With the Lambert clan safely free of the colorful demon that
terrorized them in the first two Insidious films, Insidious: Chapter 3 moves backwards rather than forwards
to another haunted family. Series co-writer and co-star Leigh Whannell makes
his directorial debut, taking over for his highly-successful partner James Wan,
who has moved up to bigger things with Furious
7 and the upcoming Aquaman. Whannell, a gifted
screenwriter when it comes to things that go bump in the night, crafts a
compelling origin story for the franchise's popular psychic, Elise (Lin Shaye),
but this trip to the Further is sorely lacking in the ominous atmosphere that
Wan so effortlessly created.
The Elise we encounter now is no longer
the confident ghost hunter we're familiar with; at this point in her life she's
retired due to an evil spirit that has promised to kill her if she keeps using
her psychic gifts. So when she's approached by 15-year-old Quinn Brenner
(Stefanie Scott) who desperately wants to contact her deceased mother Lilith,
Elise is reluctant at first. Her compassion wins out, though, and she
eventually agrees to make contact, only to realize the spirit she communicated
with isn't Lilith...it's something more...insidious. She leaves Quinn with a
simple warning we know is destined to be ignored: “If you call out to one
of the dead, all of them can hear you.”
Whannell struggles to conjure up anything
approaching a unique scare, relying on jump scares and bland musical bumps
telegraphed from a mile away. That doesn't mean there aren't a few surprises,
like the bone-shattering accident that leaves Quinn vulnerable to the demon's
possession. Her desperate father (Dermot Mulroney), a single dad cracking under
the pressure, can't make heads or tails of it when his injured daughter starts
getting dragged around the house by unseen forces with sticky protoplasmic
feet.
The film works best when filling in the
gap left by the prior movies. Not only do we learn of Elise's tragic past,
making her more of a sympathetic character than ever, but we also see the
introduction of ghostbusting duo Specs and Tucker (played by Whannell and Angus
Sampson), plus where the name "The Further" comes from. We also learn
the identity of the veiled spirit that took possession of Patrick Wilson's
character in the very first movie.
Whannell doesn't have Wan's gift for
carefully orchestrated tension, however, leaving the film almost entirely
devoid of suspense. On the plus side, Shaye's performance is so good that we're
never bored when she's around. It's good to see her finally get a rare
headlining role and she makes the most of it. This franchise truly belongs to
her, and if it continues they need to find ways to bring her back. That's if it
continues, though, and unfortunately Insidious:
Chapter 3 doesn't give us any
reason that it should.
Rating: 2 out of 5
