Ten years ago it would have seemed improbable that anyone could have made a film based on what was, essentially, a barbarous and bloody version of the 1980s board game Mousetrap. To have contrived several successful sequels along a nearly identical theme with increasingly diminishing dramatic returns for years after, on the other hand, would have seemed downright laughable. Never-the-less, this is exactly what writer director team
Leigh Whannell and
James Wan managed to do with the
Saw franchise, and it is indicative of the success of their single collaborative feature outside of the series- Death Silence- that they returned to it so frequently. With the grizzly brand now seemingly having run its course, they are having another crack at working together with supernatural horror,
Insidious. The film starring
Rose Byrne (Damages) and
Patrick Wilson (Watchmen) follows the well-worn path of parental guilt as a couples child is injured before falling into a coma and brings forth a myriad of vengeful ghosts and spectres. A new poster from the movie does not inspire any further hope in originality, as the familiar middle-class wooden home provides the setting for the ghoulish goings on, whilst the sickly lense filters that uniformly accompany Wan and all-manner of other modern horror directors is plainly in evidence.
Insidious debuted and the Toronto film festival to an unenthusiastic public and will receive a wider theatrical release on April 1st in the U.S. (no UK date yet). The film is produced by Paranormal Activity creator, Oren Peli, among others, and the relatively small filming budge should, in itself, provide a significant percentage return for its makers, irrespective of critical reaction.