Review of Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) by Sonia P — 19 Oct 2015

Well, that was disappointing. I was initially hoping for an actual chronological continuation of the franchise but alas one of many things that the horror genre cannot resist is a prequel. Not that this is really a proper prequel since it has nothing to do with the Lambert family or even Ellie all that much.

Our family in peril this go around is the Brenners. Specifically Quinn Brenner who has managed to get some other being's attention while trying to contact her dead mother. Quinn is under pressure from that and her father being hella chaotic. Understandable but she's being a pill and her father is being unreasonable. Strong recipe for bad vibes, I guess. Ellie, meanwhile, turns Quinn away when she comes to her for help initially because she has sworn off using her gift thanks to a woman in black who promises to be the cause of her death one day.

I mean there's foreshadowing in prequels and there's clear attempts to link the films together. They could have done without this one. They establish that much better with the meeting and eventual partnership of Ellie, Tucker, and Specs but really, this was too much. Especially considering this film has nothing whatever to do with its predecessors.

Thankful for that really since the atmosphere is nowhere near as good. Nor do you care about anyone except Ellie. The first two films had a family you really cared about, a problem and possession that made sense and in context works (the twist in film one has taken a lot to grow on me but it has), and the second film did a surprisingly decent job at continuing and resolving the story. It really could have ended there. But yeah, as I say, horror doesn't know when to leave well enough alone sometimes. Or should I say the studios.

Anyway I liked Ellie. The whole film could have been about Ellie and her grieving process and how she got back in it and I would have enjoyed it a lot more. It had a moment when things started to get interesting but was ruined by melodrama and random filler BS because what they set up and dealt with in the first two films did not work out. Hopefully that's the end of it.