The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world.
Taken as a ghoulish fairground ride, James Wan's Grand Guignol shocker eventually delivers the jolts and thrills it promises.
It just becomes exasperatingly silly and is never very scary.
With Wan confidently orchestrating jump scares and bonkers plot twists, this is hugely hokey horror fun that's the match of the original. Bring all the fingers you can - you'll need them to peek through.
It tends to treat its gotcha moments as throwaway wind-ups designed to spill and thus sell more popcorn, but the narrative reframing – opening up a Twin Peaks-like multiverse in which further chapters may yet unfold – is ambitious, and Wan remains a crafty enough director to draw your eye warily across the frame.
Anyone who has ever watched a horror movie will have seen all of this before, but Wan's target audience appears to be people with no interest in the genre, content merely for someone to shout "Boo!" loud enough to distract them momentarily from their mobile phones.
Poltergeist goes Back To The Future with only passable results in a film whose activity is more par for the course than paranormal.
Drown it in ectoplasm.
The shakes and scares are still there, and it’s worth noting that Wan’s genre films have a grip on tension that most horror directors can only dream of, but sadly the Insidious franchise isn’t heading anywhere interesting for anyone other than hardcore fans.
General release. Check local listings for show times.