Insidious: Chapter 3

Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell and Lin Shaye.

Director: Leigh Whannell

Release Date: 2015

Running Time: 1hr 37 minutes

Genre: Horror

Rating: PG-13

Format: 

Synopsis:

The prequel before the haunting story of the Lamberts, chapter three reveals how gifted psychic Elise reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous spiritual entity.

The prequel to the original movie. Leigh Whannel's directorial debut. Elise Rainier is a very withdrawn and quiet psychic, due to bad experiences in the past she's stopped her readings, however when Quinn Bremner knocks on her door asking for her help everything changes. The Bremner family is pretty broken after the sudden death of their mother Lily. Quinn confides in Elise in the hope she can contact her mother for her, although she is able to contact the dead, she doesn't contract her mother, instead an evil presence. If you are familiar with the first two movies then you'll certainly be familiar with writer Leigh Whannell who wrote two fantastic storylines for "Insidious" and "Insidious: Chapter two", in all honesty I can't quite tell what went wrong here. It's not a bad movie for someone who hasn't directed a movie before, but even the storyline is nowhere near as good as the first two movies.

Chapter three reminds me too much of "Ouija" by first time director Stiles White. A young girl desperatly tries to contact someone, only for bad things to start happening almost immediately which essentially is what happens in this movie. The only difference being that Quinn doesn't use an Ouija board to contact her mother. Stefanie Scott isn't an actress I am very familiar with, her performance isn't too bad, but it's not exactly oscar winning either. It certainly doesn't compare to the performances in the original movies. There are two many elements in this movie that were completely pointless, Quinn going for an audition at a theatre, that would be fantastic if the movie was more about that, except it isn't. The friendship that she shares with her friends, although they are only seen twice through out the whole movie. A potential love interest that doesn't go anywhere. All pretty pointless really. It's almost like having something for the sake of having it. Although James Wan does make a nice appearance as the theatre director at Quinn's audition. It's just a shame he wasn't behind the camera.

In all honesty I'm quite dissapointed with this film, the first two movies were absolutely haunting, sadly this movie doesn't give off that vibe at all. There are a few moments that are some what scary, but even then it's due to jump scares. The main character isn't scary, there's no backstory, no characterization, there's not even really an explanation as to why she see's this character, all that is explained is that Elise is frightened to help due to an important character that makes an appearance in the other movies, that tries to kill her in this one. Which understandably is where this movie comes in as a prequel. The first two movies were beautifully written, was it poor direction that was the problem here, more so then the storyline? Lin Shaye completely and one hundred percent steals the show in this movie, her performance is just as good in this one as it is in the first two. I love the backstory that was given for her character. The movie itself sadly is quite boring. It takes ages to get going and once it does nothing particularly special happens.

Visually there isn't a lot happening to be honest, it's not a bad looking movie, Whannell has chosen to use some really nice close ups of the actors, but once again nothing special. In all honesty it's a pretty poorly directed movie. James Wan had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts with "Furious 7", sometimes it's best to leave it to the professionals. The production design isn't great, mainly set around Quinn's apartment, it's where the majority of the action takes place, there are however some nice scenes at Elise's house, I love that they've chosen to use the same house and the same elements from the first couple of movies, Elise's reading room, her dice etc. The lighting is good but it doesn't build up any tension or suspense. The jump scares really ruin this movie, it's almost too predictable.

This could have been a really great horror movie, but sadly it wasn't. There wasn't enough focus put into the evil spirit, instead it was just thrown onto the screen for an audience to look at, the whole point of the first two movies was that you truly knew their backstory and you understood why they were after the Lambert family. The characters were complex and frightening. There just isn't anything in this movie to tell the audience that. A couple of wet footprints on the floor, a man who can't breathe, it's a bit disappointing to be honest. Not bad for a directorial debut, but could have been so much better! It's a no from me.

2/5 stars