THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Director James Wan & Writer Leigh Whannell shook up the horror genre for the second time when creating the first two Insidious during the first half of the 2010s. And while Wan moved on to spark the Conjuring Unvierse, Whannell knew there was more to tell and in his directorial debut, he shared something very interesting.
PLOT
Chapter 3 takes place a few years before Dalton Lambert would be haunted. The story follows teenager Quinn Brenner who lives with her father Sean and her brother Alex (Tate Berney). With her mother Lily dying of cancer a year prior, she reaches out to retired dermatologist Elise Rainer to contact her. It doesn’t go to anyone’s liking when the latter would sense a malevolent force instead. After Quinn attends an audition for a performance arts school, she would see a mysterious figure waving at her from afar. The distraction would lead to her getting hit by a car, breaking her legs in the process. With her injury leaving her stuck at home, she would begin experiencing paranormal phenomena of a man in an oxygen mask, credited as ‘The Man Who Can’t Breathe’ (Michael Reid McKay). Every time she would be in danger from the spiritual threat, Sean would intervene before he can truly see anything. When finding tar footprints within the apartment complex, he doesn’t look into it and dismisses the possibility of it being the spirit of his wife. At one point, Quinn would be possessed the same demon and almost take her own life by throwing herself out the window. Thankfully, Sean saves her at the cost of her neck being broken in the process. After the passing of their neighbor, who claimed to have heard voices within the walls of the apartment complex, he comes around in reaching out to Elise for help. Apart from relating to personal loss due to the latter recently losing her husband Jack a year prior as well, she shares that her hesitance comes from encountering multiple demons that are after Quinn during her attempt to contact Lily within the purgatory dimension she later dubs ‘The Further’. Elise would try once, but another encounter with ‘The Bride in Black’ (Tom Fitzpatrick) would frighten her enough to avoid trying again. Out of options, Sean would reach out to Specs & Tucker, paranormal investigators from Alex’s favorite web series 'Spectral Sightings'. During their investigation, Quinn would get possessed by the Man Who Can’t Breathe and attack everyone until they pin her down. Elise come around in changing her mind after her colleague Carl (Steve Coulter) convinces her to help the Brenners again, reminding her how helpful she was with the Lamberts in 1986. In her second attempt, she enters the Further again and stands up to the Bride in Black. However, the Man Who Can’t Breathe disguised itself as Jack and tries to convinces her to take her life. But she sees through the lie and refuses, instead demanding Quinn to be freed. Because of her being half possessed, Elise is unable to keep on fighting the demon and has to leave the Further, believing Quinn has to finish it. However in the way out, the spirit of Grace directs her to a letter Lily wrote to her daughter before dying. As she finds it, she reaches out to her spirit to help as well. This would work as she would inspire Quinn to stand up against the Man Who Can’t Breathe. She overcomes him when removing the oxygen mask, which apparently destroys him. As Quinn would wake up on her own, she would hear her mother’s last words of wisdom from Elise. Despite the Brenner family being whole again and Elise gaining new colleagues out of Specs & Tucker, the film would end in a cliffhanger, showing the red face demon watch over the widowed Rainer.
THOUGHTS
It was a big gamble for the franchise to transition to a prequel arc after leaving behind a massive cliffhanger from Chapter 2. And while The Red Door makes up for that, I don't think it immediately diminishes what was done here. This would be the last time Whannell would be involved as a a writer and I believe he pulls off crafting what he's going for in his directorial debut. Even when you know what you're in for, the jump scares don't feel like they're repeating itself, which is a relief when you think about it because you don't want to take notice of repetition on something you enjoy. Within each jump scare by either the Bride in Black or the Man Who Can’t Breathe, you always felt like the demons were coming for you. That just proves how scared I was. While I do believe Joseph Bishara's score enhances the past terror we've felt before, I thought it was cool for him to cameo as the red face demon, while Wan cameos as the theater director. Personally speaking, I respect the direction that was being made because this one was maintaining the simple theme, being able to share how love is strong enough of conquering evil while also telling us we get stronger after saying goodbye to the ones we loss. The more we push away what troubles us, the more strength we lose. With the mix of new and returning characters, the message was crafted well enough. I gave this movie a chance off of the return of Lin Shaye's Elise, the unsung hero of the first two films. In this entry, we see how emotionally vulnerable she once was after the loss of her husband, believing her work to have pushed him away when she knew she couldn't guarantee the reason behind his action. As citizens, we can work so hard and so much to the point where we can forget why we do it. After her loss, she forgot that reaching out to spirits gives people closure. However, helping Quinn at the end gave her the chance to be at peace as well. Although her journey had just begun, we couldn't be anymore thankful for the will she brings she shares to the table. I mean we all wish we can take on demons as well as she does. Specs & Tucker may be a gullible duo, but whether or not they are frauds, Whannell & Angus Sampson both respectively show that there is always going to be a passion in what they do. They have their passion searching for the paranormal because it's important to let people know we're not alone. That reason alone explains exactly Elise became align with them by the end of it. Going into the new characters, we are rooting for Quinn from the start because Stefanie Scott portrays her to be very significant of a lady who has talent, but struggles to give her all due to her grief. She wanted to be able to say goodbye in a certain way, only for it to blow up in her face. Luckily, Elise lit the way for her to be stronger than she thought she was and take on the demon with whatever will she had left. And once she got the message she desired to hear, she was finally whole again to take her life in the direction she was hoping for. It's easy to look the other way at Sean because you make the mistake he isn't putting in that much of an effort as a dad, but Dermot Mulroney reminds us a loss in the family affects everyone differently. His kids lost a mother, but he is a guy that lost a wife and that loss made him disconnected to the point where he didn't really know how take care of his kids alone. He was not prepared like he wished and for that, the pressure was nonstop. Just because he wasn't patient with his kids does not mean he didn't care for them though because by the end, he still came around to do what was necessary to save his daughter. And with that being said, I'm sure he is in a better path like the latter is. I give this movie a lot of due credit, but it doesn’t excuse the handful of issues I picked up on during re-watching. For example, I do not blame Quinn at all for wanting to reconnect with her mom, but it’s very annoying for her to assume her spirit is making noise when she’s got neighbors on the other side of the wall. And even if the noise ain’t from them, you can’t immediately assume the dead are contacting you. I was caught off guard like everyone else when she gets hit by a car, but how come the guy at the food stand didn’t say anything? That was like the only true witness compared to her friend who could’ve warned her. I don’t want to criticize Quinn reading because I respect her being open minded, but I would never read A Clockwork Orange while recovering from an injury. When I noticed that was what she was reading, I was definitely disturbed because that’s too wild of a story to get through. I’d rather read a Doctor Seuss book than that after getting hit by a car. It was definitely a suspenseful moment when Quinn makes contact with the ghost after realizing Hector wasn’t next door at the moment, but if she knew there was a ghost, she could’ve just went to her dad as fast as she could. I even get riled up when Sean glosses over there were footprints in the apartment above him or that something touched his daughter. I know he’s in denial of what’s possible, but if he cares about her, he should look into it more than he was already willing. I don’t even understand doesn’t he take her to a psychiatrist if he wants her to have the chance of properly grieving? I know deep down he cares, but he’s clearly trying hard enough to make an effort. I even thought it was pointless for the presence of Grace (Phyllis Applegate) because all she did was mention hearing the voice of the ghost before dying of dementia. If she was there to foreshadow the chain of events, she should’ve had the chance to bring more to the table rather than have her death inspire Sean to be more open minded. I have to say something similarly with Alex because he only exists to introduce Specs & Tucker. I don’t believe any sympathy he has with his sister because neither talk to each other of ghosts or missing their mom. It would’ve been more special of a scene if the was there to hear the message from Elise. Every time he shows up I shout ‘Where the hell have you been?” because it’s weird how absent he is after Quinn’s accident. I’m glad Elise comes around in helping Quinn, but would it really be a bad idea for Carl to be a substitute for her? It’d be a smart way to show useful he truly is. And I cannot stand how Elise doesn’t investigate the red face demon after it taunts her by laying out her husband’s sweater. The worst part about it is that she doesn’t think about it at all during The Last Key and waits until Dalton is in danger to do something about it. And the demon doesn’t do shit because it then goes after Dalton instead. There was no point of it to taunt her if it wasn’t going to follow up on that. Ignore these said issues, then you’ll likely be able to enjoy this prequel for what it is. To wrap up, Insidious: Chapter 3 is a solid entry for its efforts to be creative in a different direction. If you’ve enjoyed the first two, I hope you enjoy this one as well.
If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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