HoopTober 8: Mosquito Takes Mandragon

Movie 24
2nd of 4 haunted house films

Maybe I have the benefit of having seen Upgrade and The Invisible Man before this, so I already know that Leigh Whannell is actually a pretty damn talented director as well as a screen writer, but Insidious: Chapter 3 struck me as a far better film than it seems to be given credit to be.

I get that the set-up for any given entry in the Insidious franchise might feel a little bit like any one of a thousand films that have been released in the last decade or so but, to be fair, it's probably the first Insidious itself which sparked the imitators (including Wan imitating himself with The Conjuring). I have seen a lot of pretty ordinary films myself which set up in a similar way to this, but this is an absolute cut above.

I'm not saying Whannell is immune from the odd plot deficiency, but he is a master of flow and pace, and it's starting to feel to me like the best person to translate his material to the screen is himself. I have found all three of his films to wind up and set off so smoothly and to absorb me in their tales so effortlessly, I don't think it's a fluke any more.

Insidious: Chapter 3 actually kind of transcends its own gimmick, because when the Man Who Can't Breathe (? is that what everyone kept calling him?) first showed up I don't think the basic concept of him was all that frightening, but then Whannell managed to make him more of a threat by the progression of plot and incident, as we slowly learnt what this being was doing and what he had the power to do.

I roll my eyes these days at most origin stories, but I gotta say this story of Elise and her starting point as a woman cowed by grief for her lost husband and her fear of the lady in black, and how she was induced to overcome her fears to save an innocent young person in undeniable peril, is a pretty damn good arc to justify how she came to be in these stories. And yes, Specs and Tucker are silly, but I have always enjoyed them anyway, and this story even gives them more of a convincing existence.

The film looks fantastic too. Brian Pearson has lit these scenes so beautifully - the film has a wonderfully slick visual character to it. It's a constant pleasure to look at.

I don't know, man, I thought this was pretty great. I'm honestly surprised by the deafening indifference to this even among those who are into the genre - maybe Whannell's growing stature will lead to this one getting a bit of a reappraisal at some point.