Not quite the family reunion….

After missing out on the last two films of this popular franchise, the Lambert Family are back, nearly 10 years since we last saw the father and son, having their own Jedi Mind wipe and putting the ghouls to rest, but as it always is in the horror world, you never really say goodbye to the evil, who wait patiently to see if a great box office return brings the key to opening that dreaded red door.

Insidious hasn’t really missed Josh (Patrick Wilson) Renai (Rose Byrne) and their now ready for college son Dalton (Ty Simpkins), with the last two sequels being carried by the true star of the show, Lin Shaye’s Elise, but once the credits start, you do get a wave of nostalgia and a hint of curiosity in exactly what these characters have been up to over the past decade, especially as we are guessing by their return that the The Further isn’t quite finished with them yet.

Plotwise its simple. Dalton heads off to College to study Art, where he is encouraged by his charismatic teacher to reach into his subconscious and draw something, its that ill advised advice which sets off a trail of terror as Dalton draws a familiar looking red door that brings the ghouls back into his life while Josh himself starts to experience “sightings” and a feeling that something is not quite right, a sense that has haunted him for the past few years which has caused a marriage break up from Renai and a divide between his kids.

With Wilson behind the camera for the first time, you can feel that he has a lot of love for these characters, with a surprising slow burn throughout and a refusal to throw in cheap jump scenes or grisly gore that you may come to expect from a fifth film, but while you can respect that creative decision, the film feels more like a drama than an actual full blown horror movie.

While the original had a strong hold of creepiness throughout and the sequel built on that dark world and added more scares and jumps, this chapter which closes the “trilogy” offers nothing new to the party, with a rushed finale that borrows most of its elements from its previous films. Yes, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” still brings the necessary chill when heard, but once we are back in the dark of the further, the flickering lights is of a franchise most likely now reaching the end of its creative juices….

2 Hatchets out of 5