I'll admit- I saw this movie with LOW expectations. I didn't expect to like it at all. Now that this has been said:

The first parts of the film were a bit rushed. Within twenty minutes, we have a "Three Months Later" card. Despite this, there were some genuinely creepy moments, with some good atmosphere and even a bit of tension. Still, these moments lacked any central focus, and generally felt unconnected and confusing. (Which may have been interesting if not for certain things that I'll mention later...)

By the second third of the movie, things REALLY went downhill. We are introduced to several characters in a short time (including a priest who has all of ONE line, if I remember correctly.) and rather quickly given an elaborate pseudoscience explanation for the issues at hand. (What's great about this is it turns the remainder of the film into flat-out comedy!) Things get very silly by the end, but the film doesn't seem to notice, treating even the most preposterous things as if they actually had the possibility of scaring people.

In its entirety, "Insidious" feels contrived, pretentious, and rushed.

To conclude: If you watch this for the horror, you will be sorely disappointed. If you watch it for the horrifying monsters who enjoy the musical stylings of Tiny Tim, you'll be one happy astral projector.… Expand

Quite possibly the most enjoyable comedy I have seen in a while. There were multiple times I held back from laughing out loud, and several times I uttered "What?". The only movement that this movie made me do was to cover my ears from the overly loud shrills. In the end I enjoyed this movie, if only because the whole time I was hearing commentary from Crow and Tom Servo.

From the images floating around the internet, I had extremely high hopes for this one. What started out as a truly uneasy environment full of suspense and genuine fear, later turned into a finale that had me laughing at the very "monsters" themselves. The plot has been done a hundred time before, and some of the acting is a bit... "off". While the first hour is actually scary and uncomfortable to watch, it quickly goes from long, drawn out scenes of the protagonist walking through the house at night trying to find where all the noises keep coming from, to a "Hey audience!!! Look at this monster!!! It's so scary!! Be scared!!! WooOOOooo!!"

To be honest, if it had ended 30 minutes earlier than it did, it would have been a decent horror flick in itself, but the plot gets, for the lack of a better word, "cheesy", and feeble attempts at comic relief make it all the less frightful.

This is the kind of thing you watch with your friends, but start chit-chatting half way through the "scares".… Expand

I've not seen many movies as dumb as Insidious in my entire life. That MAY be an exaggeration, considering all the positive things I heard about it, but that doesn't make all that much of a difference.

The movie was predictable, insipid, and silly and just really shoddily done. The acting is atrocious from most of the cast, especially the father. It's as if the writers pulled together several hundred ghostly anecdotes, scary pictures that have been floating around the internet for years, horror story tropes, etc. and somehow created a movie out of it.

The only aspect of the movie that I CAN respect is something that I just complained about: It is silly, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. There are some things included that aren't in every horror story such as the "tip-toe through the tulips" theme song (those who have seen it know what I mean) and the two paranormal detectives and their gadgets. Those were the only parts even slightly entertaining or enjoyable.

Rental, at best, if there's absolutely nothing else on netflix or redbox you're interested in.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "From the makers of Paranormal Activity and Saw" Oh boy what else you can expect after two movies showing 90 minutes of static camera, random opening doors -cause we have a paranormal activity hun- and 6 worthless continuations of Saw (yes actually 1st one was kinda decent)... simply nothing ! Interesting but typical begging with overused baby monitor scene that can gave u couple of goose bumps (those who went to see movie will know what I'm talking about) with hilarious I repeat HILARIOUS scenes including" man with a fire on his face" Personally I **** laughed like a little kid, when I saw this dude looking like its Trick-or-treating time costume on Halloween... save yourself couple of bucks and If u wanna get something positive out of that topic go and buy a good book.… Expand

In these environmentally conscious times, I can only applaud the production team for making the most of two unfinished movies and editing them together to be released as one. The first part of the film goes through all the standard horror elements that you've seen before with a few individual twists, where all of the three or four moments of scaring you rely on things jumping or running into frame. After that, where the second film takes over for the laughs, we have five solid minutes of exposition which I defy you to sit through with a straight face and say "oh so THAT'S what's going on!" You'll be pleased to know that Darth Maul gets reused in this film as one of the several bad guys who get thrown at you, and Insidious also has the best use of a WWII gas mask that I've ever seen in a modern comedy. And whoever the guy is in Hollywood who gets to push those kitchen drawers out, he gets another credit on his CV thanks to this one. Anyway, I'll be back in a second - I'm just off to astral project into the future to see the Jim Carrey remake. WoooOOOOooooOOOOOooOOOH!… Expand

Ha! I don't think this was intended as a belly-laugh comedy, but the second half of the film had me doubled up.
First half is your by the numbers Paranormal Activity style disposable horror flick. Then it gets on to a scene where the 'woman who speaks to dead people' character starts to spell out what's actually going on. The male lead then spouts lines that were going through my head and acknowledges how ridiculous the plot is. I expected all the actors to agree with him and suddenly walk off set, but they carry on regardless and take the film on towards it's comedy final act.
1 point for the comedic value, but don't go out of your way to experience it for yourself. This is just a bad student film with a big budget.
Although on balance, I did watch this in the company of two other viewers and they found it genuinely terrifying. The only thing that spoiled it for them was my running commentary of sarcastic remarks...and laughter.… Expand

The Amityville Horror Starring Darth Maul! by D Veeb (Aug 23, 2011)
This is the second time I've fallen victim to the line "scariest film since The Exorcist!" (the first was that awful piece of dreck "The Blair Witch Project") At any rate, this film would probably be entertaining to you if you're 13 years old and are talking or texting through the film as any notion of cohesive storytelling has clearly been put on the back burner in favor of standard issue horror film "gotcha" moments. In fact, this film is so cliche´ that I truly expected to see a pig coming through the bedroom window (Amityville Horror). The film has some startling moments, and a few somewhat decent visuals, but the script, acting, and directing are really sub-par. The kid clearly falls off the ladder and hits the back of his head. In the next scene, he's got a big shiner on his forehead above his eye! Gimme a break! And the music and sound effects were so over-the-top, hitting you over the head with "THIS IS SCARRY!" slams. Plus...the demon bears a striking resemblance to Darth Maul from The Phantom Menace! Really?!?! Do yourself a favor, skip this mess!… Expand

This is a weird movie, that jumps quickly between boring, mildly interesting, and ridiculously stupid. It's good for a couple of good scares in the beginning, but the movie quickly deteriorates from there. The big slogan was, it's not the house that's haunted, and it was compared to the exorcist, both couldn't be further from the truth. Without going into details, the story is just stupid. The special effects are laughable, and the acting is so-so. The kid, newcomer Ty Simpkins, was mildly entertaining and did do a nice job. The parents weren't too bad either, but the rest of the cast were just terrible, a perfect fit for a movie that is pure If it wasn't for a couple of scares and the fact that I was laughing at how stupid some of the parts were, this movie would have gotten zero. It's a complete and utter waste of time.… Expand