Insidious - Unscary..ous

Insidious. The posters, which we've all seen, have an evil looking boy on the front who has writing in his eyeballs. It says 'Insidious' in the left and 'is' in the right. Underneath is the tag line 'It's not the house that's haunted.' ....Insidious is what? I ask!

I still don't know what this poster is on about, am I missing something?

The title sequence featured a black and white tour of each room in 'the house' accompanied with a dark but simple piano score. It whispered in my ear promises of a continuous spooky atmosphere and seductive cinematography.

We are introduced to a family who have recently moved into our newly acquainted title sequence house. There isn't much in terms of character development before the narrative catalyst event. Dalton, the youngest son doesn't wake up one day. The parents find out that Dalton is in an unexplained coma.

Up to this point the movie leans towards the idea that he might become evil or possessed and start doing some freaky shit. But no, this isn't what happens. It's not as obvious as you think, which some people are probably thankful for. It turns out that he wandered off somewhere in his sleep and now his subconscious mind is being held hostage by a demon. Ok...so are you really happy with it not being obvious now?

My fright meter was unfortunately not satisfied enough...I don't know, maybe this is just because I am a fearless hero. Maybe it's different for civilians like yourself. It just came across as one of those horror films that is perfect for thirteen year olds to watch at a sleepover in order to scare themselves silly and show off about it the next day at school.

You're probably thinking right now that I must be one of those people who prefers gore horror to the psychological sub-genre. Well, you are incorrect. There are the odd scares in the movie which I enjoyed, I would have liked to have seen more spirits and had less of the demon talk.

And what was with the Darth Maul demon-lookalike? I was half expecting to see Darth Sidious pop by in demon land seeing as his name is in the title.


Considering this film seems to be about demon land 'The Further', I would have loved to have seen more of it. There was potential for some of those promises I had been given in the beginning to have finally been granted. But no, this is why I am not satisfied, even the climax of the film was weak. If Insidious had been a potential mate it would have been rubbish in bed. The end.

If you like this film WonderOri recommends: Sinister, Paranormal Activity....Star Wars?

In the cinema no-one can hear you...

It all began with a scream over 911...apparently.

We all remember the days when we used to go around asking people what their favourite scary movie was, you couldn't go out at Halloween without seeing at least one Ghostface.

Ten years have passed since Sidney last visited her hometown Woodsboro. As soon as she's back not even one day passes before Ghostface is after her again.

The thing I love about the Scream franchise has always been attitude and irony, which the new installment, Scre4m is definitely not lacking in.

"What's a four letter word for courage?" One policeman asks whilst doing his crossword. "Guts." Replies the other.


There are brilliant moments in the film. I realised at one point the tension had made my shoulders raise up so high that I looked like I had no neck. Then a few minutes later I was spraying my popcorn all over the place from laughter.

We are reminded of the 'rules' behind horror movies (luckily there's a movie geek to fill us in, although he's not Randy!...I mean, Randy the character from the previous Scream movies). However, Ghostface isn't playing by the rules this time and recreates some of the previous murders. Literally, people can say 'Be right back' and sure enough, they come back unharmed!

The film doesn't stray far from the original, but adds aspects of modern day life. Needless to say iPhones, Facebook, Twitter and webcams are all incorporated. This is done quite subtly in places and not enough to take over the movie and ruin what it's all about. There are also countless mentions and tributes to other cult horror movies to look out for.

Having not seen Neve Campbell in anything since Scream 3, I couldn't believe how little she has aged. Considering it has been ten whole years since we last saw Sidney I was also hoping to have a bit of a background story to what she's been up to all this time, but it all seemed pretty vague and mysterious. I even expected her to suddenly bring out some legendary martial arts moves that she might have learnt whilst she was away so she was prepared to kick some Ghostface butt.

Dewey and Gale (David Arquette and Courtney Cox) returned as the other two 'originals'. Their relationship was rocky in the movie and I'm sure I'm not the only one who couldn't help but sense that the tension between them was a bit too realistic.

Along with the three originals making their appearances, Ghostface was also voiced by the same actor as in the first three movies (Roger L. Jackson). It sounded completely different to me, it was like the transition from Christian Bale's voice in Batman Begins to Dark Knight.

I am more than certain there will be another addition to the Scream franchise in the next couple of years, I can only hope Arquette and Cox will both opt in, and it had better not be named 5cream. Otherwise I will ask for a ticket to see Five Cream. And I can't wait to see the look on Sidney's face when the next Ghostface turns up. Let's hope she never puts two and two together and leaves Woodsboro for good!