The four-year-old Insidious franchise continues with an uneven, but still entertaining and, at times, very creepy third entry. A prequel set a few years before the events of the prior films, the storyline turns on high-school student Quinn (Stefanie Scott), whose bid to contact the spirit of her deceased mother instead attracts the attention of a dangerous supernatural entity: an emaciated, slithering demon whose presence is announced by labored breathing and oily footprints. She and her bewildered father, played rather blandly by Dermot Mulroney, turn to franchise mainstay Elise (Lin Shaye) for aid, though she is reluctant to use her psychic power after the suicide of her husband and several foreboding encounters with another franchise mainstay, the spirit of a murderous woman in a sable bridal gown (or rather a man in drag if I my memory of Insidious: Chapter 2 serves).

Though he is still credited as a producer and even has a brief cameo in the first act, James Wan is replaced here as director by frequent collaborator Leigh Whannell, the writer of the prior Insidious films and a consistent member of the ensemble cast as one-half of a comic-relief ghost-hunting duo. This is Whannell's directorial debut, and he proves an adept replacement for Wan, a well-regarded stylist now at the helm of mega-budget tent-pole releases. There are many suspenseful sequences and nicely macabre flourishes throughout, and the antagonist (teased at first in the shadow-enshrouded distance, waving) is the most grotesque and menacing member of the Insidious rogues' gallery to date. It is the screenplay where problems arise. The film has an unusual, distracting tendency to introduce and then drop peripheral characters: Quinn's best friend, a neighbor with a crush on her, and, most strangely, her brother, a character who vanishes for long stretches and never seems overly aware of or frightened by the situation in his home. Why even include him and the others in the first place? The climax, involving, of course, a fateful trip into the world of lost and malevolent spirits (the so-called Further), is undercut by a predictable and saccharine deus ex machina. And there is even a degree of confusion as to who the protagonist of the film is: fresh face Quinn and the returning Elise are both brave, sympathetic, well-acted female characters, so it is hard too complain a great deal, but there is a sense they are competing for the limelight, with the film losing interest in the longing and torment of Quinn as it becomes more invested in the question of whether Elise will embrace her fate as a type of paranormal avenger.

B-

I thought this was a pretty solid/effective little chiller. Nothing special, but it had it's moments and it drop kicks the shit out of the Poltergeist remake and Insidious: Chapter 2 IMO. Lin Shaye and the new girl were fantastic and I'll admit that the emotional stuff going on in the third act actually kind of got to me, because it was so well done. Leigh Whannel did a solid job with this one considering it's his first directorial debut, but I've always liked the guy.

Insidious: Chapter 3

Well, it's not as bad as Chapter 2, that's for sure. Well, maybe it is. Anyway, it's still not very good. I mean, it is just limited in its scariness because of its PG-13 rating. There is no sense of dread. Instead its jump scares that aren't scary, they're just "jumpy" (and that's because of the sudden burst of sound at those times). Thankfully, though, I didn't expect much, so I'm not disappointed. I continually rolled my eyes at the badassery of action heroine, Elise, fending off evil spirits like a Kung Fu master. What has happened to this once-promising franchise, though? There are no scary moments or nightmarish imagery in it whatsoever. The man that cannot breathe is crap. Seriously crap. The black bride is wasted (and feels as though he is only included to prop up the lack of ideas for this prequel). And the final jump scare of the demon from the first film is just desperation.

C-