AustLit logo

AustLit

person or book cover
Screen cap from promotional trailer
form y separately published work icon Insidious single work   film/TV   horror  
Issue Details: First known date: 2010... 2010 Insidious
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

When young Dalton Lambert falls into an unexplained coma, his parents are told that he has been astral travelling in his sleep and, unafraid of what he believes are dreams, has wandered too far into a realm called The Further, home to tormented shades of the dead. Only his father Josh, who possesses the same ability of astral travel, can free Dalton, but at what cost?

Notes

  • The trailer for this film is available to view via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1YbOMDI59k (Sighted: 22/6/2012)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

James Wan : The Fantastic Voyage Of Aquaman Gill Pringle , Erin Free , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 24 December 2018;
Female "Madness" as the Driving Force behind the Monstrous in the Insidious Film Series Maja Pandzic , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Outskirts : Feminisms along the Edge , November no. 35 2016;
'This article offers a feminist reading of the Insidious film series through identifying the links between the monstrous and the female characters in the narrative. In reading the monstrous as the product of the anxious heroine, I draw upon Barbara Creed’s understanding of the “abject” and classify it as that which strives to destabilize the system of traditional gender roles confining female protagonists. I also maintain that the home in the films is presented as the primary site of horror because it is in fact the location of heroines’ imprisonment; of their false attachment, as the home in our society is principally a place concealing patriarchal power relations. By drawing upon Jane Ussher’s research on disorders I underscore anxiety in women as a social construct and a reasonable response to their repressive lives in patriarchal society. The anxiety of female protagonists is the result both of being overburdened with domestic/maternal duties and their inability to attain self-fulfilment. I propose the reading of the monstrous in the films as the combination of two strategies of resistance Ussher claims are central to battling this socially constructed/contracted “madness”. Firstly, it represents the rejection of idealized femininity. Secondly, it is a product of engagement in creativity, through which the heroine voices her distress. By thoroughly analyzing the experiences of female characters—a mother of three (Renai), two single mothers (Lorraine, Michelle) and a teenage girl (Quinn)—I not only trace the emergence of the monstrous to the climax of their anxiety but show that the demons with whom they share numerous similarities, are in fact disrupting the traditional family, punishing or forcing male protagonists to accept a share of domestic and parental duties, and thus improving the status of female characters. ' (Publication abstract)
Shock-Horror End of an Era Vicky Roach , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 7 November 2013; (p. 46)
Untitled Jake Wilson , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 May 2011; (p. 17)

— Review of Insidious Leigh Whannell , 2010 single work film/TV
Scream Team are True Believers Kylie Northover , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 May 2011; (p. 17)
Horror at the Heart of What Dwells Within Paul Byrnes , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 12 May 2011; (p. 14)

— Review of Insidious Leigh Whannell , 2010 single work film/TV
Pure Spine-Tingling Horror Cris Kennedy , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 14 May 2011; (p. 33)

— Review of Insidious Leigh Whannell , 2010 single work film/TV
Untitled Tom Ryan , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 15 May 2011; (p. 8)

— Review of Insidious Leigh Whannell , 2010 single work film/TV
Untitled Jake Wilson , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 12 May 2011; (p. 17)

— Review of Insidious Leigh Whannell , 2010 single work film/TV
Scream Team are True Believers Kylie Northover , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 12 May 2011; (p. 17)
Shock-Horror End of an Era Vicky Roach , 2013 single work column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 7 November 2013; (p. 46)
Female "Madness" as the Driving Force behind the Monstrous in the Insidious Film Series Maja Pandzic , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Outskirts : Feminisms along the Edge , November no. 35 2016;
'This article offers a feminist reading of the Insidious film series through identifying the links between the monstrous and the female characters in the narrative. In reading the monstrous as the product of the anxious heroine, I draw upon Barbara Creed’s understanding of the “abject” and classify it as that which strives to destabilize the system of traditional gender roles confining female protagonists. I also maintain that the home in the films is presented as the primary site of horror because it is in fact the location of heroines’ imprisonment; of their false attachment, as the home in our society is principally a place concealing patriarchal power relations. By drawing upon Jane Ussher’s research on disorders I underscore anxiety in women as a social construct and a reasonable response to their repressive lives in patriarchal society. The anxiety of female protagonists is the result both of being overburdened with domestic/maternal duties and their inability to attain self-fulfilment. I propose the reading of the monstrous in the films as the combination of two strategies of resistance Ussher claims are central to battling this socially constructed/contracted “madness”. Firstly, it represents the rejection of idealized femininity. Secondly, it is a product of engagement in creativity, through which the heroine voices her distress. By thoroughly analyzing the experiences of female characters—a mother of three (Renai), two single mothers (Lorraine, Michelle) and a teenage girl (Quinn)—I not only trace the emergence of the monstrous to the climax of their anxiety but show that the demons with whom they share numerous similarities, are in fact disrupting the traditional family, punishing or forcing male protagonists to accept a share of domestic and parental duties, and thus improving the status of female characters. ' (Publication abstract)
James Wan : The Fantastic Voyage Of Aquaman Gill Pringle , Erin Free , 2018 single work column
— Appears in: FilmInk , 24 December 2018;
Last amended 17 Jul 2023 09:12:38
X