Leigh Whannell makes his feature film debut (surprising it has taken this long) with the third chapter of Insidious, a franchise he himself helped create alongside James Wan. With the fantastically creepy world of the further at his fingertips, Whannell takes the newest chapter into prequel territory, revealing how gifted psychic Elise Rainier gets back into the supernatural business when a teenage girl caught in the grasp of a dark entity asks for her help.
As a fan of the first two films (their warts and all), I really wanted to like Insidious: Chapter 3, especially with Whannell at the helm. What made the first film stand on its own was the introduction of “the further”, a world far beyond our own where the tortured souls of the dead lurk in the shadows. It’s a terrifying concept that the second film failed to capitalize on, and it’s unfortunately yet another huge mistake that Insidious: Chapter 3 makes. Rather than explore its own mythology and dig deeper into the dark realm of “the further”, Insidious: Chapter 3 becomes more of a cliched haunted house movie with countless jump scares.
Whannell has a great eye for horror and certainly knows how to pour on the creep factor, but it almost felt like the film was so worried about scaring the audience that it forgot to do everything else, like tell a good story—and worst of all, it wasn’t nearly as scary as it thought it was, and a lot of that had to do with its overuse of jump scares that ruined every ounce of tension being created throughout the film. In the end, there are some truly haunting moments in the movie that are completely wasted by predictable PG-13 scares. Bummer.
I really don’t have much to say about this movie, honestly. I think that if you really, really dig the first two films that you should give it a shot because it does offer some interesting insight into Lin Shaye’s great character Elise Rainier and how she meets up with ghost hunting tandem Tucker and Specs. Their chemistry is great and offer some fun, light-hearted moments in the movie.
My review may be somewhat harsh, but the truth is this is a big step backwards from what the first two chapters of Insidious created. We still don’t know much about the further, it’s only more of the same—a dark and foggy realm made up of creepy ghosts who smile way too much. I think Whannell was onto something here, and I still like that he went the prequel route, but it’s ultimately a missed opportunity that tells us nothing new.
2.5/5
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‘Insidious Chapter 3’ doesn’t start in Australia till next month, but I’m still keen to check it out. I’ve heard mixed things about the film but I’m hoping I enjoy it more than I did Chapter 2!
Nice, man! I Hope you like it, too. I actually enjoyed Chapter 2, so maybe Chapter 3 will be more your style. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts!
I watched Chapter 2 when I was drunk and absolutely loved it
Then watched it again sober and abjectedly hated it
So maybe I’ll just take a bottle of wine into the cinema and see how I go
Lol, that’s great and not a half bad idea either!
Bummer you weren’t a fan. I will probably try and catch it at the cinema if it comes out here. Want to support Whannell’s efforts as a director. But looks like this will not be too great.
part 1 & 2 were terrible films, in my opinion. they just seemed so slapped together when it came to the supernatural elements. although part 3 wasn’t any kind of great, i still preferred it to the first 2.
How come in chapter 3 it says already that they helped dalton already if everyone in chapter 3 are barely meeting???