InSight (2011)
Steve Barton
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Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Natalie Zea, Adam Baldwin, Christopher Lloyd
Directed by Richard Gabai
Interestingly enough, the new horror thriller InSight features an analogy during its third act that references the putting together of a jigsaw puzzle. In truth the film has a lot in common with said puzzles. Mainly the fact that if you do them often enough, regardless of what pictures you’re making, you’re simply going through the motions of getting the job done.
We meet ER nurse Kaitlyn (Zea) as she’s about to help her trauma team use a defibrillator to kick-start the heart of a stabbing victim. Then it happens … said victim becomes lucid for a moment and reveals a tiny bit of info to Kaitlyn before she passes on. There’s just one hitch – no one else in the room heard or saw said victim do anything at all. Long story short, Kaitlyn is accidentally electrocuted by the defibrillator, and when she finally comes to, she begins seeing everything the poor girl did before she died. From there on out it’s a tango with your standard incompetent police force, headed up by detective Peter Rafferty (Flanery), on the way to catching this chick’s killer. Because as stated by our hero nurse multiple times, “Somebody has to!”
As the film goes on, Kaitlyn’s visions become more and more detail oriented, and blanks quickly begin to fill in. The identity of the murderer seems to be just a few memories away, and things begin to heat up and get dangerous. Unfortunately, though … not dangerous enough.
InSight plays like the best thriller that ever appeared on the Lifetime Network (complete with an endless PG-rated sex scene) and brings absolutely nothing new to the table. Much like the jigsaw enthusiasts mentioned previously, it just goes through the motions to get the job done. The twist ending (because you know, there’s always a twist) is painfully telegraphed, and when the reveal comes, everything feels kind of pointless, like you’ve been pissing in the wind for an hour and a half.
Simply put, while not an awful movie by any means, this is a very middle-of-the-road vanilla flavored experience that you’ve already seen countless times. The only real highlight to be found here is Christopher Lloyd’s extremely creepy glorified cameo appearance. Please, film industry, let him continue to do spooky. He’s great at it!
I think I’ll end this review with an analogy of my own … Watching InSight is like realizing that menacing shadow on your wall is being cast by nothing more than an ill placed stuffed animal. It has no real claws, no real fangs, and ultimately no real bite.
2 1/2 out of 5
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