Review of Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) by Orlando O — 04 Jun 2015

Insidious Chapter 3 is a weak entry in the trilogy with less scares, dull direction, and surprisingly more depth on Lin Shaye's character which was interesting. The first Insidious movie has set the bar high with being the scariest in the franchise. The second movie had more thrills than being horrifying and an interesting spin on the story. Now, the third supernatural horror film is running low on scares and a disappointment with the story. The second movie left on a cliffhanger of a ending, guessing the screenwriter decides to ignore continuing the story but start this new chapter as a prequel.

It is a prequel set before the Lambert family was involved. The story introduces Quinn (Stefani Scott) who she sets up a meeting with Elise (Lin Shaye). Elise has a spiritual ability to contact the spirit world and find their loved ones that passed. Elise stops the reading for Quinn, which she is trying to contact her dead mother, while Elise sense there is some evil presence that wants to get a hold of her. After an unexpected accident that leads Quinn to being in bed rest as her father Sean (Dermot Mulroney) is trying to hold everything together with these unfortunate events. Quinn starts experiencing paranormal events as an evil presence is haunting the family.

Leigh Whannell takes his first directorial debut in helming Insidious 3, he knows how to handle and stage for creepy moments. Sadly, there were not many scares and a lot of the predictable jump scares. The story with the struggling father and his teen daughter and son was dull. The sub plot of the movie was the best part as Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, and Lin Shaye reprise their characters yet again. Whannell and Sampson's characters were awesome and provided some comic relief as the tacky ghost hunters. The sub plot of Elise, after she lost her husband and decides to use her ability of traveling into the spirit world known as "the further" was the best addition in the movie. Insidious Chapter 3 is a boring entry, that has no exciting ideas but with a couple of nice tie ins on character depth. Lin Shaye has her awesome moment as she steals the show in the climax of the movie.