Horror flick conjures scares and probably another sequel
Insidious: Chapter 3
K (out of 4) Starring Lin Shaye, Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney, Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson. Written and directed by Leigh Whannell. At GTA theatres. 97 minutes. 14A Insidious: Chapter 3 may seem more inevitable than interesting, being yet another craven bid by a horror franchise to wring every last dollar and shudder out of its audience.
Yet this prequel to the shriek hell, directed and scripted by series writer/actor Leigh Whannell, manages to avoid the Curse of the Triple Cash Grab.
It does so by going deeper into “The Further” with Lin Shaye’s ghostbusting Elise Rainier, who is a character far more compelling (not to mention durable) than the spooked Lambert family of the previous two chapters.
Demon zone The Further doesn’t even yet have a name when the picture opens, a few years prior to the Lambert hauntings.
Innocent du jour Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) journeys to the dusty abode of Elise, a renowned but reclusive psychic, seeking help in contacting the girl’s dearly departed mom.
Elise dearly wants out of the Ouija board biz, but she hears out the girl’s tale of nightly knock-knocks that could be maternal — or diabolical.
“If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you,” she warns.
No one in a horror film ever follows advice, at least not at the start. And Insidious 3 comes with the expected jump scares and impediments to good sense: a clueless dad (Dermot Mulroney), an annoying younger brother (Tate Berney), and this series’ version of comic relief: nerdy paranormal investigators Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).
Before you can scream hellzapoppin’, Quinn and her clan are in the midst of a full-on possession quest by relentless demons, led by an entity called The Man Who Can’t Breathe, who looks like the decrepit older brother of Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth from Blue Velvet.
The random and relentless nature of these attacks gives Insidious both its name and essential creepiness, with the mind curdling at the thought that the evil undead attack the living as much for sport as for a desire to consume human life force.
These Insidious freaks are also insanely messy, leaving sticky black footprints everywhere they go. All the more reason to celebrate Shaye’s plucky Elise. Not afraid of ghosts or other ghoulies, she’s ready and willing to mop the floor with these spectral invaders, no matter what dimension they’re in or how deep into the flames she must travel. When the Zombie Apocalypse comes, as it must, she’s the one you’re gonna want on your front porch, shotgun at the ready.
You just know Elise will be back at it again, sooner rather than later, in a movie that has a “4” cleverly worked into the title. These satanic slobs may be insidious, but they’re also damned good capitalists.