The new film “Insidious” is a must see for horror buffs. For the scaredy-cats, it’s a must-see-“Hop”-or-“Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2”-instead.

This is by far the creepiest movie I’ve seen in some time.

Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne play a married couple that move into a new house.

When their son falls into a coma, strange occurrences begin happening around the house. They learn that spirits from the realm called The Further are coming into their house and possess his body to have life again.

“Insidious” is directed by James Wan, who gave birth to the original “Saw” and all 700 billion of its sequels (give or take a few) and was produced by Oren Peli, the director of the “Paranormal Activity” films.

I feared that Wan would continue in the tradition of “Saw” and make this some ugly torture porn where limbs were thrown about and gallons of blood flowed in spades.

This is a much scarier film than the “Saw” films, because Wan restrains himself and goes for more psychological scares and fewer gross-out gags, like watching a guy try to cut a key out of his eye socket.

And, as for Peli, that man must really hate kids. Watching a very young child in danger is a cheap sympathy shot, but it doesn’t make it any less effective.

In “Paranormal Activity 2,” I saw a baby get dragged across its crib by an unseen force and left hovering in mid-air.

Now, in “Insidious,” we see a boy’s body being treated like it’s a rent-controlled apartment, and the evil spirits heard that the tenant recently died so they’re trying to rent the space out.

Peli knows how to put his kids through the wringer in his movie. I suspect he doesn’t get many offers to babysit.

Made for a shoestring budget under a new film company, “Insidious” is almost like a remake of “Poltergeist”, which is going to make the actual upcoming remake of “Poltergeist” look even more unnecessary. Both films have a very similar plot.

A fact about horror films is that they aren’t actually scary. A lot of them just have a bunch of “gotcha!” moments, where things jump out from the corner of the screen to a loud music sting…

…to signify we should be scared.

There’s nothing intrinsically scary about something, or someone, jumping out at you accompanied by loud music. It’s jarring, yes, but not scary.

I need a little bit more substance in my scares. I want creepy images, tense situations and relentlessly disturbing and bizarre sequences in my horror films.

While “Insidious” does have the requisite “gotcha!” moments, it is a lot smarter and more confident in itself and gives us a creepy atmosphere, images and situations that stick with you later that night.

The man, or whatever it was, behind the curtain in the bedroom burned an image in my mind because it was so damned creepy.

Same goes for the angry gurgling noise that comes out of the baby monitor, a voice so angry that it makes the alien noises in “Signs” sound like a bunch of sissies.

And there’s a séance scene towards the end that gets pretty intense, too. All of this is in the context of the plot and not a bunch of moments that just make you jump.

To put it in perspective, I slept with my light on the night I saw the movie, and I saw it at 9:50 a.m. And when I came home, my next-door neighbors had a rolled-up rug propped against their window.

At first glance, it looked like a tall shadowy figure looking down on me, and I was creeped out. My nerves were pretty frazzled by day’s end.

Unfortunately, the ending goes for broke and starts getting a bit desperate at times.

I won’t spoil it, but Patrick Wilson’s character goes into The Further, and we get a lot of silly shots of, as the end credits call it, The Lipstick Face Man.

Actually, he looks like Darth Maul from “The Phantom Menace,” and it causes the film to lose some precision.

But, if you can brave “Insidious,” know that you have to go into it with the right mindset. Be prepared to be scared, but more creeped out by all the weirdness in the film.

If you like being scared while enjoying great cinematography and a cool storyline, you’ll love this movie.

If you want to take your date to see the movie and pretend not to be scared in front of them just to act tough, not only are you being a buzz kill, but you’re being a sissy for a whole other set of reasons.