Insidious 3 Review

It’s difficult to scare me when it comes to horror films.  There’s a very short list of them that I consider well done and most of those are over 20 years old and include zombies (Thank you, George A. Romero).  That said, I thought the first Insidious was creepy enough. I actually don’t even recall seeing the second one but this one seemed promising.

Summary:
After teen Quinn Brenner (played by Stefanie Scott) loses her mom, a year and a half later she believes she is sensing her spirit.  She makes efforts to contact her in the afterlife and to do so she reached out to psychic Elise Rainier (played by Lin Shaye). Unfortunately Elise is not in the best state of mind, still emotionally coping with drastic life changes and past occurrences, she is not willing to use her abilities. But once Quinn is clearly targeted by these forces, her father (played by Dermot Mulroney) turns to Elise for help. With the help of two parapsychologists, Elise explores The Further — where she discovers a demon that wants human souls.

What I Liked:

The ending developments make the film more interesting.  Unfortunately it takes too long to get to this point.

Just like in the previous films, Elise is likeable and easy to root for and understand.  I like that this character is able to continue to help anyone in need.  Quinn is definitely sympathetic and easy to root for as well, but for me it was more about her circumstances than her actual personality. Elise has the benefit of having prior films to flesh her out and allow her to grow on an audience.

What I Didn’t Like:

Though it clock in at 97 minutes, I thought it was sort of boring until the final half hour.  I would have liked more time spent in The Further (the alternate reality where the ghosts reside).  Considering the forces after them, spending more time in The Further to confront the ghosts would have made things scarier for me.

The PG-13 rating inevitably neuters the full potential of most horror films and this one isn’t any different.   To this day, The Ring remains the only PG-13 film that’s managed to genuinely scare me.

Overall: Fans of the series will definitely see this one, but if you are not familiar with this franchise and not easy to scare, you might want to look somewhere else for a more exciting time.                                                       

Rating: 2 / 5 Stars

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *