Once more unto The Further, dear friends, once more. Yet again, we enter the eerie, foggy, and desolate realm of the afterlife to – hopefully – get the bejeezus scared out of us, and, by that criterion, Insidious: Chapter 3 is largely successful. Leigh Whannell, who wrote Chapter 3 as well as the first two installments, makes his directorial debut here, and, while he certainly takes some cues from his collaborator and friend, James Wan (director of the first two films in the franchise), his addition to the Insidious mythos is self-assured in its own right.  Because Chapter 3 is a prequel, and a prequel is, by definition, part of a series, it seems only fitting to recap the first two films in the series: Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 2 (recaps contain spoilers).

With Insidious, we were introduced to the Lambert family: couple-on-the-rocks Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) and their three children, one of which, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls into a comatose state and becomes the target of a red and black faced demon from The Further. After medical science can’t explain Dalton’s condition, Josh’s mother, Lorraine (an always welcome Barbara Hershey), enlists the help of Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye), a psychic, and her two partners, Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson). When Elise arrives at the Lambert home, she immediately senses the presence of the aforementioned red and black faced malevolent entity and explains to the Lambert family exactly how and why Dalton has become a target of the demon. Elise also drops the bomb that Dalton isn’t the only one in the family with the ability to enter The Further; it seems that Josh was also haunted in his childhood by a demon, who fans dubbed the Bride in Black (Philip Friedman), and Elise was called in to save the day then, too. Elise claims that only Josh can go into The Further and guide his son away from the clutches of the demon trying to overtake his body. While Insidious starts strongly, and there are several memorable jump scares along the way, there are too many ghosts from The Further that have nothing to do with the story at hand and Renai – especially in the film’s final third – is reduced to little more than a whimpering mouse.

Insidious: Chapter 2 begins immediately after the first installment ends, when Josh – who isn’t quite himself – successfully brought Dalton back from The Further. Police interrogate Renai about a death that occurred after Josh returned from The Further. Because of the police investigation, the Lambert family moves into Lorraine’s house (where Josh grew up), but Renai continues to experience unsettling events, and she becomes increasingly worried that her husband is no longer who she married. It turns out that Renai’s fears are well grounded. Not only is Josh talking to someone (or something) that only he can see, but he is also noticeably physically deteriorating. Lorraine, after seeing a ghostly woman in white, contacts Specs and Tucker, and they enlist the help of Elise’s former colleague, Carl (Steve Coulter). Carl uses dice to try to contact Elise in the spirit world, and the answers from the dice guide the group to a hospital where Lorraine used to work as a nurse. While there, Lorraine remembers an incident in which a man named Parker Crane was admitted for trying to castrate himself. After their hospital visit, the group goes to Parker’s home and makes a grisly discovery, and we find out the unsettling origins of the Bride in Black. This installment’s story becomes quite convoluted, and it seemed like Whannell and Wan weren’t exactly sure how they wanted events to unfold. The jump scares are certainly plentiful, but they become redundant quickly. As in most horror movies of this ilk, the ending leaves the door open for another sequel, but, thankfully, Whannell decided to move in a different direction with Insidious: Chapter 3.

Unlike the first two installments, Chapter 3 doesn’t start with a bang, perhaps because Whannell realized that he must introduce us to some new characters and a different storyline. A young lady named Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) arrives on the doorstep of Elise’s home, begging the psychic to contact her recently deceased mother. Elise can tell that Quinn has been trying to contact her dead mother on her own volition, and she warns the girl about what can happen when one tries to contact the dead. After her initial reluctance (due to an experience revealed later in the film), Elise agrees to try to contact Quinn’s mother, but, very soon into the impromptu séance, Elise becomes spooked and calls it off, and Quinn returns home to resume her teenage life. Ignoring Elise’s advice to avoid trying to contact the dead, Quinn once again attempts to contact her mother, but things get weird.

One night, right before Quinn takes the stage to audition for a prestigious acting school in New York, she sees a shadowy figure preternaturally waving to her just off stage. She shakes it off, and proceeds with her lackluster audition. Afterward, Quinn and her friend, Maggie (Hayley Kiyoko), begin to head home when Quinn spots the figure waving to her once again, at which point a horrible accident leaves Quinn with multiple broken bones in both legs. Now wheelchair-bound, Quinn must rely on her harried father, Sean (Dermot Mulroney), for all her basic needs. The events surrounding Quinn – which were already beginning to get spooky – are becoming increasingly threatening now that she is incapacitated. Sensing that Quinn might be in danger, Elise, despite her misgivings, realizes that she might be the girl’s only hope.

After Quinn is attacked in her room one night, Sean decides that he will seek Elise’s help to alleviate his daughter’s suffering. Elise hesitantly agrees to see the troubled girl and to help seek her tormentor, dubbed The Man Who Can’t Breathe (Michael Reid MacKay), in The Further. Before she can find The Man Who Can’t Breathe, however, an old nemesis rears her (very ugly) head, and Elise refuses to go on with the session, fearing for her own life. His options exhausted, Sean, with some cajoling from his son, Alex (Tate Berney), agrees to call on the help of Spectral Sightings, an internet ghost hunting duo comprised of – you guessed it – Specs and Tucker. I try my best to avoid spoilers, but it needs to be said that, despite the comic relief that Specs and Tucker provide, they are also witnesses (along with Sean) to one of the very best fright sequences in the film, which seemed to leave most of the theatergoers in noticeable discomfort.

Meanwhile, Elise calls on her old friend Carl (introduced in Chapter 2) for moral support, and he recounts the story of how they helped a young Josh Lambert overcome his demon, which steels Elise’s resolve. She returns to the Brenner household, determined to enter The Further once again, not only to confront Quinn’s demon, but some of her own, as well.

Simply put, Insidious: Chapter 3 is the strongest entry in the series. The narrative is much tighter than in the original installment and doesn’t become convoluted like it did in Chapter 2. Sure, there are some nagging unanswered questions, like what happens to Maggie (Quinn’s friend), does Quinn ever get accepted into the art school she auditioned for, and why, after he can see that his daughter is suffering (though he is skeptical at first), does Sean insist on leaving her alone multiple times? Aside from these small quibbles, Whannell makes a lot of strong moves. He infuses more humor (both overt and dark) into the storyline, and he benefits greatly by prominently featuring crowd-favorite Elise. The young lead, Stephanie Scott, acquits herself quite well, and she provides the needed depth to her character. Just like Elise, we, as an audience, instantly like the sensitive, intelligent, and earnest Quinn. As the main antagonist, The Man Who Can’t Breathe acts as an apt metaphor for the death of Quinn’s mother from cancer: he is always looming; he is covered in a black, viscous liquid (much like a cancer-infected lung); and, as his name suggests, he can’t breathe without the aid of an oxygen mask, evoking a disease-ridden patient on his or her deathbed – though why spirits need to breathe is another question left unanswered. Much like the first two films in the franchise, the jump scares in Insidious: Chapter 3 become pretty redundant, but the humor, overall strong story, and solid acting carry the day. Suspend your disbelief for about an hour and a half, and you will be well rewarded.