Kyle Warner
  • Home
  • Books
    • In the Shadow of Extinction
    • Rakasa
    • Death's Good Intentions
    • The Greater Evil
    • The Man with the Devil's Tongue
    • Blood Child
    • Brain Mold
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact
Kyle Warner's

BLOG SPACE

31 Days of Horror: Film #14 Insidious Chapter 3

10/15/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
31 Days of Horror: Film #14 INSIDIOUS CHAPTER 3
 
When James Wan makes a movie, I buy a ticket. I like the guy. He has a good sense of pace, he’s inventive with his use of the camera, and he consistently makes some of the best horror movies of modern cinema. Though his best ghost story was The Conjuring, I thought that Insidious was a smart supernatural horror film with shades of Stephen King all done up in an original package. In Insidious, Wan and longtime collaborator Leigh Whannell (Saw) created a deep supernatural world with its own built-in mythology.
 
When you call out to a dead loved one, all the dead can hear you, and sometimes you draw them to you. The bad ghosts exist in this dark world called the Further, which can be accessed by mortals through dreams or psychic séances. A sequel came out a few years later and Insidious Chapter 2 built upon the world of the first film, but largely managed to make things more confusing and muddled. Overall I like Insidious Chapter 2, but it’s undeniably a step backwards in quality.
 
With Insidious Chapter 3, writer Leigh Whannell makes his directorial debut, taking over for Wan who was busy filming Furious 7. Instead of continuing the story of the characters from the first two films, Chapter 3 makes the decision to go back in time and tell a prequel set a few years before the events of the original film. Chapter 3 could’ve easily gone forward from the end of Chapter 2, except to do so would mean being without the best Insidious character, psychic Elise played by Lin Shaye. Considering this, I actually like the decision to go with a prequel on this occasion. All other links to the other two films are background noise to a new story about a teenage girl who tries communicating with the ghost of her mom but ends up attracting a menacing spirit instead.
 
Insidious Chapter 3 is a step above Chapter 2, but it lacks the style and newness of the original film, making it the second best film in the series so far. The film understands the haunting horror movie territory well and the scares and jumps register with surprising consistency. The evil spirit is original and fits this weird universe well. It’s a good little ghost story, one that can be enjoyed whether you’ve seen the original films or not. Lin Shaye is great as the psychic Elise. Shaye is a character actress with over 150 credits and has horror cred that dates back to the original Nightmare on Elm Street, and despite all of this she still feels like a recent discovery.
 
Insidious Chapter 2 ended with me wondering whether they’d run out of ideas for the series. After Chapter 3, I’d welcome more movies with Elise and her gang hunting down evil spirits, with the original films still lurking somewhere over the horizon as the end of the story.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Kyle Warner

    Writer of horror, science fiction, and dark fantasy. Lover of fiction and film. Lifelong Godzilla fan. Reluctant blogger.

    I also write the occasional book review over at Goodreads, I contribute film reviews to City on Fire, and I'm a staff writer at Scriptophobic.

    Picture

    Subscribe to the author's newsletter! Be the first to know about new releases, special deals, and even receive a few exclusives!

    * indicates required
    Email Format

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Tweets by KyleWarner3000

    Donate!

    Picture

    Archives

    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013

    RSS Feed


    Blog notice: mostly this blog is for sharing my thoughts and talking about my books. From time to time I will also comment on books, films, music, sports, and/or videogames. During these times I may use images of the creative works under discussion.  I'm posting the images under the "fair use" allowance, for purposes such as criticism, comments, reporting, teaching, and research. If you have any issue with images used on this blog, please contact me and the images will be removed.
    I am not paid for my reviews and I do not take book review requests at this time.
© Kyle Warner 2017

  • Home
  • Books
    • In the Shadow of Extinction
    • Rakasa
    • Death's Good Intentions
    • The Greater Evil
    • The Man with the Devil's Tongue
    • Blood Child
    • Brain Mold
  • Blog
  • About Me
  • Contact