrick Wilson and Rosie Byrne as a couple whose lives become haunted in an unexpected and equally implausable way, can't find enough in the script to expand on their one-and-a-half-note performances.
There are a couple of scenes where you think they might --- but they don't. So the wished for lightening of the mood between the darknesses is left to the medium's sidekicks - one of whom is writer Leigh Wannell. Shame - I could have used some good laughs.
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damalc 
"last watched: Sausage Party"
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Posted - 05/16/2011 : 16:30:44
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I got a couple of good jumps out of "Insidious." It's clearly the child of "Poltergeist" and "Paranormal Activity."
A couple of things hurt it for me, though. It looked cheap at times, and Patrick Wilson was unconvincing. Overall, I'd say it's worth seeing if you dig horror.
Hey! Wasn't that Darth Maul? |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 08/20/2011 : 21:37:54
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Dumb and patronizing: the "musical score" emphasizes the flick's numerous and repetitive "shocks" as if we weren't able to make them out ourselves. ["Get it? Get it?"] Absolutely nothing new, except for the missing stage-blood budget item you might expect from the SAW team.
John Carpenter once said that it's easy to startle an audience: just roll some black leader, cut in a frame of white and a loud noise, and people will jump. That's all this film's got, again and again, first-week film student stuff, beginning with the frickin main title! Yes, it can startle. But it doesn't know how to scare. |
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Insidious
