Insidious

The success of the micro-budget haunted-house tale Paranormal Activity was bound to beget Hollywood impersonators, so that film's writer/director Oren Peli might be forgiven for getting in first (he is credited as one of Insidious's producers). Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) are a normal married couple with three kids who, having moved house, find their new pad plagued by mysterious scratches, bangs and shifting furniture. And things get even worse when their eight-year-old son falls into a mysterious coma. For the first hour or so Insidious is basically a less restrained retread of Paranormal Activity, with director James Wan (co-creator of the Saw franchise, along with Insidious screenwriter Leigh Whannell) cheerfully and unsubtly running through every modern haunted-house cliché in the book. When this palls he simply steals the last act of Poltergeist (complete with "spooky" dry-ice effects). Derivative as it is, Insidious is competent enough, there are a few genuine scares and the final shock twist is an effective cinematic sucker-punch.