Insidious: Chapter 3 [Blu-Ray]

Director: Leigh Whannell

Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Lin Shaye

Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

 

Synopsis:

Go back to the beginning… if you dare… in this chilling prequel that takes place before the unforgettable haunting of the Lambert family. Paranormal investigators Tucker and Specs team up with the psychic Elise to help Quinn, a teenage girl who believes that her late mother is trying to make contact. At first, Elise’s horrific past makes her reluctant to use her ability, but when Quinn’s desperate father begs for assistance, she agrees to venture into The Further. There, she finds a ruthless supernatural entity with a voracious craving for the souls of the living. It’s the darkest chapter yet in this spine-tingling portrayal of evil unleashed. 

Serving as a prequel to the first two films in the series, ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ takes us back to where it all began, prior to the chilling haunting of the Lambert’s. Quinn (Scott) is still suffering from the loss of her mother and when she begins randomly seeing a mysterious stranger sporting a hospital gown in odd places, she convinces herself that it’s in fact her late mother trying to contact her. Unfortunately she couldn’t be farther from the truth and after being struck by a car during one of these strange sightings, she becomes wheelchair bound and soon begins to discover that the stranger she continues to see is a malevolent presence from the world of the dead that has begun to pull her into his realm. Desperate to help his daughter, her father (Mulroney) seeks the help of two kooky ghost hunters (Sampson and Whannell) and the powerful psychic Elise (Shaye) to try and save his daughters soul before it’s too late and she’s lost for good.

Taking the helm from the absent James Wan this time around, Leigh Whannel (writer of the first 2 ‘Insidious’ films) wrote and directed ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ which also marks Whannel’s directorial debut and he does a solid job at the helm, keeping the tone and aura similar to its predecessors while additionally contributing some of his own touches. Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell each reprise their roles from the previous entries, joining new cast members Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Michael Reid MacKay and more, all of whom deliver capable performances in each of their respective roles.

‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ delivers a sufficient collection of scares and skin crawling, eerie moments, many of which are more typical jump scares, yet the majority nonetheless remain fairly effective. While the third entry in the franchise looks good, features capable performances and succeeds in maintaining the creepy aura of its predecessors, unfortunately it still doesn’t manage to reach the level of the first two entries in most regards, most noticeably with its lack of truly mind-blowing moments and reveals, never managing to find a real mystery or element of the story that truly grasps the viewer and unconditionally pulls them in. Overall, while it isn’t nearly as impressive as the previous entries, ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ is a creepy and enjoyable film and while some may want to pause before making a blind purchase, I would still highly recommend fans of the franchise at the very least check it out, it’s certainly well worth the cost of a rental.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks outstanding, delivering a sharp, detailed presentation throughout that suffers no notable faults small or large, holding up beautifully even during the regularly occurring darkly lit and fast moving sequences, never causing anything occurring on screen to become indiscernible. Overall, this is a top notch high definition video presentation that should easily please fans of the franchise.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack sounds wonderful, providing a crisp, clean and often quite aggressive audio presentation from start to finish, utilizing all five available channels with consistency in order to surround the viewer with the films perfectly fitting soundtrack, along with a plethora of suitably creepy auditory elements causing some additional scares, never resulting in any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, this is an impressive 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that should not disappoint in the slightest.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ includes a number of solid extras. Included on the release are a number of Deleted Scenes (totaling approximately 5 minutes combined). We are additionally treated to a multiple Featurettes that explore different aspects of bringing the film to life and include behind the scenes footage as well as interviews and comments with the cast and crew, they include: ‘Origin Story: Making Chapter 3’ (running approximately 19 minutes), ‘Stunts: The Car Crash’ (approximately 10 minutes), ‘Macabre Creations’ (9 minutes), ‘Cherry Glazerr: Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ (5 minutes) and ‘Being Haunted: A Psychic Medium Speaks’ (12 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ is Now Available to own on Blu-Ray™, DVD & Digital HD From Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

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