
Insidious: Chapter 3 takes the story back to the beginning, set before the events of the first two films. We follow the story of a teenager named Quinn (Stefanie Scott). Convinced her dead mum is watching over her, she visits retired psychic Elise (Lin Shaye), who reluctantly agrees to help her. However, the problem with contacting one member of the dead is that you open up an opportunity for all of them to respond. And one unexpected visitor does just that, latching itself to Quinn in an attempt to bring her into its demonic world where it wishes to enslave her. This visitor's name? The Man Who Can't Breathe (Michael Reid MacKay), and he gives the Darth Maul looking mother fucker from the first film a run for his money.
Unfortunately, The Man Who Can't Breathe isn't the only demonic presence in this movie, as an old enemy of Elise's makes an appearance or two. Or future enemy. I'm not sure. This appearance is, of course, the bride (Tom Fitzpatrick). The character feels incredibly out of place, and really just serves as yet another connection to the first two movies. There's even a scene between the bride and Elise towards the end of the movie that's the most ridiculously hilarious scene in any horror movie from the last few years. It's stupid as hell and had my entire theatre laughing.
An aspect of the first two Insidious movies that I absolutely loved was the performances. Performances in horror movies are known to be so-so, but under the direction of James Wan, what could go wrong? When it came to Insidious: Chapter 3, again, I was worried, especially since the main actress is a former Disney Channel star, and we all know how that usually turns out. Usually. Surprisingly, she's great in the film, allowing us to buy into the terror and also adding a relatable side to the character. In fact, she puts the actor of her father to shame, out-acting him in every way.
To sum up, Insidious: Chapter 3 appears to be more of the same, but it actually has a few tricks up its sleeve. It can go from being super creepy to super laughable, but there's just enough of the earlier one to make for an entertaining movie.