The third chapter in the Insidious franchise is released today. Are you scared yet?
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| "Go away, Patrick Wilson. You can't come in." |
Midway into Insidious:
Chapter 3, the heroic medium Elise says ‘I can’t keep doing this
anymore’. After a while of the stale
mediocrity that unfolds over the course of two hours, you’ll be thinking the
same. Say what you will about the first Insidious film, ridiculous asides
involving Darth Maul or not, the low-budget Poltergeist
knock-off had just enough genuinely unsettling moments in it to make it
worth your while. It had an effectively
creepy atmosphere, spine tingling soundtrack and a notion of a neitherworld
existing between life and death where demons frequent. While exercising all the tropes of the evil
spirts oriented haunted house thriller, the film still managed to carve just
enough of its niche out to separate itself from the rest of the pack.
Co-written by co-star Leigh Whannell, Insidious’ success was due in large part
to Saw, The Conjuring and Furious 7 director
James Wan’s confident and controlled direction.
The material aims low but Wan takes it higher than it probably
deserves. Having signed off on the
second entry, which to some comes into its own and for others feels like more
of the same, Wan was ready to leave Insidious
and its creator Whannell behind.
Stuck without a director, Whannell took it upon himself to both star in
and direct what proved to be by far the weakest and cheapest looking entry of
the series, Chapter 3. Without spoiling anything, let it be said the
series has now reached the equivalent of Paranormal
Activity: The Marked Ones, where you can make whatever movie you want and
sell it purely on the basis of the connections
to the series.
A sort of prequel to the first two movies, Chapter 3 sets itself apart somewhat
with how Elise (Lin Shayne) fulfills her obligations as psychic successor to Poltergeist’s Tangina Barrons. Chapter
3 is something of an unfrightening letdown with half of the technical
proficiency of Wan’s offerings. It
breaks my heart to say this, but beyond Blumhouse and producer Oren Peli making
yet another killing at the box office, Chapter
3 really has no business being in the theater. Now some of you will attest Whannell is
entitled a second chance considering it’s only his debut as a film director,
but for all intents and purposes, the difference between Wan’s craft and
Whannell’s inexperience behind the camera is unmistakable. Where Wan managed to use the budgetary
limitations to his advantage and felt like a professionally made PG-13 horror
thriller, Chapter 3 feels not unlike
tween melodramas produced by CW for Warner Brothers. For a first time director, Whannell pats
himself on a back whenever he’s onscreen with annoying egocentrism not seen
since M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the
Water. We know Whannell has written
these films. It says so on the opening
credits. Do we really need him to come
out and say it in broad daylight?
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| "Gee. I really hope evil spirits like cell phones cause I can't put this one down." |
Fans of the Insidious
franchise will get the expected jump scares with the soundtrack blasting
loud whenever it wants to resort to startling you. Other than trying to sink its teeth into
Elise, Chapter 3 just doesn’t do a
whole lot in the way of creating
genuine scares or a compelling storyline.
We’ve seen the demonic possession and neitherworld story done to death
over the last forty years and judging from this and the numerous trailers before
the film, the trend isn’t on its way out anytime soon. Elise comes into her own but the rest of the
cast, including the irrepressible Dermot Mulroney as the young possessed girl’s
father, tend to get lost in the shuffle.
Besides changing a couple characters around and setting it at a timeframe
prior to the first two movies, the new Insidious
feels like a disappointingly average retread of familiar territory. While that doesn’t necessarily make it bad,
it doesn’t make it good enough to recommend.
Intended to be scary, Chapter 3 bores
viewers to tears despite its valiant attempts to frighten beyond abruptly
blaring the soundtrack up loud. Not that
the other movies were masterpieces, per se, but that they still held your
interest and were worth seeking out despite Darth Maul briefly reappearing
before making an unwanted cameo near the very end. I’m all for horror that relies mostly on
shadows, claustrophobia and atmosphere, but Whannell pretty clearly has turned
over a sophomore effort beneath the abilities of his colleagues and
contemporaries. If you were me, I’d pass
on this unnecessary and tiresome prequel.
There’s just not enough new here for us to get worked up over. Oh well.
I suppose it was marginally better than Poltergeist II: The Other Side.
-Andrew Kotwicki