Name : Simon Abrams / Alias : Village Voice
Tepid ghost story Insidious: Chapter 3 tries and fails to emphasize character-driven drama over cheap, jump-scare-intensive thrills.

Name : Brian Truitt / Alias : USA Today
A prequel story that puts the spotlight squarely on its leading lady and aims to be more heartfelt than horrifying.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
The quiet stretches actually serve their purpose here, creating a sense of intimacy with the characters as opposed to simply marking time between the shocks.

Name : Gary Goldstein / Alias : Los Angeles Times
It stands well on its own as a jumpy spookfest.

Name : Katharine Pushkar / Alias : New York Daily News
"I was scared at least 10 times," I heard someone say upon leaving the theater. Not bad.

Name : Michael O'Sullivan / Alias : Washington Post
The "Insidious" franchise, after three attempts to exorcise its real demons, still can't seem to shake what really haunts it: the ghost of B-movies past.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
I leapt out of my seat and grabbed the arm of the critic sitting next to me so often (and he did the same, although he shall remain nameless) that you'd think we'd never seen a horror movie before.

Name : Peter Keough / Alias : Boston Globe
Punctuated by intermittent, bogus jump-scares, the plot thickens into opacity.

Name : Katie Rife / Alias : AV Club
Surprisingly thematically rich for the third installment of a horror franchise.

Name : Kyle Anderson / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Insidious Chapter 3 is the worst kind of sequel: Not terrible, but also cartoonishly unnecessary.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
This prequel to the shriek hell, directed and scripted by series writer/actor Leigh Whannell, manages to avoid the Curse of the Triple Cash Grab.

Name : Scott Foundas / Alias : Variety
Chief among things that go bump in the night in "Insidious: Chapter 3" is the movie itself - a thuddingly dull prequel to James Wan's very enjoyable (and highly profitable) demonic-possession horror franchise.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
You sort of want to give the movie a pass. But given its distinguished forebears, Insidious: Chapter 3 doesn't quite live up to expectations.

Name : Gary Thompson / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
Writer-directors Wan and Whannell are best known for their grisly Saw movies, but they seem to prefer the classic lines of old-school horror.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Pretty much what you'd expect, from the shrieking musical riff under the main titles onward, but as a vehicle for veteran character actress Lin Shaye, it's a blast.

Name : Andy Webster / Alias : New York Times
Mr. Whannell wisely retains the series' secret weapon, Ms. Shaye, a seasoned performer of range, moxie and limitless charm.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
They say the third time's the charm. Not with the Insidious series, it isn't.

Name : Michael Ordona / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
"Insidious: Chapter 3" is simply not scary. Not a bit, not a whit. Except that the audience will be terrified of the next stabbing of their eardrums, at generally predictable intervals.

Name : Justin Lowe / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
Insidious: Chapter 3 offers a relatable young protagonist and several key supporting players from the prior films in a nimble setup to the series.

Name : Kerry Lengel / Alias : Arizona Republic
"Insidious: Chapter 3" is almost more a spoof of a classic like "The Exorcist" than it is an homage. It's not scary horror, it's silly horror, and the audience is in on the joke.

Name : Brad Wheeler / Alias : Globe and Mail
The result is a warm-hearted frightening, about love and loss and, yes, next chapters.

Name : Cath Clarke / Alias : Time Out
Don't expect any spills or chills: this is more insipid than insidious.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
You need more than a few sudden noises and scary shocks to make a good horror movie. But "Insidious: Chapter Three" is at least an OK horror movie.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
Passable adventure that offers the occasional flash of real cleverness.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
The movie doesn't so much enhance our understanding of the flying boy as it demonstrates how little thought went into crafting his back story.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
This joyless, juiceless Pan is a theme-park ride from hell.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
Was anyone clamoring for the story of how Hook and Peter came to be? Maybe, but they won't find it in "Pan," not really.

Name : Rex Reed / Alias : New York Observer
The noise you hear is J. M. Barrie turning over in his grave.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
For all the eye-popping effects and hyperkinetic action, there's no joyful innocence here. There's no sense of childlike wonder. Just a lifeless machine, dully ticking away like a clock in a crocodile's belly.

Name : Ben Sachs / Alias : Chicago Reader
Loud, chaotic action dominates this unnecessary prequel to Peter Pan.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
The film fulfills its limited mandate of providing fast-paced adventure and some nice eye candy without adding anything memorable to the tale of The Boy Who Can Fly.

Name : Bruce Kirkland / Alias : Toronto Sun
Sometimes murky and yet often magical.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
It's hard to make the case that any of this means anything, or is even supposed to .

Name : Anthony Lane / Alias : New Yorker
The most cheering surprise of the season is "Pan."

Name : Calvin Wilson / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Wright seems overwhelmed by the material, and he fails to make us care about any of the characters.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
The very idea behind Pan is ill-conceived. Who wants a prequel to Peter Pan?

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
There's a formula here to be studied for future movies. Just take whatever they did in "Pan" and do something else.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
A hectic and labored attempt to supply the boy who never grew up with an origin story.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The official worst-ever Peter Pan film adaptation of any sort. And that includes "Hook."

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
What was Wright aiming for here? No idea.

Name : David Sims / Alias : The Atlantic
If Pan's screenplay is a lesson in anything, it's that most beloved stories don't require a whole cinematic universe to go along with them.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A botched interpretation of the classic story that trades spectacle for coherence.

Name : Dave Calhoun / Alias : Time Out
Wright throws a lot of ideas at Pan, and not all of them stick, but it makes for a refreshingly imaginative experience, and one not afraid of inspiring a little fear in younger audiences alongside the scattergun wonder.

Name : Scott Tobias / Alias : NPR
Sometimes, classic stories don't benefit from re-imaginings or embellishments. Sometimes, it's not worth knowing what happened before the fun starts. Sometimes, such mysteries are best left alone.

Name : John Anderson / Alias : TIME Magazine
There's no denying that Pan is one ambitious fairy tale. But what's being labeled a "wholly original adventure" feels far from new, never mind necessary.

Name : Lou Lumenick / Alias : New York Post
This joyless, 10-megaton bomb fails in just about every imaginable way, as well as some you couldn't possibly imagine.

Name : Todd McCarthy / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
The actors all try hard to keep the energy up but never get convincingly in synch and, with the exception of Peter, the characters don't reasonably comport with one's pre-existing images of them.

Name : Tony Hicks / Alias : San Jose Mercury News
The end suggests there are plans for more chapters to the story. If so, someone needs to reassess the formula. This wasn't a movie that needed making.

Name : Britton Peele / Alias : Dallas Morning News
What it lacks in character development . Pan overcompensates for in style.

Name : Bill Zwecker / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
This is a good film that will be enjoyed both by pre-teen children and the parents who likely will join them at the multiplexes around the country.

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
Stripping all whimsy and wonder from the Peter Pan story, Joe Wright's prequel is a busy, bungled bust.

Name : Kate Taylor / Alias : Globe and Mail
In fashioning a creation myth for Peter Pan, director Joe Wright and writer Jason Fuchs have produced such a thin story that they reduce, rather than amplify, J.M. Barrie's famous characters.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
Ugly to look at, shrill to listen to, and performed by actors who have been encouraged to camp it up madly in the style usually favored by aging British sitcom stars playing storybook characters in Christmas panto productions.

Name : Joe McGovern / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
Who in the world was crying out for a prequel to Peter Pan? And especially in this lumpy, vanilla form .

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
It appears all involved had a grand ol' time making Pan, the latest and loopiest retelling of the story of Peter Pan. Too bad for the audience, though.