Justine Neill

Mr. Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
22 October 2014
Stay Insidious
The classic horror movie Saw aired in 2004 was only the beginning for writer Leigh
Whannell, she then collaborated with director James Wan in 2011 to create the movie Insidious
which was a break from all of the gore and designed as more of a suspense-thriller movie that
will keep your adrenaline pumping. The movie Insidious is about a family that is moving into an
old house, at first everything seems perfect and they are getting fresh start by moving, but during
the move the son, Dalton, falls off of a ladder and when taken to the hospital there is no sign of
any head trauma. He is in a coma, when he is brought back to the home still in the unconscious
state, strange things begin to happen such as things being moved by unseen hands and voices
from unseen faces over a baby monitor, but things get worse. Now there are apparitions of
people being seen by the family lurking around the house, finally enough is enough, the family
calls in a psychic named Elise to figure out what was happening. She finds a demon trying to
take Daltons helpless, unconscious body because his soul is stuck in the further, which is
where he goes while he dreams. Now he needs help getting out. Although Roger Ebert and
Michael Phillips have conflicting views on the tone of the movie, they both can conclude that
Insidious is a well directed movie and that the genre is effective.
In the two articles both of the authors touch on how the movie focuses on an effective
genre for scaring the audience in the fact that the director, James Wan, exercises tension and
nerve wracking music to keep the audience at the edge of their seats at all times. Compared to

Wans previous movies like Saw which was an extreme gore film, this is a genre that seems
classic in contrast to Queasy-Cam gorefests (Ebert). The main point of this movie is to keep you
guessing and we can only glean that director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell
admire all sorts of fright, from the blatant to the insidiously subtle (Phillips). Both critics can
agree that the audience will receive what they came for which is a frightening series of pop outs
that will surely keep you paying attention and awake.
Although the critics agree on genre they do not agree on the tone used throughout the
movie, when the psychic, Elise, is brought in she has two assistants, who are quite different and
opposite of the movies tone and that causes the whole film to teeter on the edge of being a
comedy (Ebert). This is understandable point, as the two assistants crack jokes and cannot seem
to do their jobs in a correct manner, but, on the flip side The makers of "Insidious" who
have, by the way, done a shrewd and scary job of making it (Phillips).
Despite their conflicting views on the general tone throughout the movie both of the
critics do maintain that Wans directing skills were applied well into the movie. There are so
many factors that have to be considered in order to make an effectively good scary movie and
some of the factors that were handled well were characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and
mounting dread (Ebert). Many movies will use images and music to increase the tension of
knowing something is about to happen, It's a matter of taste, of course. But "Insidious," nicely
acted by all and photographed in creepy, cold, under-lit tones by John R. Leonetti and David M.
Brewer (Phillips).
Although the two critics both had their differences in their opinions on the tone of the
movie both Phillips and Ebert can agree that Insidious was directed well and that the genre of the
movie was effective as well.

Works Cited
Phillips, Michael. "'Insidious': Haunted house or haunted boy?" Chicago Tribune
[Chicago, IL] 31 Mar. 2011: n. pag. articles.chicagotribune.com. Web. 21
Oct. 2014.
Ebert, Roger. "Insidious." rogerebert.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.