Review

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 – The Review

By Melissa Howland | June 4, 2015

The INSIDIOUS brand has certainly carved out a name for themselves in the horror world, but does the third installment, INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3, deliver?

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 is a prequel to the first two films. Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) is convinced that her late mother is trying to contact her. She has tried to reach out, with no success, and decides to seek out the help of a psychic named Elise (Lin Shaye).

Elise warns Quinn not to try contacting her mother again after seeing a dark figure, but Quinn ignores her warning and invites evil into her bedroom. With the help of two parapsychologists named Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Leigh Whannell), Elise ventures into ‘The Further’ to save Quinn from the demon before she is lost forever.

Director Leigh Wannell did a fantastic job of making this film a bit darker than the other films. His imagery is incredible, and he really gives the character of Elise the power that we’ve always wanted her to have. Having said that, this film relies far too much on jump scares for my taste. I know I’ve bitched about this in the past, but horror films need to have a proper balance of thrill in the storyline without solely relying on yelling ‘boo’ at the audience. Every time they build suspense in this film, they ruin it by jumping out at the viewer. Let the story stand by itself at parts. Jeez!

The acting was fantastic. Lin Shaye is incredible, as usual, and we finally get to see her kick some butt! Stefanie Scott is the perfect mix of sweet and strong as Quinn. She’s incredibly likable, and deserves a great deal of credit for spending the majority of the film immobile!

I have mixed feelings about this film. On one hand, I really like the direction that they went, and the actors are enjoyable to watch. On the other hand, they kept taking me out of the moment with all of their cheap scares. I guess you’ll just have to decide for yourselves!