Insidious: Chapter 3

Although I believe Insidious (chapter 1) is one of the most ARTSY, VIVID, TERRIFYING and brilliant horror movies of all time, this film, Insidious Chapter 3 has got to be one of the worst movies in all history of cinema. Except for one scene near the beginning of a creepy man waving in the distance, this movie is not scary. It is full of cheap scares that were supposed to be startling, but did not make me jump, or feel terror. (Like in this film)-Something simple like the presence of an entity in your room is NOT SCARY like hearing a creepy man whispering on your baby monitor (as in the first films.) This movie was not any scarier than Goosebumps. The acting was not better than Goosebumps. I honestly felt like I was watching a Halloween special on the Disney channel; As the first Insidious nearly made me crap my pants, and kept me from sleeping by my window that night. Yes, I saw them both in theaters. This is not an Insidious movie. Wasn't impressed with Chapter 2 either. These sequels were a disappointment and a sad loss at what could have been a fantastic, original horror movie trilogy. I will always think the first film is very original and terrifying; the content was not like any other horror movie. But the second and especially the third film may sadly ruin the reputation of the first.

Insidious 3 relies on the heavy theme coping with loss, starting within the characters and extending directly to the viewers. Quinn has lost her mother and launches the plot forward because of her attempts to contact her. Quinn's father has lost his wife and has trouble coping with the fact that he has to parent his two children alone; throughout the movie, he also seems as if he's lost his motivation for each scene, leading to the inability to cope with the emotions in which he should deliver each line. Elise is everyone's favorite psychic, and she herself has some loss as well. Her husband committed suicide, and she decides to abandon her gift after the attempts at contacting him lead to a woman threatening her with death. She also loses her husband's sweater, and that kind of stinks for her. It smelled just like him. The demon taking a hold of Quinn has lost the ability to breathe, and has trouble really expressing himself except for a kind, tender moment he has at the end stroking the face of a semi-corporeal Quinn within the further world. Quinn loses her ability to walk. Quinn has a brother whose only purpose in this film is to suggest an introduction of two familiar characters to the series or else the audience would feel cheated if they never showed up. Her brother loses his chance to be involved in the ending. The screenwriter couldn't take on the challenge of including him in any meaningful way. That's where the loss and coping effect starts to happen with the audience. We are introduced to characters that show up and never return. Quinn's friend, it seems like her best friend, just disappears halfway through. Quinn's love interest, the last we hear of him he is staying at his grandma's house. Poor Jeris Poindexter loses his wife, and we never see him interact with the plot in any meaningful way. The director/screenwriter gives and takes away. What is the point in shoehorning characters in the plot that do nothing? This movie is so incredibly lazy. This movie is so incredibly manipulative. Atmosphere is replaced with silence which is ear wrenchingly interrupted with jump scares. So many jump scares: the bane of modern horror. People who watch this won't get scared, they'll get startled. And the sentiment isn't a result from caring about the characters, it's from the director/screenwriter pulling on a social milieu of losing a loved on; we as an audience, as human beings, sympathize with this complete base feeling of loss as we internally direct how we would feel if we lost a mother or a wife. This is emotional manipulation on the part of the director/writer. Emotional pandering at its worst. We as an audience feel the loss of losing any character development within the plot, especially for those side characters. They are excess weight holding down this movie. We lose any meaningful shot composition, and are left with flat camera angles. We lose any character development, no one really learns anything except that we should really avoid trying to talk to dead people. Let's hope this is the last remnants of the awful jump scare movies. An audience deserves a cold and articulate atmosphere.

Not a terrible movie by any stretch of the imagination, but sadly nowhere near the standard of the first two Insidious movies. I found the characters pretty flat and uninteresting and the story less imaginative than the previous installments. That said, as a stand alone it's not a bad horror film, especially considering it was a first attempt at directing by the guy who usually does the screenplay. I will admit to jumping out of my seat on more than one occasion whilst watching. It certainly doesn't lack in scares, what it does lack is depth, there isn't enough going on between the "jumps". By all means, go and see this film, just don't expect it to match the brilliance of the first two.