Review of Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) by Odjento — 09 Jun 2015

This film showed so much potential at time but still fell to an unsatisfactorily average level overall. First i'll start of with the positives.

This film did actually try to bring some psychological uneasiness to the table with ceratain scenes that out matches most from Insidious 1 and 2. These were subtle and worked brilliantly, like in one scene were the demon shuts out all light in the room slowly, really building the scene up. There were more great scenes like this but for the sake of not spoiling the film I will refrain from typing them. However, I found these scenes brought the films score up dramatically.

Now the negatives.

This film still suffers from the problem pretty much every modern horror film other than recently The Babadook and It Follows suffers from; it's reliance on jump scares. How many times do we have to tell you jump scares aren't scary, they just make us jump. STOP RELYING WHOLE HORROR FILMS ON THEM. They are fine to be used occasionally. Also, the fact Elise is able to have "super powers" of sorts in The Further is a ridiculous addition to the Insidious canon, WHY HAVEN'T WE SEEN ANYONE DO IT BEFORE?!? It looks ridiculous at points to say the least. Also, the introduction of how some characters met seemed so forced, along with the chemistry that becomes of them later in the film. It was cringe worthy to watch. Also, the film suffers from a lack of an interesting colour scheme that the first film even had, only the iconic red door still stands. Additionally I must say, the dad's performance of him being a struggling father was just so overplayed.

Now finally I must make 2 more points as to why the film ultimately fails. The plot is so bland, boring and uninspired that it is literally kind of annoying to watch. The first 2 Insidious films wrapped themselves round each other quite nicely plot wise but this film is just typical "girl tries to contact someone. Girl gets haunted. Girl almost gets possessed/ taken. Family call for spiritual help. Family save daughter." HOW MANY TIMES HAVE WE SEEN THIS? WHY MAKE A PREQUEL THAT DOESN'T EXPAND ON ANYTHING IF THE PLOT IS THE MOST UNINSPIRED STEREOTYPICAL HORROR SCRIPT EVER?!??!?!

And that brings me into my last point, the connection between the films. This film isn't the third film, it is a prequel so I was already a bit annoyed about the title. This film then also has no connection to Insidious 1 OR 2, other than the red demon from the first film popping up at the end. THAT IS HOW YOU CONNECT THE FILM AND SELL IT AS A PREQUEL?!??!? The film shows promise for what they can hopefully do in Chapter 4 but don't count on seeing anything originally scary here. Just get that popcorn in your lap firmly and wait for the jump scares to pop out as usual, which by the way, a lot of them were even in the trailer.