Years before the Lambert family, retired psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to help a young girl who's tormented by an evil spirit.
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Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)Written and Directed by Leigh Whannell
Starring Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Michael Reid MacKay Prequel to 2010's Insidious |
With such an intriguing premise to begin with, the Insidious series had potential to be one of the best ghost franchises in horror. With a great debut film and a mediocre second film, I'd hoped the third would balance everything out. Instead, Insidious: Chapter 3 turned out to be just a rehash of the first two. Only this time, the characters were different and it was a prequel, which means the stakes don't matter in the slightest for psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye).
The third film in this franchise attempted to inject the series with emotional depth, which I suppose seemed like a good idea on paper but really doesn't work for one simple reason. I don't care about any of the characters. In the first two, the Lambert family was likable and were genuinely in dire straits with their comatose son. Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) and her father Sean (Dermot Mulroney) are annoying from the get go. Quinn provokes the demon into her life after being told explicitly by Elise to stop talking to it and Sean seems like he's about to burst into tears throughout the entire film. Apart from Elise, the rest of the cast fails to bring me into the action. The main villain, the Man Who Can't Breathe, is a far cry from the red demon from the first one and the old woman from the second one. His origins are shrouded in needless mystery while his motivations help make this film a carbon copy of the first two. In the film's ill-advised attempt to invoke emotion, it failed to remember that its primary goal is to scare me. Apart from a few jump scares, Insidious: Chapter 3 is contains very little terrifying scenes. The film is basically a vehicle for an origin story about a character whose origin I really didn't ask for. |
Everything about Insidious: Chapter 3 should have made it a total failure; from being the third film in a horror franchise, to being a prequel, and even long time director James Wan not returning. Instead, we got a generally solid horror film that sported some of the franchise best scares since the first one.
Lin Shaye is the only returning character from the previous films and she is a joy to watch. She nails the character down perfectly. If any future films are ever made, I hope she continues to be in them. The family in this installment are portrayed very well, especially for a horror film. Dermot Mulroney and Stefanie Scott are excellent as a father and daughter trying to cope with the death of a loved one. Now for the scares, the bread and butter of this franchise. While the first Insidious still has the series best ones, this installment comes in at a close second. Due to some excellent camera work and suspense, there were several scenes that legitimately got me. Also, The Man Who Can't Breathe proves to be a worthy demon that is doing all the haunting. He is terrifying, both in appearance and scares he provides. While not as good as the first movie, Insidious: Chapter 3 is a more terrifying installment than the sometimes silly second film. It provides some genuinely good scares, the demon is creepy, and you care about the family. A good installment in one of the horror genre's better series. |