“Insidious” returns this summer with its third installment of the horror series. But with an overuse of CGI, and a predictable storyline, the movie brings into question the state of the scary movie genre. One thing’s for sure, though, if you thought Renai had it bad in “Insidious: Chapter 2,” wait until you see the girl in this one.

“Insidious: Chapter 3” acts as a prequel, three years before the haunting of the Lambert family. Returning for this film are Elise (Lin Shaye) and her two millennial ghost hunters Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson). Besides these three, the entire cast is new and in mostly a separate story from the first two.

Quinn is a teenage girl who tries to reach out to her dead mother through Elise. When Elise tries to reach her mother on the other side, she is blocked by one of her own demons, so Quinn and her mother remain unconnected. Quinn continues her attempts to talk to her mother, despite Elise’s warnings that, “If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you.”

Like the other films, the dead live in The Further, where they try to bring the living to ruin their souls. In relation to the other films, the story of the third installment is the most interesting, but like the other two it stays predictable throughout and fails to stray from the “young kid becomes possessed, and it’s up to the adults to go into the other world to save them” plot.

Despite its unoriginality, it is genuinely an enjoyable film. The cheap jump scares after the music cuts out might be overdone, but they still scare the crap out of you. Plus, the demons can appear anywhere, so there is a lot of teasing with empty rooms and dark shadows. You could make a horror movie out of lingering hallway shots, and it would be the scariest thing ever.

The problem with horror today is that there is no longer any medium that cannot be faked. Any video and any picture can be edited, so a paranormal monster that pops up in a horror movie fails to surprise. The gross dead people in this movie are so clearly CGI’d up the wazoo that the only way they can upset you is through jump scares. The story is intricate and interesting, but at this point in the series nothing scares by its presence alone.

As we reach a time where computer-generated imagery dominates the screen in every horror film, nothing really surprises us anymore. Horror has to get back to its practical effects roots to truly show that things in this world are out to get people. Movies like “Insidious” and “Sinister” scare you, but that is it. Movies like “The Shining” and “The Exorcist” don’t just scare you, they disturb you.

Indie horror is returning to slasher, which is the right step in restoring the influence horror used to have. Directors like Jeremy Saulnier (“Murder Party,” “Blue Ruin,” “Green Room”) are eating up awards at Cannes, Slamdance, and other festivals for slasher thrillers. If horror can learn from their low budget production and high critical success, the genre will improve itself quickly.

However, if we keep seeing CGI heavy horror that relies solely upon its score and jump scares, we are going to get bored of it pretty quickly.

Check out the official trailer below:

Kyle Stevens is a sophomore advertising major. You can email him at ksteve03@syr.edu or reach him on Twitter at @kstevs_.

Published on June 7, 2015 at 11:49 am