Insidious

Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh (Patrick Wilson) are moving into a new home—albeit a creaky old house—with their three children. While the older son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), is exploring the attic, he falls off a broken ladder and then lapses into what appears to be a coma. As weeks stretch into months, the increasingly frantic Renai hears muffled voices on the baby monitor, shadowy ghosts dart through the hallway, and the imprint of a bloody claw suddenly appears on Dalton's sheet. Renai insists on moving, but the new place also seems haunted. When Josh's mother (Barbara Hershey) comes to visit, she agrees that Renai may be sensing something real, and summons old friend/clairvoyant Elise (Lin Shaye), who's accompanied by her two geeky assistants. Elise is determined to discover what evil exists here, even if it means that someone in the family must venture into a dark realm she dubs “The Further.” Director James Wan's Insidious mixes the familiar devices of startling sounds and ominously opening doors together with banal mumbo-jumbo about occult astral projection and demonic possession (when snatches of Tiny Tim's “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” play on the soundtrack, it's hard not to laugh). A formulaic, clichéd venture into the spiritual world that only evokes déjà “boo” memories of the far better Poltergeist, this is not a necessary purchase. (S. Granger)