InSight (2011) – Review

Where to watch InSight

2 1/2 Stars

While trying to save a young stab victim, ER nurse Kaitlyn is accidentally electrocuted by a defibrillator. Soon she begins having visions she believes to be memories of the dead woman she was touching when shocked. With the help of Det. Peter Rafferty she begins to piece together the puzzles from her visions and works toward solving the crime. But as Kaitlyn walks the fine line of psychic and psychotic her world begins to fall apart. Does she have the InSight to find the killer and prove her sanity? Find out in an incredibly shocking twist ending.

InSight is a little better than your basic Lifetime or Chiller channel thriller. It’s a very watchable, but not demanding film. The acting slips at times, especially with star Natalie Zea, but her role requires her to play a multitude of ways and I imagine it would be difficult to juggle that. Sean Patrick Flanery is good as Det. Peter Rafferty, a part which doesn’t ask much of him. Christopher Lloyd has a strange cameo here, someone in the production must have been related to a friend of a friend as the role isn’t special enough to necessitate or attract a professional such as Lloyd. The real stand out here is Adam Baldwin playing against type as a subdued psychologist. Baldwin normally plays the bigger bad ass guys such as John Casey in Chuck or Jayne in Serenity, it’s nice to see a little range from him here.

My biggest complaint and greatest praise with InSight has to be the twist ending. It feels somewhat unearned and unconnected with the basic plot of the film, but it’s also extremely callable. It untwists the story more than twists it. It’s what Kaitlyn does in the end that gives InSight some low hanging balls. Normally these type of flicks wuss out and have a happy ending, but here the main character does the unexpected breaking from the norm.

Overall if you like made for TV Lifetime or Chiller channel style thrillers I’d definitely say check this one out. InSight may play as a television pilot for the first half, but the second half turns decidedly filmic making this an easy watch with a satisfying although not altogether surprising ending.

Director: Richard Gabai
Stars: Natalie Zea, Sean Patrick Flanery, Adam Baldwin, Thomas Ian Nicholas