THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It is sadly common for horror franchises to decline in quality. That normally happens when there becomes some kind of lack for faithfulness. Despite the presence of Leigh Whannell as a writer, it didn’t appear to save the Insidious franchise from fumbling when they made it to their fourth entry.
PLOT
The Last Key takes place years after psychic/dermatologist Elise Rainer saved Quinn Brenner from being haunted. Continuing to work with the paranormal investigating duo of Specs & Tucker (Whannell & Angus Sampson), she now faces her most personal case. A man named Ted Garza reaches out to her and shares he’s being haunted in his house in Five Keys, New Mexico. She believes him and agrees to help when realizing he now lives in her childhood home. In her youth, she quickly gained her abilities but her father Gerald (who worked as a prison guard at a nearby penitentiary) refused to believe it being possible that he would be physically abusive towards her, as an attempt to make her think it’s not real. One night, her mother Audrey (Tessa Ferrer) would be killed by a demon and by the time Elise became a teen, she ran away and left her younger brother Christian. In the first night of investigating, Elise would find her brother’s whistle he lost before their mom died, but would quickly lose it when encountering another spirit. She would share with her team that it’s the same one she saw before she ran away. The next day, she would reunite with Christian, whose now a single father of two daughters, Imogen & Melissa, but he still hasn’t forgiven her for abandoning him. However, she still chooses to try connecting with her relatives by giving Melissa a picture of the whistle, requesting her to show it to her dad. On the second night of investigating, Elise and Tucker would find a hidden room in which Ted is keeping a young lady named Mara hostage. Garza would try to lock them in and kill Specs, but the latter would kill him first in self defense. The police do arrive to rescue Mara but when Elise is questioned, she senses Melissa to be in danger. That fear comes true because as she and her family went to the house to seek the whistle, she is attacked by the ‘Key Face’ demon (Javier Botet) that takes her soul into the purgatory dimension that is ‘The Further’. his incident leaves her hospitalized until Elise is able to figure out how to save her. When she and Tucker have another search investigation within the house, they find a stack of suitcases hidden in a pipe. When looking through most of them, she belongings and remains of past women who have been prisoner by not only Garza, but also by Gerald in her lifetime. The evidence of the latter taking part of such action when recognizing the picture of a woman named Anna (Aleque Reid), who was alive when seeing her before running away. Gerald would end up killing her after Elise left. As the psychic kept investigating, she would be attacked by Keyface who would imprison her in the Further. There, she would uncover that Garza and her father were both controlled by Keyface, feeding on the fear & hatred generated by each woman they abducted. Due to being able to contact spirits as well, Imogen enters the Further to save her aunt and stop her from being coerced by the demon. As she confronts it, the spirit of her father intervenes and vanishes as a result of his attempt to save his daughter. Keyface almost possesses her, but is officially stopped by the spirit of Audrey. With her help, all the women return to their bodies but on their way out of the Further, Elise inadvertently opens the wrong metaphysical red door, briefly encountering a young Dalton Lambert. When both of Christian's daughters wake up, he finally forgives Elise for doing what she had to do. When Elise returns home with Specs & Tucker, she would dream of Dalton being in danger with the red faced demon lurking in his bedroom, as a result of leaving open the wrong door. The film would end with her quickly accepting the request to help his grandmother Lorraine who calls and alerts her of what has happened to him.
THOUGHTS
I've enjoyed the first three Insidious movies because I felt that the narrative was fleshed out very well, so it hurts when I say it doesn't really continue here. Whannell was going for another full circle arc and I don't think Director Adam Robitel was able to nail everything he was going for. Even when I've appreciated Joseph Bishara's score before, the predictability of the story doesn't really benefit the jump scares that occur throughout. The only time I felt truly rattled was when Keyface appears through the suitcase to take Elise. And after the first time around, I always felt like I saw it coming whenever the spirit of Anna would shout 'Help her' to Elise. The overall design of Keyface though is indeed the creepiest when you're excluding the red face demon. It has keys attached to its fingers and its nose holes straight up resemble key holes. What bothered me a lot though is like The Man Who Can't Breathe, the origin is obsolete and only know the motive which irritates me deeply. If there was time to have an origin like the Bride in Black for Chapter 2, Keyface would've felt more threatening than it already appeared to be. I did respect of it sticking to the franchise's central theme to not let past trauma control your life nor define you and the importance of overcoming demons. That's still an important thing to share, but it does feel slightly repetitive at this point. Having said that, I still think actress Lin Shaye maintains the iconic status of Elise, whose past has us understand what has driven to help others. With Hana Hayes and Ava Kolker also playing younger versions of the character, we get to understand where her compassion comes from, as she doesn't want people to suffer like she did. And no matter how hurt she was back then, she was strong enough to let go of all the hate she had deep down and forgive what was done to her. I also thought it was a smart twist for it to unintentionally be her fault Dalton was haunted due to how time moves non chronologically in the Further. That moment alone set the stone Elise would do nothing but set things right. And that is where we wish she knew what she was in for. While I don't excuse neither Gerald nor Ted, both Josh Stewart and Kirk Acevedo made clear these guys were conflicted of their actions and hated what they were doing but did it anyway. You want to forgive Gerald because he was able protect Elise just once which bought her time, but the opening was so unsettling to consider thinking it over. And if we actually saw Ted do the same, he wouldn't even have a strong case either which he already lacked. I didn't really digest Imogen being psychic because that was pretty sudden to discover, but I still think Caitlin Gerard did a fine job in reflecting the empathy Elise expresses nonstop. She doesn't understand her ability as well as her aunt does, but you respect her will to put it to good use. The same goes with having a soft spot for Melissa because Spencer Locke makes clear she's innocently oblivious to all the supernatural drama until it blows up in her face. Nothing can prepare for you for an attach by a demon, which makes it easy for us to feel bad for her. Thankfully, her family was smart and strong enough to be on the same page in saving her. Apart from Elise, there's no doubt in feeling bad for Christian as well who was definitely a victim to Gerald's abuse offscreen. Both Pierce Pope & Thomas Robie easily showed all the fear and anxiousness the young Christian felt through within his childhood, while Bruce Davison expresses that understandable resentment for what his sister did. Even though his dad was out of the picture by the time he became an adult, you can tell he was still mentally scarred from it all. The only bright side about it is that it drove him to be a better parent than him, which is visibly shown in the given time he has around his daughters. The whistle motivated him to forgive Elise because that was the one thing that made him feel safe in their darkest of times and it's a shame it took so long for him to get it back. Even though it took so long for both siblings to make amends, it still shows it's never too late for people to do so, which puts it in a relief Elise got this chance before she died. Now I respect the movie for being character driven, there's still a whole bunch of plot elements that pissed me off the whole time. For example, I don't blame Elise for talking about the undead aloud because she doesn't know who to talk to but if she knows how strict her dad is about seeing ghosts, she really should've kept it to herself. I also thought it was weird of how there was a ghost prop hanging above the rearview mirror like it was being hanged. I know Elise noticed it and it's odd she didn't say anything of it. I do respect her for lending Specs & Tucker suits to look respectable, which end up being the same they wore in the first two, but couldn't she have told the guys to dress appropriate? I mean she's pretty lucky both of them matched the size since they belonged to her late husband. It was interesting for Ted to have one of the rooms blocked by stacks of bibles, but where did he get them all? I can't myself asking since no one in Elise's family appeared to be religious enough to have at least one. I don't even believe it when Ted bought the house as is. I know he was willing to buy the cheapest house, but since it was also a murder house, it should've been cleaned up by a realtor to lure in more potential buyers. It's just a weird excuse to get the whistle back into the story. Ted even felt doomed to begin with because he should've known Elise would've found the room Mara was held captive in. And did Specs & Tucker even get interviewed by the police? Elise got questioned by Detective Whitfield (Marcus Henderson), but neither of her partners share their experience especially since Specs had to kill Ted in the first place. It's pretty weird for this to be brushed off. And I got nothing against Specs, but it was so out of place for him to kiss Imogen because I doubt she liked him back. Even if he was just in the moment for Melissa being saved, there was nothing for him to say he earned that kiss. Also, how was Christian and his daughters allowed back into the house after Ted died and Mara was found? It's an active crime scene so their should be cops guarding the place. But because of that, the rest of the movie still continues in the house and it's ridiculous. On top of that, what difference does it really make if Elise is blowing the whistle in the Further instead of Imogen? I mean Keyface is gonna get irritated either way so I don't see an excuse for the niece to not take advantage of it. To wrap up, Insidious: The Last Key is the franchise's weakest link for not being able to bring fresh air like the previous times. In all honesty, I would skip this and go straight to The Red Door for nostalgia's sake.
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