Insidious: The Last Key Review – Spoiler Free
Insidious: The Last Key is a film which comes directed by Adam Robitel and stars Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Kirk Acevedo, Caitlin Gerard, Spencer Locke and Aleque Reid. Insidious: The Last Key is the fourth film in the Insidious franchise.
Over the past year I have been increasingly delving into the horror film genre. Being a genre that’s a little scary and sometimes off putting, it’s never been my favourite one to watch. It’s usually thrillers or sci-fi for me. But I guess since I’ve been writing for Resident Entertainment, I’ve found I watch a lot more films that I wouldn’t necessarily see, which is nice as a reviewer to experience new things. In doing so, I’ve come to see quite a few horror films and increasingly enjoy watching them all more and more.
The Insidious franchise has been going for some time now and regulars would know it quite well. I guess you would wonder if you need to watch the others in the series before you go and see The Last Key, but I’d say that actually you don’t really need to (although it’s a good idea). A viewer can really go into this film fairly fresh, although I think it’s probably not the best one in the franchise, so don’t discount the whole series in your mind if this is the first time with the series and you hate this film, the others are better.
The plot of Insidious: The Last Key revolves around the character of Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and her two companions Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) who are ghost hunters of sorts. They are called to investigate a disturbance at an old home which is completely freaking out its single occupant. There’s some sort of entity in that house and it is bothering him. So our characters converge at the location and start investigating, however there’s muh more to the story because it turns out the house they’re at is the childhood home of Elise Rainier.
As a story I didn’t really mind what we got, I think it was enough to keep me satisfied. I am not the biggest fan of the Insidious franchise and don’t remember all the other films all too well. But I felt that this one did help to add a little depth to the lore of that universe.
Where I do think the film had some issues was with the constant shift in tone, which its director chose to constantly change. We have on one hand Elise, the spirit and the setting of the home. All of these are very serious, mysterious and scary at times. But on the other hand we have characters like Specs and Tucker who I know are there for some comedic relief and do lighten things up at time with some fairly funny moments. But to me, this shift when the characters went to the more light hearted sections pulled down what I felt could have been a much scarier film. Don’t get me wrong, there’s tonnes of scary moments, but it’s also got a lot of light hearted ones too.
Acting wise, mostly everyone you see in the film is actually pretty forgettable. The horror genre is not known for its big name stars. But I did really enjoy watching Lin Shaye who played the film’s lead character Elise Rainier. It was intersting watching her character’s journey in her old home and I enjoyed watching her in her scenes. In the flashback scenes to Elise’s younger life she was also played by Ava Kolker who I thought did a fantastic job.
Overall Insidious: The Last Key is an okay horror film to watch but does struggle I feel to find the right tone balance in its run time. It does provide quite a few scares though and the spirit will shock you quite a bit as you watch it. There’s quite a few disturbing scenes and everything you might want to see in a horror film. I guess this isn’t as good as Insidious films in the past, but could still be a fun watch over the weekend. It’s not something I’d say you should rush out and see, but if you can see it on a discount day at the cinema this week and are looking for some horror in your week, then this might be something for you to go and see.
