‘Insidious’ a cut above the usual horror

Director: James Wan

Cast: Patrick Wilson, Ty Simkins, Rose Byrne

A horror film that doesn’t stray from the conventional backcloth of the perfect family moving into a new, darkly spooky home, the young son who suddenly starts speaking in tongues and things that go bump in the night.

And yet this is a superior horror story, less blood-splattered and stomach-churning than many of the recent fright flicks.

Its strengths lie in strongly drawn characters and a script that knows when to build up the tension and when to leave the fear factor to the audience.

Wilson and Byrne play Josh and Renai, the happily married couple who move into their new home only to find young son Dalton (Simkins) has caught a severe dose of the demented what with the tongues and the como and the slamming doors with nobody behind them … can they save him from a slide into the strange and frightening world of The Further?

Conventional, certainly … but this delivers much more than your average demented child chiller.

Star Rating: 4/5