And so ends a franchise – or so one may think. Insidious, and the uniqueness of its spirit world called “The Further”, has officially run out of steam. The story focuses on Elise (Lin Shaye), the spirit-seeing superwoman of the series, and her childhood gift of seeing spooky spirits. We also see her bad-tempered, abusive father, her younger brother and a good-natured housewife mom who passed her “gift” to Elise. By the climax, one sees a definite closure to Elise’s journey, even though I myself can see a lot of potential for unique new stories.

Instead of venturing on the creative journey of a horror movie, we are left with a dried-up rehash of jump scares and uninteresting, partially-revealed demons without solid back stories (the one in this movie has keys at the tips of its fingers, and can lock one’s vocal chord with a twist of its wrist).

Lin Shaye and her cohorts Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell (also the series’ writer) have a few good moments, and a few jump scares are quite good. Unlike, say The Conjuring or Annabelle – or even the first Insidious – one is left with a feeling of disinterest even before the last half of the movie.

Personally speaking, I’ve always wondered about Insidious’ lack of depth – especially since the second movie, which felt obligated to exploit the first one’s story-thread (part one was almost excellent, by the way). James Wan (director of the first Insidious), and on an unrelated note John R. Leonetti (his Director of Photography, and later director of Annabelle) have the intelligence to bypass the nicks and crutches of the screenplay. Here, director Adam Robitel (writer of Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension), displays all the routineness of the genre one can fathom.

By the end of the movie one may expect Insidious to end, however, like all famous horror franchises, does the series ever truly end?

Until the next time, I hope the film-makers take a break to actually figure out what to do with the series now that it has left the confines of its predominant storyline.