Insidious

Inadvertently inventing torture-porn can’t be the proudest moment in the careers of James Wan and Leigh Whannell, respectively the director and writer behind the nasty sub-genre's figurehead feature, Saw (2004). Perhaps that’s why Insidious, the pair's third collaboration, following Saw and the little seen Dead Silence (2007), is sans splatter. Gone are rusty deathtraps and lacerated flesh, replaced instead by genuine terror as a handsome couple, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne), and their young family’s lives are invaded by an insidious presence.

Beginning with ethereal whispers and strange bumps in the night, the haunting soon escalates to full on pants-pooping alert when a creepy chimney sweep, a surly heavy metal fan and a cloven hoofed goth begin paying them visits. While not exactly original – it’s basically an off-kilter remake of Tobe Hopper’s Poltergeist (1982) – the filmmakers' perverse sense of humour (check out the nutty seance scene) and Wan’s hyperactive visual style (again, check that seance) bring an infectious vitality to well worn material.