Review! Insidious: Chapter 3

Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) Directed by Leigh Wannell. Starring: Lin Shaye, Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney. IMDB says: “A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.”

Insidious: Chapter 2 ends on a note of franchise promise. Our two psychic detectives, Specs and Tucker, leave the Lambert family at a narrative conclusion and move onto their next case of spooky scary things involving the otherworldly dimension of “The Further”. It felt like the perfect set up for sequels aplenty. That’s why it’s so puzzling that Insidious: Chapter 3 takes a step back into prequel territory. Does it really help the franchise to have an on-screen origin story for psychic Elise Rainier? Or was it just simpler to lean back on what we know instead of pushing forward? I’m hoping that the next installment does capitalize on the Chapter 2 send off, but for now we have a prequel with very mixed results.

The film starts with teenager Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) seeking Elise (Lin Shaye) to help contact her deceased mother. Elise, recently retired from the game, is hesitant to get back into contacting spirits because of the inherent danger. However, Quinn decides to keep pursuing contact on her own, only for a malevolent being to latch onto her, violently attacking at every opportunity. It puts her in immediate danger, forcing Elise to face her fears and use her calling to save the girl with the help of Quinn’s distant father (Dermot Mulroney). Just when you think you were out, they pull you back in, am I right? The set up is just okay, and sometimes feels like a story about personal loss that just happens to be a horror movie. The advantage is spending more time with Elise, who’s a far more interesting character than Quinn, and watch Shaye perform with gusto even the worst of the material given her.

There’s a lack of originality here compared to the first two films. The concept of astral projection felt very fresh in the first Insidious, earning a distinction from other supernatural horror flicks. Chapter 2 wasn’t nearly as scary but kept you engaged by expanding the mythology and delving deeper into the Lambert haunting. All three films were written by Leigh Wannell, so I don’t think it’s a case of the studio churning out a dumbed down sequel, but perhaps Wannell having trouble figuring out a new direction. There’s also an issue with the screenplay introducing several characters that serve no purpose besides setting up a stunt later in the movie. Instead of developing new characters for this story it doubled down on Elise and the ghost hunting duo. Sure they are enjoyable characters, but it leaves everyone else in the film boring, unremarkable, and/or unnecessary. Wannell directs here as well and it’s very serviceable but doesn’t match the signature horror direction of James Wan.

There is a good reason to see this movie though – it does deliver its fair share of suspense and scares. Plenty of horror movies have dumb screenplays and stock characters, but if they can give you a good fright they’re worth the price of admission. I’ll certainly give Chapter 3 that merit. One aspect that differentiates it is Quinn’s inability to run from her foe. She’s stuck in bed with not one, but two broken legs. Being disabled does put an added edge on the scares (although people in my theater were still yelling at her to move or get out). The concept could have been pushed farther, but it did shake things up a bit.

If you’re just looking to check out the newest horror movie in theaters, this fits the bill but if you expect more quality out of this series (like me), I’ll suggest you check your expectations.