The other day, as movie nerds are known to do, I was thinking about who I would consider a modern day filmmaker who takes all the best elements of b-movie and exploitation fare and delivers consistently entertaining films. First and foremost on my mind was James Wan. Granted, he's been doing it on a higher-budgeted level but you can't deny how all of his movies feel like something you could've easily seen at a drive-in back in the 70's. Starting the whole franchise, and I suppose "torture porn" sub-genre, going in 2000 with the original Saw, Wan went on to helm the surprisingly decent marionette horrors of Dead Silence as well as the "Kevin Bacon gets ass-kicking revenge" that was Death Sentence.

This brings us to Insidious. Re-teaming with frequent collaborator Leigh Whannell (who wrote this as well as co-stars as 'Specs') this is a flick that seems like your standard haunted house effort only to decently mix things up by throwing in pieces of Poltergeist as well as some crazy astral projection sub-plots. It's yet more proof why I thought of him in the first place.

Insidious certainly starts off on a routine note as we're introduced to the Lambert family: dad Josh (Patrick Wilson), his wife Renai (Rose Byrne), and their two young sons. They've just moved into a new house and are absolutely in love with it. However, that's soon to change when strange, supernatural-like things start to happen that culminates with their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) lapsing into an unexplainable coma after falling from a ladder in the attic - there's no brain injury in sight. It's here that Whannell's script takes its first turn away from convention as Renai soon has seen enough creepy shit for her to freak out and insist that they move. Rather than be your regular horror movie husband who thinks his wife's seeing things, Josh does what any sensible person does and they end up moving into a new house. Thinking they've left those occurrences behind, they soon discover that it's not the house that was haunted but their comatose son.

Into the picture comes Josh's kooky mother (Barbara Hershey) who has soon recruited the even-more-kooky ghost hunting Elise (Lin Shaye) which gives Insidious it's third act as Elise and her two assistants try to get into contact with the evil in Dalton before the finale throws us for a loop and sends Josh on a rescue mission into "The Further" (an alternate dream world type of place) to take on the demons who've been holding his son captive.

Becoming a surprise hit in theatres, Insidious has quite a bit within it to like. Wan does a good job building up subtle creepiness at first (the screeching musical score helps out) and even though Shaye's character tends to be very cartoonish, especially when donning a gas mask during one of her contacts with Dalton, it never gets too over-the-top. In fact, I quite enjoyed the build-up and found that the script did do just enough different to stay interesting even if the whole finish relies too much on a CG creature and dilutes the film's moodiness somewhat - though I doubt there's been a better use of Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" tune before.

Cast to basically be the sane, logical characters in the movie; Wilson and Byrne do a decent job playing your regular, everyday couple and keep things grounded amongst all their co-stars. Meanwhile, the always busy, and genre friendly, Shaye (2001 Maniacs, Dumb & Dumber) tries to channel Zelda Rubenstein's eccentric turn as Tangina in Poltergeist and adds another off-beat character to her already lengthy resume. Hershey (The Entity) actually distracts you from things giving off such a "crazy cat lady" vibe but it's not her fault considering the script actually has the balls to stage a moment that is a flashback to one of her dreams (guess that's a first).

As genre websites and magazines continue to unleash their "Best of 2011" lists, I keep seeing this flick pop-up multiple places. I'm afraid I don't agree with that, but it does give proof that Wan and Whannell know how to craft a decent little horror movie and if you're looking for a popcorn friendly and enjoyably undemanding time then Insidious should fit that bill nicely. (Chris Hartley, 1/19/12)

Directed By: James Wan.
Written By: Leigh Whannell.

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye.