Insidious Chapter 3

Director: Leigh Whannell
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson
Strengths: Sound Effects, Story, Acting
Weakness: Overcomplicated plot
Runtime: 97 minutes
Rating: 4/5

Plot: A prequel set before the haunting of the Lambert family that reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.

Review: If you were expecting Chapter 3 to be a continuation of 2, then you are sadly mistaken. While we all want to know the new story of Elise, it would have to wait as Chapter 3 deals with another haunting that takes place before the Lambert family of the first two films. Here we find a much more vulnerable Elise who abstains from the spirit world as she is mourning the death of her husband. The victim in this film, Quinn seeks out Elise to contact her recently deceased mother. Elise reluctantly agrees but stops immediately as she feels the approach of an entity hell-bent on killing her. Unbeknownst to both Elise and Quinn, a new demonic presence gets attached to Quinn and with each passing day, its hauntings get more and more pronounced as it tries to add Quinn's soul to The Further. Quinn finds herself torn between the living dimension and the dimension of the dead and only with the assistance of Elise, and a spiritual guardian, can she truly be rescued from this demonic entity. Furthermore, we see Elise overcome her own fear and become the strong paranormal investigator we see in the first and second Insidious chapters.

The actors' performances were particularly praise worthy. Stefanie Scott did a fantastic job of portraying the young and innocent Quinn as she faces forces that can't be explained. Lin Shaye delivers yet another strong and lovable performance as Elise.

Usually, any film that starts to stretch beyond two films or more usually end up with degraded standards in terms of story. This is particularly true for horror films because it gets harder to scare audiences with the same plotlines. Insidious though, seems to be an exception, for now at least. Chapter 3 delivers a strong story, albeit a little complicated, fantastic characters, and some seriously spooky scares guaranteed to have you crawling under the blanket and scream like a little child.

Reviewed by Intisab Shahriyar