Review of Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) by Jesse O — 06 Oct 2015

I'm really happy to say that this film is a vast improvement over Chapter 2. Dare I even say that this film is, as a whole, better than the first Insidious. The problem with the first Insidious is that the third act felt rushed and didn't really fit in with the rest of the film.

Don't get me wrong I think the first Insidious would be better if we're looking just at the horror elements. As a complete with film, one with narrative and compelling characters, Chapter 3 would definitely be the best.

It doesn't compare in the horror department, but I think it does a better job at making you care about the characters than any of the two previous films did. I think the time between the scares themselves is better utilized in adding some sort 'depth' to the actual characters that inhabit this film, where as in the previous two films, and many other horror flicks, the time between the scares is mostly filler.

So it's refreshing to see a film that actually makes proper use of its total running time. Plus, it also means that we get to see a lot more of Lin Shaye being great and that's always a positive in my book.

The film definitely benefits from a shift of focus from the Lambert family to someone completely unrelated to them. Another positive would be the fact that the film has a simplified compared to Chapter 2, which did some really convoluted things that detracted from the film.

This film sees Lin Shaye's character being brought back to a business she had left behind after death of her husband in order to help a teen that's being haunted by a demon, who wants to enslave Quinn, the teen in question, in order to use her body as a vessel.

It's not like the film has as many good scares as the first film in the franchise, but I think it does have quite a good number of them. I think they're enough to warrant a rental if you're someone that's just looking for some thrills, but it also works on a more complete level than that.

Though, honestly, most people who watch this movie won't really do so because there's some good character work in this film, that's an added bonus for the people this film will appeal to, particularly during this Halloween season.

I don't know though, like I can see how some of these scares might get to people, but I'm not suggesting that the scares are lazy, I actually think that they're good as a whole, but they just don't feel that inspired.

I don't really know how to explain it without suggesting that the scares are lazy, which is not what I'm trying to say. I'm just trying to say that they do the bare minimum in order to get by.

To be fair, though, the bare minimum is just enough in this case, since I'd still say that the horror elements are good. In many ways this film overachieves, since Chapter 2 was so bad, but it also falls short of the first film in terms of horror.

This film benefits from a stronger focus as it relates to narrative and character and that, combined with the horror, does add up to the best entry in this franchise. It's not like it's a must see horror movie, but I do think it offers enough to satisfy both the horror geeks and the more casual fans looking for a few thrills.

Solid rental.