Aussie director Leigh Whannell delivers more of the same with Insidious: Chapter 3

REVIEW: Fans hellbent on collecting the Insidious set will be content enough with this third chapter from director Leigh Whannell.

Insidious: Chapter 3 (M)

Director Leigh Whannell (feature debut)

Starring: Lin Shaye, Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell.

Rating: **

The first two Insidious films were wishy-washy exercises in home-brand horror: cheapish chillers that were economical with the hard line scares, and inoffensively forgettable on all other fronts.

As for Insidious: Chapter 3, the best that can be said is that it modestly delivers more of the same.

Plotting-wise, we find ourselves in prequel territory from the get-go, with the franchise’s mystic mascot Elise (71-year-old Lin Shaye, who truly kicks it hard when key scenes need it here) now assuming a central role in proceedings.

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Scene from the film INSIDIOUS 3. Sony Pictures.

Elise is looking to slap the silencers on a loud paranormal presence rapidly ruining the lives of a doofus widower dad (Dermot Mulroney) and his inquisitive/incapacitated teenage daughter (Stefanie Scott).

Fans hellbent on collecting the Insidious set will be content enough with what transpires. For everyone else, there’s little point hitching a ride on the bandwagon this late in the journey.

Now that regular Insidious director James Wan is a major-league moneymaker (courtesy of a $2 billion gross for Fast & Furious 7, currently the fourth highest-grossing film of all time, stats nerds!), his good buddy and series creator Leigh Whannell calls the shots.

As far as feature directorial debuts go, Whannell does not exactly cover himself in glory with a disappointingly tentative, derivative effort.

In particular, a plodding first hour could really have used a more aggressive and enthused line of attack than the tired tropes (such as turning up the sound to 11 when a fright hits) repeated here.