The first “Insidious” scared the living sh*t out of me.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s move on, it’s horror time! From the start, I thought “Insidious: Chapter 3″ was going to be terrible, for a few reasons:

1. Director James Wan was not returning to the franchise.

2. Stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne were not returning to the franchise.

3. The film was being handed to a first time director.

4. The trailers simply didn’t impress me.

But here we are, with “Insidious: Chapter 3,” a fairly misleading title, as the film is a prequel to the events of the first two films, but consistency is key I suppose. Writer of the first two films Leigh Whannell has stepped in to replace James Wan after he departed the franchise to direct “Furious 7,” which seemed to be a worthwhile expenditure, as the film is now the fourth highest grossing film of all time. The cast this time around is completely new and revolves around a much different storyline than with the Lambert family of the first two films. While the first film was scary as hell, “Insidious: Chapter 2″ was a solid, but wholly underwhelming and convoluted sequel, one that invalidated the wonderful open ended climax to the first film, so “Insidious: Chapter 3″ could go one of two ways, it could be better than the second chapter, but not exceed the first film, or it could be terrible, as my prediction states. Was I correct?

Survey says no.

“Insidious: Chapter 3,” despite itself, is a completely competent and surprisingly refreshing entry into the series, mirroring far more of the first film than that of the second one. While I’ve grown since the first “Insidious” movie, I can’t say that “Insidious: Chapter 3″ is scarier than the original, but it definitely provides more of the lasting chills that the original film pulled off so well rather than the jump scares that a typical PG-13 film would pull, that either “Insidious” movies have never had to fake. Included in the film, surprisingly, was a great deal of emotional heft to the film, fleshing out the characters and mythology of the universe, even in its brisk 97-minute runtime.

Stefanie Scott plays the protagonist, Quinn Brenner, a teenage aspiring stage actress still grieving over the loss of her mother to cancer. She reaches out to parapsychologist Elise Rainier, played by the familiar, and simply wonderful Lin Shaye. Rainier warns Quinn to avoid calling out to her mother, as she would most likely call forth more malevolent spirits as well, but she is too late in warning her, as she is beginning to experience paranormal activity (ba-dum-tsssss) in her house after getting hit by a car and becoming bedridden. This sparks Rainier to forgo her recent vow to quit her work to help her and her father (veteran actor Dermot Mulroney) be free from this demonic danger.

Director Leigh Whannell certainly picked up quite a bit from Wan when he was working on the first two films, as well as this one, as a supporting actor. Whannell knows the unsettling angles and how to direct the jerky and unnerving movement of the actors and ghosts when things begin to get scary. As a screenwriter, Whannell also has excellent timing of placing jump scares in important scenes, rather than simply randomly scattering them for the audience to simply get annoyed by. He also sees the importance of character and world building, seeing that the world in which the real people live in is just as important as how many hours of sleep you lose over this film. It’s simply good filmmaking.

Sometimes, the film doesn’t quite reach into the deep bone of what I find scary, but it’s been a while since I’ve been truly scared from a film, at least to the point of lost sleep. But for what sometimes lackluster scares may come, they are made up for by Lin Shaye’s truly magnificent performance. Shaye’s performance is relatable, likable and shows good woman doing good by helping people in bad situations. I do wish the film had focused on Shaye a bit more, perhaps adding it into the relatively short runtime the film has, but from what we have here, and the character development we do get of her character, Shaye pulls through in spades. She’s simply the best the horror genre has to offer at the moment.

Is “Insidious: Chapter 3″ perfect? No, it’s not. Not all of the scares stick and sometimes things aren’t explained as clearly as they should, but dang, when the film’s scares work, they work really well. Add Lin Shaye, as well as the impressive remaining cast on top of that, and what you have is a surprisingly effective horror film, one that shouldn’t work as well as it does, especially this far into a series. The world is growing and seeing how this is becoming quite the mythology of a series, it’s hard to say whether I want an “Insidious: Chapter 4,” or if I want them to simply stop while they’re ahead, but for now, we can appreciate what we have. Just beware of the middle schoolers who will be in your screening, because they will be, they were in mine, they will be in yours, they are everywhere and they are inescapable.

3.5/5

Photo courtesy of Focus Features/Gramercy Pictures

Directed by: Leigh Whannell
Starring: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell and Lin Shaye.
Runtime: 97 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for violence, frightening images, some language and thematic elements.

Gramercy Pictures presents, in association with Stage 6 Films, an Entertainment One presentation, a Blumhouse production, an Oren Peli production, “Insidious: Chapter 3″