‘Insidious 3’ is scary as can be

I can be spontaneous sometimes. I got off work at 9 p.m. on a Friday night and saw a friend of mine Tweet, “Someone go see Insidious 3 with me.” I responded, “Okay,”  jokingly of course, only to have him reply that he was serious and wanted to go see the movie in an hour at the last showtime of the night. At that point, I really couldn’t say no, so here we are. Sitting at a 61% Rotten Tomatoes rating (though I believe it deserves higher), and in the top three at the box office as of writing this, Insidious: Chapter 3 is actually a prequel to the two films before it. It follows a young girl named Quinn Brenner, whose mother passed away from cancer, as she seeks the help of saga psychic Elise Rainier, who has recently given up use of her other-worldly power due to an entity that haunted her. As Elise tries to contact Quinn’s mother, she accidentally summons a horrifying demon, named “The Man Who Can’t Breathe,” who begins to attach himself to Quinn and wreak havoc. I have a love-hate relationship with horror films, usually. I enjoy the thrills and haunting atmospheres (as well as the screaming audience members in the showings with me), but usually not the acting or much of the setup. Here, I thought the setup and performances were very interesting. Newcomer Stefanie Scott did a great job steering away from the horror movie teenage girl cliches, and Lin Shaye delivers a strong performance as Elise. Much of the second and third acts of the movie focus on her backstory and abilities,...