They say that kids are able to sense things of the supernatural, whether that’s spirits, ghosts or whatever. What if evil spirits were trying to cross over through the use of their bodies? A frightening thought, yes? For Renai and her husband Josh, it’s much more than just a thought; it’s their reality.

When their son Dalton mysteriously goes into a deep sleep, one that he cannot be woken up from, strange things start happening around the house. Ominous figures appear out of nowhere and objects move from one place to another. Renai believes the house is haunted but when they move and the same things continue to happen elsewhere, the family finds out that it’s not the house that’s haunted, it’s their son.

Insidious is the latest creation from director James Wan, made famous by the Saw franchise. He has teamed up once again with writer Leigh Whannell to bring another chilling tale of horror to the big screen, this time in the form of an innocent child.

Dalton is gifted with the ability to traverse other dimensions while he sleeps. This time however, he travels too far and gets lost in an area known as The Further. Here, malevolent demons lurk that will stop at nothing to posses Dalton and run free in the human world. The supernatural events happening around the house are those demons trying to get inside him.

Insidious relies on quick, momentary scares coupled with a piercing violin instrumental to install fear into the audience. While it’s good for a few frights, the gimmick runs dry not long into the film. The fact that the demon looks a lot like Darth Maul doesn’t help all that much either. The film attempts to convey a realistic vision of horror, as evident by Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) acting as producer. Unfortunately, the film progresses so slowly that not much is established until close to the end and by that time you’ve become bored.

The idea of The Further is interesting and I wished Insidious would have gone into more detail with it. Instead, we’re left to rely on the stories of an old woman and her quirky paranormal investigator tag team consisting of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Humor is okay to have in a horror film but not so much that it removes you from the scene.

While there are a few good highlights to the film, in the end Insidious leaves you neither frightened nor satisfied. We’re left wandering in the endless fog of The Further, hoping to wake up from the comatose state it put us in in the first place.

Follow me on Twitter @Majiesto