Review of Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) by Cdougall — 11 Aug 2021

Insidious: Chapter 3 is a major improvement from Chapter 2 and nearly reaches the heights of the first movie. This film doesn’t have the awkward writing and directing that the second one did which causes the scenes to flow much more smoothly and be a lot more enjoyable.

The story itself isn’t that great; it’s pretty cliche and lacks creativity and originality, but unlike Chapter 2, the execution of that story is fantastic. There are elements of character stupidity in this film since without it Chapter 3 wouldn’t have happened, and that’s a shame, but the way the characters play off of that stupidity is smart and manages to make up for the premise of the movie, allowing this chapter to be similar to the previous two.

What really stands out to me about Chapter 3, and why I enjoyed this film as much as I did, is because of how scary and terrifying it is. This movie, for me, is much scarier than the first two movies.

I’ve seen it twice now and both times my heart rate spiked at points and I jumped a little in my seat. Whannell does use a few jump scares, but he plays around with light, sound and the camera in ways that catch you off guard and instill you with fear and anxiety about what’s going to happen next.

This is a movie that grips you and never lets you go and does a great job of finding new ways to scare you that weren’t explored in the first two films. It manages to make someone waving seem really creepy.

The movie also makes great use of effects and dialogue to contribute to all of this. But I also appreciate how this movie has some emotional depth in it, especially at the end. It has a “sweet” and satisyfing end in a way that the first two movies didn’t which is a great juxtaposition to the horror that dominates most of it.

The end is also interesting and good; it gives us context for the first two movies, takes us even further into the past and doesn’t set up further installments of the franchise but still leaves plenty of room for storytelling and development.

Chapter 3, for me, is by far the most terrifying of the franchise to date and while the story isn’t great, it rises way above Chapter 2 and gets pretty close to the original.