Insidious is a 2011 American independentpsychological horror film written by Leigh Whannell, directed by James Wan, and starring Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, and Barbara Hershey. The story centers on a couple whose son inexplicably enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for ghosts in an astral dimension. The film was released in theaters on April 1, 2011. The film has been nominated for 10 awards.
In the opening credits, a dark house is seen with shadowy figures lurking in the background, confirming the presence of ghosts.
In present day, Renai and Josh Lambert (Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) have recently moved into a new house with their three children. One morning, Renai looks through a family photo album with her son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), who asks why there are no pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy. One day, Dalton hears something in the attic and goes to investigate. He sees something that scares him and falls when the attic ladder breaks. The next day, Dalton does not awaken from sleep. Renai and Josh rush him to the hospital where the doctors say he is in an unexplained coma.
Insidious may refer to:
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.
Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.
Linda "Lin" Shaye (born 1944) is an American film, theatre and television actress.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Shaye is the daughter of Dorothy (née Katz), a homemaker, and Max Mendle Shaye, a painter and supermarket owner. Her brother is film executive Robert Shaye. Shaye studied acting at the University of Michigan before she moved to New York to appear in Off Broadway productions. In 1977, she moved to Los Angeles to further pursue her acting career.
In 1975, she made her film debut with a small role in Hester Street, followed by small roles in several movies and television shows. In 1978, she appeared in the Jack Nicholson-directed Western Goin' South. She has since appeared in a large number of character roles. Many were for her brother, Robert Shaye, co-founder and former co-CEO of New Line Cinema, such as her role as Mrs. Flynn in the 1990 film Book of Love, which Robert Shaye directed. Her breakout comedy role was the part of Mrs. Nuegeboren in the Farrelly Brothers' Dumb and Dumber (1994). Shaye also appeared in the Farrelly's 1996 comedy Kingpin as the repulsive landlady, and then got a role as Cameron Diaz's overtanned neighbor Magda in their 1998 hit There's Something About Mary. She followed this with 1999's Detroit Rock City as an uptight mother waging a personal war against the band Kiss.
James Wan (born 27 February 1977) is a Malaysian-born Australian producer, screenwriter, and film director of Chinese heritage. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw and creating Billy the puppet. He also directed Dead Silence, Death Sentence and Insidious.
Wan was born in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia of Chinese ethnicity. He was raised in Perth, Western Australia from a young age. It was his dream to make films from the age of 11. He went on to study at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, completing his Bachelor of Arts degree.
Before becoming popular in the film industry, he made his first feature film Stygian with Shannon Young, which won 'Best Guerrilla Film' at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2000.
He met future business partner Leigh Whannell while studying at RMIT. He would later go on to co-create and direct the 2004 horror film (and franchise),Saw with the help of Whannell, who wrote the script. Wan and Whannell made a short version of the film to showcase the script. Whannell played the role of David in the short film, and the leading role of Adam in the feature film. The three producers who saw the short film and read Whannell's screenplay agreed to produce the film before Wan and Whannell even landed in Los Angeles. Wan and Whannell decided to forgo upfront salary in return for gross profits. Shot for a low US$1.2 million budget, the producers had a straight-to-DVD release in mind. However, Saw was to become a surprise record breaking theatrical horror franchise, earning Wan and Whannell much more than they had originally predicted.[citation needed]