Horror Movie Review: Insane (2015)

Insane is a found footage horror…*sigh*

Michael & Sarah have just recently bought a new house, one that has a bloody history they weren’t aware of.

Years before the events of this movie a man was murdered by an escaped mental patient who dressed like a clown. Years after that, the father of the family that moved into the house went crazy & killed every one of them.

Foreshadowing…huh?

Michael becomes fascinated by the houses history & begins to investigate further much to his girlfriend’s frustration. One night he witnesses a clown standing over the pair in bed (something he really takes in his stride) but when he shows it to Sarah she doesn’t see anything.

As days pass Michael’s obsession begins to turn unhealthy & he begins to see the clown all around the house. Is he being haunted or is this something much darker?

By the end it won’t be any clearer but it hardly matters, Insane is just another bargain basement found-footage horror that thinks ‘camcorder quality’ equals realistic. Here, Michael is our cameraman & wants to film everything often against Sarah’s wishes. Why does he want to film everything? Something about a documentary based on the houses past, that’s the best reason they can come up with & it’s a throwaway line dropped somewhere in the middle of the film.

Its paper-thin stuff made all the worse because of the poor quality of filming we get. Shaky cam, static across the screen, sudden jumps to black, horrible angles…if you’ve seen it in a found-footage before, you’ll find it all here too.

What really makes this an absolute chore to watch though is the horrific acting. This is ‘bottom of the barrel’ stuff that would be hilarious if it wasn’t so bad. As a couple I had trouble believing that they even knew each other let alone loved each other.

Sarah is absent for huge parts of the movie & when she does appear it’s often from the side of the screen as if she was just pushed out on set. One such instance sees her appear, talk about being out all day, say her lines…badly then disappear again.

The dialogue is terrible, so forgettable that it would have been better to watch this film on mute. The only thing that is likely to be missed is the neighbour who handily appears to fill Michael in on the events surrounding the house. A man who wants to keep the events that happened in the house quiet so it doesn’t affect the community yet supplies him Michael with all the details, where to go & later even files he has on the killings.

The absurdity of it all is mind-blowing but that reaches new levels when Michael goes ‘crazy’. The cut here is so confusing, one minute he’s pretty much fine if a bit freaked out then the other he is laughing like a maniac with a clown only he (and us) can see.

The bedroom night scenes try to create tension but it falls so flat. This is mainly because it rips off Paranormal Activity shamelessly. One night Michael gets out of bed & spends a few hours standing over Sarah while she sleeps, he then gets back into bed. Shameless.

The initial reveal of the clown is sinister & its playful nature made a change from the out-right evil clowns that pop up in most modern horrors. It’s hard to really find it intimidating though because it really doesn’t do very much.

Those afraid of clowns might find it scary but it really isn’t anything special.

The ambiguous ending, something I don’t normally mind, just tops of what is a pretty terrible viewing experience. This had no need to be a found-footage film & would have been better if it hadn’t been. However the best visuals in horror couldn’t have helped the diabolical acting.

A proper case of the cover art being better then the actual movie.