2. Insidious (2010)
FilmDistrictJames Wan appears on this list again, with his haunted house chiller Insidious. It's one of the more frustrating films featured because it spends around two thirds of its running time on the right side of the silliness line. It's as the film prepares to venture into its third act that the concept of "the Further" is introduced. It takes the form of a separate dimension, inhabited by malevolent demons who are willing to use the body of a gifted child to gain access to the world. Unfortunately, the Further is simply ridiculous and completely undermines the solid chills of the rest of the film. The supposedly demonic entities that wander the Further look as if they have purchased their clothes from Poundland and the central demon character resembles a cheap knock-off of Darth Maul from Star Wars. Wan and writer Leigh Whannell should receive some credit for being willing to take his film somewhere risky, but the execution of his offbeat idea is seriously lacking. With that in mind, it was a bizarre choice for Wan to base his 2013 sequel to
Insidious almost entirely in its silly astral realm. Asking Patrick Wilson to impersonate Jack Nicholson from The Shining wasn't too wise either.