Having enjoyed the first two chapters in the 'Insidious' franchise last Halloween. Myself and the missus decided to continue on this spooky season to the next entry for better or worse. and throwing even more 'danger' into the mix, this ones a prequel…

'Insidious: Chapter 3' follows the 'Saw' pathway to sequels and prequels, in the sense that it takes place just before the original 'Insidious' but because the first film jumped around in time between the *then* present and the more distant past. Characters and elements from the 'past' segments of that film end up tying back into this film helping create a firmer bridge in the narrative storytelling of this world.

Our story here is set a year or two before the first 'Insidious' and our main character is 'Quinn' a student who dreams of getting into a performing arts academy in New York, and has been handed a golden opportunity to interview for a placement there. When we meet Quinn however for the first time, she's on a somewhat different mission. As she arrives at Elise's house looking to try and make contact with her mother who passed away from Breast cancer a short time ago.

Elise politely, but firmly tells Quinn that she doesnt contact the dead anymore. But after hearing how far Quinn had travelled to meet her, and how desperate she is for closure, she reluctantly agrees…triggering a horrifying incident for her that brings the meeting to an abrupt end.

Things go from bad to worse for Quinn, when her audition flounders somewhat, and she gets increasing pressure of her Dad to 'step up' in supporting him in running the house. AND, to cap it all off. She randomly gets mowed down by a car.

The injury nearly kills her, but she just about manages to hang on. With two broken legs, a neck brace and a LOT of bruises, she's essentially bedbound and feeling very depressed about the whole incident. But when she starts hearing noises in the wall, she thinks shes found a friend…Little does she know this new found friend is anything BUT friendly…in fact, they're rather 'Insidious!'

While this goes on Elise starts to really struggle with the fact that whenever she tries to contact the dead, her special skill and a gift she's used for years, she winds up in a horrifying recurring scenario. Not only that, but her husband recently took his own life, and she's still trying to process the grief from that.

When Quinn begins to have bizarre and distinctly paranormal events happen to her, her dad reaches out again to Elise asking for help, she steps in, but is quickly overwhelmed. WIth the spirit thats invaded their apartment seemingly having untold levels of terror and a thirst to claim as many new victims as it can…it'll be down to Elise, Quinns family and some paranormal investigators to find out what is attacking Quinn and the family, and put a stop to it.

I was skeptical going into this one. The first two insidious films were fine enough, definitely enjoyable, but I felt kind of flawed…So I was pleasently surprised to find that this one, while not exactly 'groundbreaking' was a step up from the last two entries for me.

The script moves at a clip, its 98 minutes long and feels a lot shorter than that. The plots engaging, contrasting some really nice horror moments with some more lighthearted segments in a blend that I feel by this point has really been perfected. The tone of the film is consistent and has some genuinely eerie moments across the runtime. While it didnt exactly 'wow' me. I appreciated what it was trying to do, which was keep things simple, but very well done. And I feel they succeeded at that.

The act structuring is solid with nice, smooth transitions; the characters all get some nice depth and complexity, almost all of them have decent arcs that leave the characters clearly in a different place from where they started. We get a lot more backstory and depth to Elises character which is nice, and it helps set the ground work for the first film up nicely.

My only concern with this series at this point is that I feel that this series is going to encounter the same problem as the 'Saw' films have had, which is that they killed their central character in the first movie…Which means every subsequent film either has to be a prequel to the first, a film that happens in parallel with the first film, or in the case of 'Insidious' as a weird kind of 'force ghost' cameo in each movie that cant interact with the main story, but can appear to offer vague cryptic advice or to help kick the ghosts in the nads. I dont think it'll be a dealbreaker. But the more they add to this franchise with Elise as the lynch pin, the more bizarre and disjointed the series will likely become.

Other than those gripes, theres quite a good run in this! The direction here is a good solid piece of work with some nice developments on ideas brought in through the first 2 films. There are some Parallels to be drawn with the way this film is shot creatively, and the creative choices in 'The Conjuring 2' which I thought was interesting…But! whats here works well, they dont often lean on jumpscares which wins it some points in my books and they manage to give the film an unsettling feeling without having to 'try' to be scary all that much.

The cine isnt revolutionary, but this is a sturdy work with maybe a smidge too much CGI for my tastes. But shots are consistent and follow the rules. composition is interesting and engaging. with lots of nice tracking and motion shots helping create sequences that flow and ebb smoothly creating a seemingly constantly moving picture that I actually had quite a soft spot for.

Performances here were a bit up and down. Stefani Scott as Quinn is a bit of a wasted opportunity for me. shes set up as the lead, but doesnt really get much chance to shine. While she does get a reasonable range to work with, The film basically pulls her out of the hot seat around halfway into the 2nd act, and she never really gets to have the deserved level of closure that her character should have had. She gets a rushed closing to her story that, while tying off all the loose ends. Felt unsatisfying.

By contrast Lin Shaye has the opposite problem. Shes brought into the film initially as a supporting character that *should* have ended up as the B-plot soft launching her character into a more main character position that would be 'Insidious'…But as this film goes on, she slowly creeps more and more into the forefront, eventually turning the entire film into an 'Elise' movie. Her performance for the most part is really solid. But as her character slowly but surely minimises everyone elses requirement to be in this film. shes put in increasinly 'fan fiction' style scenarios that I simultaineously found a bit cringy…But also bizarrely watchable. I really like Shayes performances in these movies, because she genuinely seems to be enjoying herself and she gets a really good range to work with…But there were moments here where I really wish the scriptwriters hadnt leant on her quite so much.

The rest of the cast run a spectrum of 'Passable' to poor. and much like my comments on Shayes performance. how good/bad they are is generally determined by how much/little they're on screen. Are they a support character thats got 30+ minutes of screen time? they're pretty solid. Are they a Z-list character thats on screen collectivley for 2 and a bit minutes? they're horrendous. theres no middle ground.

And as for the soundtrack? well…they mainly stick to ambient drone here…sometimes harsh, sometimes soft. with the occasional jukebox track to break things up. Its inoffensive, but kind of unoriginal…It would have been nice for them to have tried something a bit different. Though, I will say, they use 'silence' here VERY effectively in creating horror and suspense. its particularly notable I feel.

All in all? I think this may be my favourite 'Insidious' film up to this point. Its got a decent runtime, solid cine and direction. the scripting is maybe a little basic, but sturdy. And even though I feel the characters and performances have some issues. They seem to have compensated for it by giving these characters a bit more depth and personality.

This is the first 'Insidious' film i've seen that I think i'd have absolutely no problem popping on for a rewatch in future. Its a smooth watch and perfect background fodder. I'd also be more than happy to recommend this one, and given its a prequel you could watch this one first and not really have anything spoiled in the later movies. So yeah! This halloween, check out 'Insidious 3' why dont you! its pretty good!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/insidious-chapter-3/