Written by Adam Mast
INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 (PG-13)
With “Insidious: Chapter 3,” Leigh Whannell (who also wrote the screenplay) takes over directing duties from his friend, James Wan, creator of “Saw.” Apparently, Wan was too busy directing a little movie called “Furious 7” and in the midst of prepping “The Conjuring 2.” And with Wan agreeing to helm both “Aquaman” and the Robotech movie, his career is showing no signs of slowing down; therefore, it was a forgone conclusion that he’d have to hand the “Insidious” franchise over to someone else. As it turns out, Whannell was the right man for the job, and for those of you who are disappointed about Wan’s departure, you’ll be happy to know that he does have a little cameo in “Insidious: Chapter 3,” so you’ll still be able to get your Wan on.
“Insidious: Chapter 3” is actually a prequel. Gone is the Lambert family, and in their place is the Brenner family. Sean Brenner (Dermot Mulroney) is reeling from the untimely passing of his wife and doing his best to provide for his teen daughter, Quinn (Stefanie Scott), and his young son, Alex (Tate Berney).
As the movie opens, Quinn reaches out to psychic Elise Rainier (played, once again, by the wonderful Lin Shaye) in an effort to contact her deceased mother, but as fate would have it, Elise—who is dealing with a tragic loss of her own—has given up on conversing with the dead, because she’s petrified by an entity that she believes will kill her if she continues visiting what she refers to as “the further.”
Still, upon learning that Quinn is being terrorized by an insidious supernatural presence that she has inadvertently come into contact with while trying to reach her mother, Elise decides that it’s time to come out of retirement, even if it means putting her own life on the line.
Some would argue that “Insidious: Chapter 3” is simply more of the same. True, it doesn’t stray too far from the old-school “spook alley” sensibility of its Wan-directed predecessors—and, once again, shades of “The Shining,” “The Exorcist”, “Poltergeist,” and “The Sixth Sense” are fairly obvious—but Whannell does manage to bring a joyful love of the genre to this picture, and he has a real knack for building tension and delivering undeniable scares (even if a few of those scares are accompanied by the obligatory abrupt musical cue). There’s also a palpable sense of loss and grief shared by several key characters in this picture, which lends “Chapter 3” a surprising amount of emotional weight. Most importantly, though, it should be noted that this is a really fun movie to take a date to. You should just be warned, however, that if you do take a date, you’ll probably have a bruised arm by the time the movie is over.
The performances are strong. Scott is terrific as a grieving teen, and she has the “I’m scared shitless” routine down to a tee. With the numerous supernatural attacks on display here, Scott is also required to take quite the physical beating in this picture, and she completely sells the helplessness of her situation. Mulroney is also solid as a father picking up the pieces after a most unfortunate loss. The movie really belongs to Lin Shaye, though. As the warm and funny Elise, this wonderful character actress is the heart and soul of the picture, and she’s positively terrific. I imagine that, if there were ever a “Poltergeist” spin off movie made about Zelda Rubenstein’s Tangina, it might look a little bit like “Insidious: Chapter 3.”
While we’re on the topic of “Poltergeist,” for my money, Whannell succeeds here where the recent “Poltergeist” redo failed. Don’t get me wrong: this isn’t a perfect work of horror. It doesn’t quite stick the landing, there’s not a whole lot of insight into the film’s primary insidious supernatural presence, and it would have been nice to see more development between Elise and the so-called paranormal experts (one of whom is played by Whannell) whom she would go on to work with in the first two “Insidious” films, but overall, if you’re into movies like this, chances are that you’re going to have a good time. “Insidious: Chapter 3” has a nice build, effective creep-out moments, and a couple of jump scares that I won’t soon forget. Furthermore, it scared the crap out of my wife! And I have the bruised arm to prove it.
