2.5 stars (out of 5)
The third entry in this ghosty horror series is this time a prequel and directed by scriptwriter/co-star Leigh Whannell and not his partner in Saw crime James Wan, who’s now jumped ship to the Fast & Furious franchise (although Wan did stay on as a producer and offers a matey cameo).
A few years before the events of the first two Insidiouses and the terrors wreaked on the Lambert family, we meet Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott), a drama-queen teen who thinks her late Mom is trying to contact her from beyond and seeks advice from fragile psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye taking it mostly seriously). However, and of course, it isn’t Mom who’s haunting the Brenners (also numbering Dermot Mulroney’s Dad Sean and Tate Berney’s brother Alex) but a nasty demon with a penchant for leaving supernaturally slimy footprints everywhere, and one keen to possess Quinn (or is it implied that it wants to get its paranormal paws on her for sleazier reasons?). Naturally Elise turns up to help, and she finds herself forced to work alongside ‘Spectral Sightings’ investigators Tucker (mohawked Angus Sampson) and Specs (director Whannell himself), as things get amusingly uncanny and even a bit goofily Rear Window-ish.
As a standard scarer this is watchably silly stuff, and yet as the third part of what should be a tired and dragged-out series, it actually works pretty well, with a few moderate scares and a nice sense of in-jokey humour. It’s hard not to grin when Alex shows his Dad clips of Tucker and Specs’ investigations on an online video, and Dad sneers, “They look like idiots!!!”
I Wake Up Screening 