'Insidious': It's tedious and not ominous

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY

By now, we've heard it's not the house that's haunted in Insidious. But it might as well be, for how familiar this tale of creepy goings-on and malevolent beings feels.

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  Film District via AP

  It's coming from inside the house: Rose Byrne is forced to confront supernatural goings-on in her new home.

Film District via AP

It's coming from inside the house: Rose Byrne is forced to confront supernatural goings-on in her new home.

There's not much that's insidious, or subtle, here. A prolonged scene involving an unnerving high-pitched burglar alarm does get under our skin. But it's far more annoying than frightening.

Billed as a pairing of the makers of Saw and Paranormal Activity, it seems like a defanged version of both. At best, it's half a good scary movie.

Whereas Paranormal made the most innocuous things seems terrifying and Saw was uniquely gruesome, Insidious follows a predictable, plodding path.

The story feels like a one-off of Amityville Horror, with a touch of Poltergeist. Josh (Patrick Wilson), Renai (Rose Byrne) and their three children have just moved into a gorgeous Craftsman-style home. But before they even unpack, bizarre things start happening. Initially, they're only off-putting: thumps, creaky doors and once-shelved books appearing in a heap on the ground. The dread mounts when their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) inexplicably falls into a coma overnight.

Renai is increasingly rattled by the house's spooky vibe. One moment that does effectively recall Paranormal Activity is when she hears eerie whisperings on the baby monitor.

* * out of four

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Barbara Hershey
Director: James Wan
Distributor: FilmDistrict
Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, violence, terror, frightening images and brief, strong language
Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Opens Friday nationwide

Josh, a teacher, begins to keep long hours alone at school, grading papers. Strangely, an increasingly terrified Renai doesn't think to ask him to come home and grade his papers there. Not that it would do much good. Ever the skeptic, Josh simply dismisses even the supernatural events he personally witnesses.

When they move, the sinister events follow them. Renai follows the template when supernatural weirdness prevails: She calls in a priest. He either doesn't believe her wacky tale or isn't a trained exorcist. Either way, the scene seems to exist only as a setup for a lame joke by Josh.

Josh's mother (Barbara Hershey) suggests a nerdy ghost-busting trio, led by the paranormally gifted Elise (Lin Shaye). That's when the movie truly goes off the rails. A high-tech s�ance comes off like a gaudier, less-inventive version of Drag Me to Hell. Josh astrally projects to retrieve his comatose son lost in a netherworld called "The Further," which resembles a low-rent Fellini funhouse.

Repetitive images lacking any fear factor add to the tedium. Insidious is more likely to induce yawns than screams.

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