By Tristan Bishop
Quick! How many truly great second sequels can you think of? Nope? Me neither* – as film fans we can doubtless reel off a fairly lengthy list of sequels that improve on the original, but by part three of a series we are generally left disappointed. Whether this is as a result of a successful franchise becoming a cash cow and therefore subject to more studio tinkering, or the film-makers becoming bored with the formula and it noticeably showing is a moot point. What I do know is that the dreaded number ‘3’ suffixing a film title is generally a reason to lower your expectations accordingly. In the case of the Insidious series, the first film, although flawed, turned up at the right time: the wash of torture porn/ordeal horror had reached critical mass by 2011, and those of us sick of the sight of people tied to chairs were clamouring for a new type of fright flick. With Insidious, we got our new direction. Although heavily indebted to Tobe Hooper’s 1982 Poltergeist (itself not coincidentally now rebooted for the new generation), Insidious bought back supernatural scares instead of torturous psychopaths, and introduced the key element of fun back to mainstream horror, and films such as Sinister and The Woman In Black (both 2012) followed the spooky formula into box office success. The violence had been toned right now (almost non-existent in some of these examples), but the ghostly jump scares were given centre stage; instead of wanting to throw up our lunch we were now spilling our popcorn as we jolted in our seats.
By the time we got to Insidious 2, however, silliness had rather taken over – whereas the first film had some unpredictable twists and good laughs, we now had a parade of CGI ghosts and characters visiting spectral worlds. I must confess I don’t remember a great deal of it – I watched it on the same day as You’re Next (2011) and had a great deal more fun with Adam Wingard’s film, but I do remember thinking it was a waste of a good rental. So, I didn’t have high hopes at all for Insidious 3 – and seeing that the usually reliable James Wan had stepped away from the director’s chair to give his long-time writing partner (and actor in the Insidious films) Leigh Whannell his first directing duty made me even more suspicious – although as Whannell had written the previous films (and the first three entries in the Saw series) he might well have been the obvious choice to continue the series in the vein in which it started.
What we have here is actually a prequel. Set ‘a few years’ before the events of the first film, we have sweet teenage girl Quinn (Stefanie Scott) still coming to terms with the death of her mother a year ago, visiting psychic Elise (Lin Shaye returning from the first two films) in the hope of trying to contact the departed. Elise, having apparently had some nasty experiences with demonic spirits in the past, has decided to give up on her gift, but is so touched by Quinn that she decides to try one more reading. Of course, this is quite the mistake, and somehow Quinn ends up haunted by a grim spectre referred to as The Man Who Can’t Breathe (not a snappy name, is it?). After being distracted by a mysterious figure waving at her in the distance, Quinn gets hit by a car and ends up at home in leg casts, looked after by her father (an unimpressive turn by Dermot Mulroney). Of course, the demonic visitations increase, and Quinn and her father, realising how much danger they are in, enlist the help of not only Elise, but also ghost-hunting video bloggers Specs and Tucker (Whannell and Angus Sampson, again returning from the previous films).
There is some fun to be had with Insidious 3 – the meeting of Elise, Specs and Tucker (who of course become an unlikely team) give rise to some amusing lines, but this doesn’t happen until fairly late in the film, and by this time we’ve already had to sit through the pretty uninteresting build-up. The problem is that the central character of Quinn doesn’t even feel like a real character: the film tries to give her some indie cred by putting her in a Pixies T-shirt and having PJ Harvey posters on her wall but unfortunately it just isn’t enough, and she ends up as pretty-but-bland as a Laura Ashley catalogue. In lieu of a main character that we actually care about, we are left with zero tension and the film falls back on jump scares to entertain us – sadly many of these are fluffed (especially the shock ending, which lead a fair few of my fellow cinemagoers to loudly exclaim ‘what the fuck?’ as the credits rolled – an unsubtle but entirely fair bit of criticism, I felt), although one or two certainly hit the mark.
Another area the film could have been improved is in an exploration of the spirit worlds that Elise can enter to confront the demons. Instead we are given some guff about ‘The Further’ which is divided into ‘dark and light’ worlds; an unsatisfying and easily-digested bit of nonsense which appears to be treated so vaguely so not to offend anyone’s idea of an afterlife.
So we’re left with the aforementioned amusing moments (and look out for a James Wan cameo), and a couple of effective jump-scares. However this won’t be enough to justify a viewing, even at a fairly brisk 97 minutes, for anyone but the most undemanding of series fans.
*OK I’ve come up with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and, er, Toy Story 3. Return Of The King doesn’t count.
Insidious Chapter 3 is in cinemas now.