Zombies Ruin Everything

Stars: Lin Shaye, Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney, Angus Simpson, Michael Reid McKay

Rated PG-13 for violence, frightening images, some language and thematic elements, 97 minutes, Horror/Thriller

Compare to: The previous Insidious films (2010, 2013), Annabelle (2014)

Oh no, the dreaded third film. It can’t be as good as the first but it’s got to make you think it’s relevant enough that you should see it. Well, it seems the director of the first two, James Wan, was too busy with Furious 7 to direct and left his writing/producing partner Leigh Whannell in charge.

And as his first time directing, I have to say that I’m looking forward to seeing him do better somewhere down the line. Because I like him, and the work he’s done previously, but this thing bored me nearly to death.

Certain she’s receiving calls from her mother from beyond the grave, college-bound teen Quinn goes to see the psychic Elise. Her intuition serves her correctly that it is a call from beyond the grave…it’s just not her mother. Soon begins a fight for Quinn’s soul as Elise attempts to force away the malicious spirit haunting the young girl in her family. A prequel to the first film.

Freeze you’re it

I wanted to like this one more than I did. I’m a fan of the first and thought the second was “worthy” if you will. Both did a good job at keeping the effects practical and stayed closer to a more eerie tone than it did destroying your ear drums with fake scares. There are certain aspects of it other Horror films don’t have the guts to try.

But Chapter 3 is just kind of…bland. I hate saying it, but I was bored for the first hour or so of an hour and a half long movie. I’m not going to say that I was about to leave, but I did imagine myself walking down the stairs and out the door a couple times. That’s not the same as getting ready to leave, but it’s pretty close. So many fake scares in this one, there’s one scene that only has them. A terrified Quinn has to deal with her ghostly visitor walking toward her and disappearing four times in the same scene. Every time he gets close, she screams and he disappears, only to try again seconds later. Do I need to tell you how old that got?

I like that between The Conjuring and Insidious, the creative teams actively involve characters aware of what’s going on, or at least have some connection to the supernatural beforehand. It makes the viewing so much easier to not have every other character stumbling around the corners of a creepy house wondering what they’re going to find, while the rest of the characters are made up of the people that don’t believe them.

I don’t want to make this movie out to be like it was Annabelle or Ouija bad, even with my Annabelle comparison up top. I was just really hoping something would happen before the last twenty minutes of the movie. And I mean, it would be really hard to be as bad as Annabelle was.

Oh no it’s under the bed. Oh, it’s just the cat. Oh no it’s in the closet. Oh it’s just a pervert. Oh no it’s behind me. oh it doesn’t matter.

Positives: Good, likable cast for the most part, certain creepiness found in these films is still there.

Negatives: So, so slow. Fake scares galore, some forced humor.

Grade: C-

This entry was posted on 06/05/2015 at 2:50 am and is filed under Reviews! with tags horror, Insidious: Chapter 3, movie review, movies with out of body experiences. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.