The Lambert's seem like your everyday family, fun loving and full of the joys of life. Things start to take a strange turn when one the day the young son Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins) has an inexplicable experience whilst in the attic of the house. Shrugging it down to an over active imagination, the parents Josh and Renai (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) put Dalton to bed, confident that all is fine. Of course it's not, the next morning Dalton is in a coma, a coma that the doctors can't explain. Desperate to get their son back they end up enlisting the help of a psychic named Elise (Lin Shaye). It turns out Dalton is in an ethereal place named The Further, where the dark ones dwell. With time running out it's up to the family to find a way to get him back as soon as possible.

OK hands up, who's been watching Poltergeist? No seriously, even though the premise of Insidious is very similar to Poltergeist, the way the movie is executed is very different. Insidious is a serious horror, it's designed to freak you out and it'll tear the heart clean out of your beating chest. If you can get into it, there are moments where it'll feel like this is actually happening. The main 'bad guy' (who looks a bit like Darth Maul), is wonderfully portrayed and he does make for a very foreboding image indeed. There are numerous entities in this flick and each one is unnerving in their own way.

The general acting quality is solid, Lin Shaye puts in her usual great performance as the psychic Elise. The married couple Josh and Renai are also well acted out. The frustration and desperation of their situation is fleshed out well and you genuinely can't help but feel for them. Great stuff.

Insidious is a scary movie, we've covered that but it may be worth pointing out that it's not a particularly gory one. There is virtually zero gore in this flick at all, so bare this in mind all you gore hounds. Special effects are relatively minimal but what's there is done well.

To conclude i think Insidious is a great horror flick, one of the best supernatural movies i've seen in a while for a matter of fact. Certainly anyone wanting to catch a flick in the vein of Poltergeist could do much worse than going to see this. Thoroughly recommended.

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