Gramercy Pictures (I), Stage 6 Films, Entertainment One,
Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Lin Shaye
You may recall the Lambert family who had horrible problems with demons trying to steal their children and bring them over to the dark side in Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2. A kind and gentle lady named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) helped them to defeat the demon. Well this is a few years before the Lambert story and is a prequel to the other two films. Elise has given up helping people using her psychic abilities because an evil force on the dark side is threatening to kill her, but when Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) turns up on her doorstep asking for help in contacting her deceased mother, Elise explains that she cannot help. But when it becomes obvious that an evil demon is trying to steal Quinn’s soul, she has to step up. This prequel is the story of how Elise overcame her fears and returned to the business of helping out families like the Brenner’s who really need her, and why she was available to help the Lambert’s in the first two movies.
I had the experience of seeing both Insidious and Insidious Chapter Two in a special event at AMC when Chapter 2 was released. I have always felt that the Insidious movies were among the scariest of the new batch of horror films. Both really terrified me. So I was sure I would run out and see Chapter 3 on opening day. For some reason, I put it off, and never got around to watching it. It’s rare that I miss a decent horror film in the theater, as the big screen is so much fun to watch horror films. But it came out this week on DVD, and I really wanted to see it. We waited till dark and put it on the Plasma TV, the biggest in the house, turned out the lights and turned up the sound. It definitely was not as good as the first two, which I rated higher in both cases, but I really enjoyed it. There were a number of times my wife screamed out loud, and I can imagine those were real good theater moments with their big sound systems. But the story is not nearly as complex as the first two, and unlike them, which twisted and turned us around, this was very linear. I cannot say this is as great as the first two were, but at the same time, I would say this is a must see for true horror fanatics such as I. The back fill of how Elise got to the point that she is in was very interesting and we learned more about her. She was definitely the star of the first two films and we didn’t get to know near enough of her story before. I feel like this was a great add to the story, and I would recommend watching them in chronological order, Chapter 3, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2, in that order for a great experience, especially if you have forgotten the first two, or if you have not seen any of these. It’s a superb horror trilogy and well worth the time spent enjoying them all.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
