Insidious: Chapter 3 (15, 98 mins)

Starring: Stefanie Scott, Lin Shaye, Dermot Mulroney, Tate Berney, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Michael Reid MacKay, Tom Fitzpatrick, Steve Coulter, Ele Keats.

Director: Leigh Whannell.

Released: June 5 (UK & Ireland)

SET a few years before the Lambert haunting in the first Insidious, Leigh Whannell's sporadically scary prequel reaches into the grab bag of old tricks to jolt the audience out of their seats.

Floorboards creak, objects move of their own accord and demonic forces careen out of the dark to deafening bursts of staccato strings on the soundtrack.

Most scares are telegraphed: when the beleaguered heroine tentatively moves to look under her bed for a wheezing demon that is stalking her, we know her curiosity will be her undoing.

Whannell, who makes his directorial debut with this third chapter, does achieve one moment of delicious skin-crawling terror.

This pivotal scene, in which the lead character is helpless on the floor as something nasty moves around her bedroom, unfolds without flashy special effects or thunderous interruption from composer Joseph Bishara, who scored the previous films as well as The Conjuring and Annabelle.

Sometimes, stark simplicity makes the spine tingle.

Basingstoke Gazette:

The third instalment centres on grief-stricken 17-year-old Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott), who reaches out to gifted psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) following the death of her mother (Ele Keats) from cancer.

"I want to talk to someone who isn't around anymore," explains Quinn.

Elise senses the girl is in peril and warns Quinn against beckoning her mother's spirit.

"If you call out to the dead, all of them can hear you," whispers the medium.

Soon after, Quinn is involved in an accident and becomes housebound in the apartment she shares with her father Sean (Dermot Mulroney, below) and younger brother Alex (Tate Berney).

Basingstoke Gazette:

A demon with an insatiable hunger for human souls - known as The Man Who Can't Breathe (Michael Reid MacKay) - latches onto Quinn and attempts to possess the teenager's body and soul.

Elise races to the Brenner residence to banish the evil.

Aided by quirky ghost hunters Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Whannell), Elise confronts the soul-sucking infestation in the netherworld.

"Does this other place have a name?" asks Specs.

"Let's call it The Further," solemnly intones Elise.

Insidious: Chapter 3 is an effective standalone thriller, anchored by strong performances from Shaye and Scott.

Shocks are predictable, tapping into universal fears of the dark, and Sampson and Whannell offer light comic relief to distract from Mulroney, who is as wooden as the furniture in the Brenner apartment.

The script incorporates nods and winks to other films in the series including the reappearance of Elise's spectral tormentor, the murderous Bride In Black (Tom Fitzpatrick), her fellow medium Carl (Steve Coulter) and the Lipstick-Face Demon.

Unsurprisingly, writer-director Whannell leaves the cellar door ajar for a potential fourth descent into the ghoulish gloom.

Further into The Further, perchance.

6/10

Damon Smith