A twisted new tale of terror begins for a teenage girl and her family, predating the haunting of the Lambert family in the earlier movies and revealing more mysteries of the otherworldly realm The...
Insidious Chapter 3 journeys further back into the "Further" with further jump scares and a commonplace plot. Long-time collaborator Whannell takes the helm in what is his directorial debut, a prequel to Wan's insanely popular franchise. The Lambert haunting is done and closed (for now, until Blumhouse desire more money...), which begs the question "is a prequel truly necessary?". The simple answer is no. Yet, to dismiss this chapter entirely would be unfair, as there is a slight layer of thematic depth that makes the obnoxiously loud jump scares tolerable. A teenager tries to contact her deceased mother, only to be followed by a malevolent force who wants her soul.
The "Man Who Can't Breathe". He may not be as memorable or antagonising as Darth Maul or the 'Woman In Black' (the originality is extraordinary...), but he certainly irritates with that crackling oxygen mask and his feet constantly dipped in tar. To be fair to Whannell, attempting to continue Wan's creation by mimicking his directorial style is no easy task. The man is a modern horror icon. And there are moments, such as when the demon is casually waving to Quinn in the distance in complete silence (only to be Grand Theft Auto'd by the quietest car ever...), where the atmospheric aesthetic truly works. The piercingly loud jump scares that destroyed my subwoofer and my ears? Not so effective. They're predictable and hold no creepiness at all.
What does work however, is the dynamics between the father and daughter. The relatable instance that they find themselves in proves to be a prickly relationship that needs mending. The ghostly apparitions acts as a catalyst for the father's realisation that he is losing his daughter. There's a level of emotional influx that enables the characters to resemble actual humans as opposed to typical horror tropes that plague the genre.
The real icing on the cake though is Shaye's involvement. Don't get me wrong, she was decent in the previous instalments. However this prequel explores her retirement and melancholy, building her character to be, again, an actual human being. She isn't just this heroic demonologist that launches entities across a room whilst taunting the words "come on, b*tch!" (Totally badass though!). No. She is vulnerable, like you and I, an empathic glimpse that allows us to connect with her.
Unfortunately, the final act when she ventures into the "Further" (which she quickly trademarks with no real exploration) sees Whannell cram as many nods to the Lambert haunting as possible and barely focuses on the current story. Carl sharing photos of a young Josh Lambert, as if that's the only successful case she's done. The "Bride in Black" haunting Elise all these years for no apparent reason. And, predictably, the "Red-faced Demon" peeps in to say hello right at the very end, concluding on a jump scare.
It's a prequel of two halves. As a horror film, it's mainstream nonsense with absurdly loud jump scares and forced continuity for the sake of continuing on a franchise. But as a drama, there is depth. There is reason. There is something! The characters and the respective performances eclipse a weak screenplay that just about holds some thematic substance and atmosphere.
