Unfortunately, the third time isn't always the charm. The first Insidious was daring, fresh, and disturbing; the second was intelligent and more intense, if less focused. But Chapter 3 flirts with being entirely unnecessary, which is its primary sin. But maybe I'm being a tad premature.
Leigh Whannell's new chapter (which he also directed, for the first time) distances itself almost entirely from the Lambert haunting, which we saw extensively in the first two films. Though it's sad not to see Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Barbara Hershey, those poor souls have been through hell a few times already. Now we see a totally unrelated family -- played by single dad (Dermot Mulroney) and his haunted daughter (Stephanie Scott) -- tormented by a totally unrelated evil spirit. I was a little excited that Whannell wanted to expand his universe, and I don't think he failed in doing so (we'll have to wait for another installment to be sure), but this movie only occasionally felt like an Insidious picture. His script tries, bless it, to tie itself in, using shorthand to build on characterizations (Specs, Tucker, the Woman in Black) made in other films. But maybe it wasn't the new plot or characters, though establishing them took quite a long time. Maybe it was Whannell's directing.
In fact, the only times I really felt like I was watching an Insidious picture were when our heroes journeyed into The Further, the dark limbo of demons and lost souls. But the long shots of a lone adventurer carrying a blue light through foggy shadows are too familiar now. Thank God we have Lin Shaye again, who also heroically helps tie this film in to the others. In fact, she is the only reason I would ever watch this film again. It's her movie all the way (sorry, Mulroney!), and she charges forward with her acting chops in full force, traveling the dramatic circuit from feverishly fearful to bombastically brave. Whannell seems to appreciate that Shaye's character, Elise, is the soul of these films, and finally gives her the chance to shine over the other characters. He also fleshes out her story in some unexpected ways, adding a romantic relationship, past tragedy, and previous experience to her character.
Besides Shaye, though, the film does little to remain memorable. Big buildups lead to weak payoffs (though scored loudly to make us jump), and the basic premise of a "haunting" is lost in a series of direct ghostly manifestations that cause bodily harm to our young female victim. Not unlike Chapter 2, where the "haunted house horror" became more of a "domestic invasion thriller", this film quickly forsakes bumps in the night in favor of zombies in the attic. I don't know if it's all good or all bad, but it just doesn't always feel Insidious.
That said, there are some effective scares (mostly in the frightful images, which seem to be the bloodiest in the franchise) and several effective laughs. If Whannell struggles to amp up the fear factor, he succeeds in awkward comedy, both in the disconnected domestics of the victim-family (Mulroney's "whoop-ass face" is a keeper) and in the eager antics of Specs and Tucker (Whannell and Angus Sampson with a bizarre hairstyle). He also succeeds -- perhaps unintentionally, but, again, we'll have to wait and see -- in planting seeds for further films. The three-month gap between Insidious and Chapter 3 leaves some room for more adventures with Elise, Specs, and Tucker's "Spectral Sightings" team. Or, we could venture further into Elise's past, as we did in Chapter 2, and see her earlier forays into the spirit world or her married life. Either way, we have more to see between her and the red-faced demon of the first film (which, mind, also appears in Chapter 2 and now in Chapter 3), whether before or after the Lambert haunting. I'm hoping for another "Come on, bitch," moment like she had in this movie! I may have cheered out loud at that one, and I'm not even sorry.
Who knows if James Wan and Leigh Whannell will keep up this franchise. I rather hope they do, though I think I prefer Wan's hand at this subject matter. Whannell unfortunately played it safe, and was too direct and too kinetic for my taste, but then I'm totally biased in favor of Wan's more relaxed, abstract, and detailed first film. Remember: Wan's wideshots win, every time.
And frankly, I want more Barbara Hershey.
IMDb: Insidious: Chapter 3
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