290 reviews
- Ramascreen
- Jan 2, 2018
- Permalink
This movie focuses on Elise's character and that is undeniably the best part of the film. The scary scenes feel too similar to what we have seen in the previous installments but overall, it was enjoyable.
- jasonescamilla
- Jan 3, 2018
- Permalink
My scores:
Horror/Mystery/Thriller: 7.5 Movie Overall: 6.0
LIKES:
Characters Story Creep Factor
Dislikes: Dropped plot points Anticlimactic Ending Missing Trailer scenes
Summary: A fourth installment usually means a low-quality movie that is strictly for merchandising and money making. However, Insidious 4, while not the best of the series, keeps the tradition of horror storytelling alive by focusing on plot and character development rather than just plain old scares that the genre is famous for. Elise's backstory is fascinating, and helps connect some elements that were once shrouded in the mists of the unknown, and is presented nicely as past is integrated with present. In addition, while not the scariest, the group does a fantastic job utilizing shadows, make-up, and sound editing to establish a creep factor that will keep you on edge. All of this come together to make a nice mystery/horror that is worthy of the series. Yet, the fourth installment still has its flaws primarily in the scare tactics, (e.g. jump scare tactics) have gotten old despite their attempts to tune it up. In addition, the plot had some dropped and rushed elements, alongside an anticlimactic wrap up, that took away from the story overall. In addition, there are a lot of scenes from the trailers missing, some of which really could have added on to the story, or allowed for more creepy makeup to be used. Overall, this movie is a solid entry in the series and answers some of those lingering questions we have had since the whole prequel component was started. Yet, it does establish new questions and drops on the finish that could have really made the story exponentially better. And while the scare tactics are getting somewhat stale, Insidious is at least managing to keep things creepy and relevant to a point instead of just a super scare fest that this genre is famous for. It's worth a trip to the theater for the franchise fans, however, you can wait this out for the home cinema to save yourselves money.
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Https://robbiesmoviereviews.wordpress.com/last-key-unlocks-more-answers-more-questions-and-fewer-scares/
Horror/Mystery/Thriller: 7.5 Movie Overall: 6.0
LIKES:
Characters Story Creep Factor
Dislikes: Dropped plot points Anticlimactic Ending Missing Trailer scenes
Summary: A fourth installment usually means a low-quality movie that is strictly for merchandising and money making. However, Insidious 4, while not the best of the series, keeps the tradition of horror storytelling alive by focusing on plot and character development rather than just plain old scares that the genre is famous for. Elise's backstory is fascinating, and helps connect some elements that were once shrouded in the mists of the unknown, and is presented nicely as past is integrated with present. In addition, while not the scariest, the group does a fantastic job utilizing shadows, make-up, and sound editing to establish a creep factor that will keep you on edge. All of this come together to make a nice mystery/horror that is worthy of the series. Yet, the fourth installment still has its flaws primarily in the scare tactics, (e.g. jump scare tactics) have gotten old despite their attempts to tune it up. In addition, the plot had some dropped and rushed elements, alongside an anticlimactic wrap up, that took away from the story overall. In addition, there are a lot of scenes from the trailers missing, some of which really could have added on to the story, or allowed for more creepy makeup to be used. Overall, this movie is a solid entry in the series and answers some of those lingering questions we have had since the whole prequel component was started. Yet, it does establish new questions and drops on the finish that could have really made the story exponentially better. And while the scare tactics are getting somewhat stale, Insidious is at least managing to keep things creepy and relevant to a point instead of just a super scare fest that this genre is famous for. It's worth a trip to the theater for the franchise fans, however, you can wait this out for the home cinema to save yourselves money.
Want more details? Please visit:
Https://robbiesmoviereviews.wordpress.com/last-key-unlocks-more-answers-more-questions-and-fewer-scares/
Insidious: The Last Key is a very nice horror film. We are given a better insight of Lin Shaye's character as well as some really good moments in the film overall. Lyn Shaye is the best element, not only in this installment but in this whole franchise and her performance in The Last Key is fantastic. The jumpscares worked for me and the story seemed fine. I love how everything ties up to the original Insidious story at the end. All in all ths is a horror film which I really really enjoyed, being a fan of the series.Its a good horror film, it has its faults but Lin Shaye is the star of this movie.
Movie not so scary, but in some place you will jump out of your chair because of the sound effect, story quite confusing and completely varies from the previous versions, as usual not lengthy movie so acceptable to spend some time for entertainment portion of your daily life, DON'T MISS THE FIRST SCENE which is far good than other scenes.. Worth watch in BIG screen, so watch soon.
- gvivekanandg
- Jan 4, 2018
- Permalink
As a huge fan of the Insidious franchise (and of horror movies in general), I avoided watching this sequel for years due to all the hate it got. So I sat down to watch it recently and...they really did drop the ball with this one.
Let me start by saying, it isn't all bad. This isn't Jason Takes Manhattan levels of crap. This movie isn't offensive to horror movies or anything. But it is a mediocre horror film. "Mediocre" is really the best word that comes to mind when I think of this film.
The movie blows its load early, with the opening fifteen minutes or so being by far the best part of the movie. It's creepy, it's chilling, and it's effective in setting up a story that you care about. Making the story about Elise's childhood is a pretty cool direction to take the franchise. Unfortunately, the movie never quite reaches the highs of that opening. Not only that, but the movie seems to get worse the longer it goes on.
First off, the acting is pretty terrible. This isn't a well directed movie at all. There's a lot of awkward moments, cringey lines of dialogue, and absolutely terrible attempts at humor. The "psychic sidekick" joke made me want to smash my tv with a hammer. It was bad enough that they did it once, but they do it like three times. The two paranormal investigator guys need to stop trying to be funny, because when they're being serious characters, I actually enjoy them. But when they're trying to be funny, they make me wish they weren't in the movie.
Elise (or is it Elyse?) herself is ok. Like I said I did enjoy that they dug into her backstory, but as the movie went on I found myself not caring all that much about it. The story was just so strange. The key demon was so silly and not scary in the slightest, and to be honest, there's a large chunk of this movie that doesn't even feel like an Insidious film. It feels like an action thriller that's pretending to be an Insidious film. There's even a shootout inside of a house, I was like "what is happening right now". I'm not going to spoil the film, but the "twist" was awful and pretty damn stupid. Again...who cares? There were so many directions they could have taken her backstory and they landed on THIS?
On top of all that, the film just really isn't scary. And you'll never hear me say that about haunted house movies with ghosts or demons, because I find this sub genre to be by far the scariest in all of horror. I believe in ghosts and all that stuff, so films like The Exorcist and all that really scare me and make me seriously uncomfortable. The first three Insidious films are much scarier and creepier than this one. Nothing lingered in my mind at all when it was over. I don't even think I jumped once. There's like one main jump scare in the film, but it's obvious that they just tried to copy the big jump scare from the first one, but it's not nearly as scary, it looks so cheesy. If there's another jump scare I really don't even remember it. So much of this film was unmemorable to me. There is a "lame-ness" to this movie that wasn't present in the others. It's kind of lame.
Also, what happened to the soundtrack? The creepy violins are gone, and the new music isn't very good or memorable at all. Again, this doesn't feel like an Insidious film. 1-3 all feel like they're part of the same universe. They have a similar feel and tone. Without Elise and the investigators, you wouldn't think that this is an Insidious film. Even the Further doesn't even look the same. It looks so cheap and grown together. Did they even try?
Like I said though, it's not the worst thing in the world. It's competently shot I guess, I wasn't sitting in misery. On a positive note, I did like the two female characters that we get introduced to here. They were likeable and I enjoyed their interactions with the investigators, I found that to be a pretty charming sub plot. I also liked how it tied into the first Insidious film. I won't spoil it but I thought how they did it was really cool. Also, as stupid as the "final fight" scene was (and trust me, it's REALLY stupid, like beyond stupid), I did get teary eyed in the scene right after. I always like it when horror movies make it about the bond between family.
That's really all I can say about the positives. Yeah I really wanted to like this one, or at least walk away from it going "hmm...not that bad, I think that one's pretty underrated". But I can't. It just wasn't that good. Like I said, it just got worse and worse as it went on, and by the last 30 minutes or so I was kind of checked out. This is definitely a "checking my watch" kind of movie. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't scary, it wasn't funny, it was honestly kind of boring. Small moments of something decent were few and far between. But overall, I can't recommend this one. Like I said, this isn't F tier bad. It's not a dumpster fire. But I think it sits firmly in the D tier, and is by far the weakest in the franchise.
See it if you're a die hard fan who wants to experience every film in the series. But I can't recommend it to anyone else. If I'm doing a marathon I'll watch it, but I hope the series doesn't get any worse than this.
4/10.
Let me start by saying, it isn't all bad. This isn't Jason Takes Manhattan levels of crap. This movie isn't offensive to horror movies or anything. But it is a mediocre horror film. "Mediocre" is really the best word that comes to mind when I think of this film.
The movie blows its load early, with the opening fifteen minutes or so being by far the best part of the movie. It's creepy, it's chilling, and it's effective in setting up a story that you care about. Making the story about Elise's childhood is a pretty cool direction to take the franchise. Unfortunately, the movie never quite reaches the highs of that opening. Not only that, but the movie seems to get worse the longer it goes on.
First off, the acting is pretty terrible. This isn't a well directed movie at all. There's a lot of awkward moments, cringey lines of dialogue, and absolutely terrible attempts at humor. The "psychic sidekick" joke made me want to smash my tv with a hammer. It was bad enough that they did it once, but they do it like three times. The two paranormal investigator guys need to stop trying to be funny, because when they're being serious characters, I actually enjoy them. But when they're trying to be funny, they make me wish they weren't in the movie.
Elise (or is it Elyse?) herself is ok. Like I said I did enjoy that they dug into her backstory, but as the movie went on I found myself not caring all that much about it. The story was just so strange. The key demon was so silly and not scary in the slightest, and to be honest, there's a large chunk of this movie that doesn't even feel like an Insidious film. It feels like an action thriller that's pretending to be an Insidious film. There's even a shootout inside of a house, I was like "what is happening right now". I'm not going to spoil the film, but the "twist" was awful and pretty damn stupid. Again...who cares? There were so many directions they could have taken her backstory and they landed on THIS?
On top of all that, the film just really isn't scary. And you'll never hear me say that about haunted house movies with ghosts or demons, because I find this sub genre to be by far the scariest in all of horror. I believe in ghosts and all that stuff, so films like The Exorcist and all that really scare me and make me seriously uncomfortable. The first three Insidious films are much scarier and creepier than this one. Nothing lingered in my mind at all when it was over. I don't even think I jumped once. There's like one main jump scare in the film, but it's obvious that they just tried to copy the big jump scare from the first one, but it's not nearly as scary, it looks so cheesy. If there's another jump scare I really don't even remember it. So much of this film was unmemorable to me. There is a "lame-ness" to this movie that wasn't present in the others. It's kind of lame.
Also, what happened to the soundtrack? The creepy violins are gone, and the new music isn't very good or memorable at all. Again, this doesn't feel like an Insidious film. 1-3 all feel like they're part of the same universe. They have a similar feel and tone. Without Elise and the investigators, you wouldn't think that this is an Insidious film. Even the Further doesn't even look the same. It looks so cheap and grown together. Did they even try?
Like I said though, it's not the worst thing in the world. It's competently shot I guess, I wasn't sitting in misery. On a positive note, I did like the two female characters that we get introduced to here. They were likeable and I enjoyed their interactions with the investigators, I found that to be a pretty charming sub plot. I also liked how it tied into the first Insidious film. I won't spoil it but I thought how they did it was really cool. Also, as stupid as the "final fight" scene was (and trust me, it's REALLY stupid, like beyond stupid), I did get teary eyed in the scene right after. I always like it when horror movies make it about the bond between family.
That's really all I can say about the positives. Yeah I really wanted to like this one, or at least walk away from it going "hmm...not that bad, I think that one's pretty underrated". But I can't. It just wasn't that good. Like I said, it just got worse and worse as it went on, and by the last 30 minutes or so I was kind of checked out. This is definitely a "checking my watch" kind of movie. It wasn't interesting, it wasn't scary, it wasn't funny, it was honestly kind of boring. Small moments of something decent were few and far between. But overall, I can't recommend this one. Like I said, this isn't F tier bad. It's not a dumpster fire. But I think it sits firmly in the D tier, and is by far the weakest in the franchise.
See it if you're a die hard fan who wants to experience every film in the series. But I can't recommend it to anyone else. If I'm doing a marathon I'll watch it, but I hope the series doesn't get any worse than this.
4/10.
In 1953, Elise Rainier lives with her loving mother, her abusive prison guard father, and her young brother Christian next to the prison. Her father beats her for claiming to see the dead and locks her in the basement. She unlocks a forbidding red door allowing a demon to escape and getting her mother killed. In 2010 California, Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) fights paranormal demons with Specs and Tucker. She gets a call for help from Ted Garza who lives in her childhood home in New Mexico. She reluctantly goes home and finds her estranged angry brother Christian (Bruce Davison) with two daughters Imogen (Caitlin Gerard) and Melissa (Spencer Locke).
There are some issues with clarity. This starts with the flashback to her childhood home. In retrospect, it doesn't make sense that her father would lock her in the basement so that she could easily find the secret entrance to the dungeon. The house layout is never that clear with a question of how the kids wouldn't figure things out sooner over the many years. The same can be said about Garza. Why would he call Elise for help unless he wants to be discovered? Is it self-sabotage? There is a great reveal but it needs to be the central take. It's all a bit messy. As for the characters, I like Elise but not the boys especially Tucker. The girls are fine. I do like The Further but I don't get why Imogen has to throw the whistle to Elise. Couldn't Imogen blow it herself? It's a lot of nagging little questions. In the end, I like it more than I have problems.
There are some issues with clarity. This starts with the flashback to her childhood home. In retrospect, it doesn't make sense that her father would lock her in the basement so that she could easily find the secret entrance to the dungeon. The house layout is never that clear with a question of how the kids wouldn't figure things out sooner over the many years. The same can be said about Garza. Why would he call Elise for help unless he wants to be discovered? Is it self-sabotage? There is a great reveal but it needs to be the central take. It's all a bit messy. As for the characters, I like Elise but not the boys especially Tucker. The girls are fine. I do like The Further but I don't get why Imogen has to throw the whistle to Elise. Couldn't Imogen blow it herself? It's a lot of nagging little questions. In the end, I like it more than I have problems.
- SnoopyStyle
- Mar 31, 2018
- Permalink
Might be a good story, but the execution is horrible. Continuity is nowhere to be found (emotion wise, see the dinner scene for reference). Terrible acting.
The parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) has nightmares with her childhood in New Mexico, where she lived with her brother Christian, her supportive mother Audrey (Tessa Ferrer) and her father Gerald (Josh Stewart), who frequently beats her when she claims that she sees ghosts everywhere in the house. When the client Ted Garza (Kirk Acevedo) calls Elise to ask for help since he is haunted since he moved to a house in New Mexico, Elise refuses the request since the address is the same house where she spent her childhood. However she changes her mind and accepts the job, and travels with her assistants Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) to New Mexico where they will discover an evil entity in the house.
"Insidious: The Last Key" is another spooky and scary film of this successful franchise. This ghost story is entwined with family drama of Elise and startles the viewer in many scenes. The touch of humor to break the tension is given by Tucker and Specs. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Sobrenatural: A Última Chave" ("Supernatural: The Last Key")
"Insidious: The Last Key" is another spooky and scary film of this successful franchise. This ghost story is entwined with family drama of Elise and startles the viewer in many scenes. The touch of humor to break the tension is given by Tucker and Specs. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Sobrenatural: A Última Chave" ("Supernatural: The Last Key")
- claudio_carvalho
- Mar 21, 2018
- Permalink
I went and saw this movie when it came out, and really enjoyed myself. I had previously only seen the first Insidious movie, but I had zero confusion as to what was happening. The character development was nothing special, but I thought that the character Elise was very well done, and the actress did an incredible job. I enjoyed the scares, they were still a little cheesy the way Insidious was, but it scared me enough!
Great ending to a fun series.
Great ending to a fun series.
- jackson-32415
- Jan 27, 2018
- Permalink
I never look things up, or remember anything from the previous films apart from the fact that I liked them, so I didn't realize it was a prequel till the end. It's set in 2010, but it's been a while since I saw the first 3 Insidious movies so I just thought more time had passed than I thought.
I think this one's less spooky than the other Insidious movies, and the two dudes were pretty annoying. Some things make a lot more sense if they were meant to be 10 years younger than the actors actually are.
I did enjoy the story, but now that I see Insidious 5 is en route, it is very clear that this is set up for that.
I think this one's less spooky than the other Insidious movies, and the two dudes were pretty annoying. Some things make a lot more sense if they were meant to be 10 years younger than the actors actually are.
I did enjoy the story, but now that I see Insidious 5 is en route, it is very clear that this is set up for that.
- kyla-72302
- May 28, 2023
- Permalink
I've said it before and I'll say it again, when it comes to horror Hollywood has lost its way. As demonstrated with franchises like Insidious, the Conjuring, Paranormal Activity and the countless standalone snorefests.
Just to give you some perspective about what I think of Insidious let's put it like this, 4 movies with a potential 40 stars total. Including the Last Key it's 8/40. These movies really are the pits.
So another prequel to the franchise see's the excellent Lin Shaye lead again, this time with veteran Bruce Davison in tow (Who is sadly not used anywhere near enough). The plot is that she's on a job in the house she grew up in and supernatural investigations take place and yadayadayada.
If you've seen the other films you'll know exactly what to expect. Generic scares, mediocre plot and pseudo "Other side" boredom. Seriously, are people that disillusioned that they think this is the pinnacle of horror cinema?
Sure they look good, they have a budget behind them and both Shaye and Davison are fantastic but the film has absolutely nothing original, interesting or entertaining about it.
When it comes to horror watch independent, Hollywood just don't have a clue anymore.
The Good:
Lin Shaye and Bruce Davison
The Bad:
Same.......old.......tripe
Just to give you some perspective about what I think of Insidious let's put it like this, 4 movies with a potential 40 stars total. Including the Last Key it's 8/40. These movies really are the pits.
So another prequel to the franchise see's the excellent Lin Shaye lead again, this time with veteran Bruce Davison in tow (Who is sadly not used anywhere near enough). The plot is that she's on a job in the house she grew up in and supernatural investigations take place and yadayadayada.
If you've seen the other films you'll know exactly what to expect. Generic scares, mediocre plot and pseudo "Other side" boredom. Seriously, are people that disillusioned that they think this is the pinnacle of horror cinema?
Sure they look good, they have a budget behind them and both Shaye and Davison are fantastic but the film has absolutely nothing original, interesting or entertaining about it.
When it comes to horror watch independent, Hollywood just don't have a clue anymore.
The Good:
Lin Shaye and Bruce Davison
The Bad:
Same.......old.......tripe
- Platypuschow
- May 2, 2019
- Permalink
The Last Key is filled with recycled ideas and imagery from the previous Insidious films. Characters will make decisions in one scene, only to inexplicably decide the exact opposite in the following scene. Most of the suspenseful scenes feel ripped straight from the previous entries in the franchise (or from other similar series like the Conjuring or Ouija). Worst of all, The Last Key seems to feel the need to remind of you of the other Insidious films and previous scenes with needless flashbacks and reincorporation. The humor is often misplaced, pacing is disjointed, but at least the score will be sure to remind you of when you're supposed to be scared.
Despite some cool looking sets, there is little to enjoy in this film. The Last Key is a bland entry in a tired series.
Despite some cool looking sets, there is little to enjoy in this film. The Last Key is a bland entry in a tired series.
- jordan-pillar
- Jan 19, 2018
- Permalink
- kelleyjoshua
- Jan 2, 2018
- Permalink
The 4th Installment in the Insidious Franchise is a very good one and probably far better than the 3rd one. The movie was slow and tense and draws past life experiences of Elise.As has been the case since the first film, this one centers on shock cuts and sudden appearances of figures in the shadows. Insidious : The Last Key is a good attempt with jump scares which may get good hold-up with the audiences.
- pranayjalvi
- Jan 3, 2018
- Permalink
It's not the worst horror flick I've seen but its one of the SLOWEST! with this being a prequel, it should have narrowed down the plot to being about Elise and her childhood and not about trying to piece every single movie( all the other movies) plot together. It made it confusing and it wasn't as scary as the previous movies. On a good note, it manages to explain Elise's gift. If you're a fan of the trilogy watch it only because it explains the beginnings, I guess
- Millyviews
- Jan 5, 2018
- Permalink
I am a big fan of the Insidious franchise or should I say only the first Insidious!
The past year haven't been the best for Insidious since in my opinion Chapter 2 and 3 weren't what I hoped they would be..... They were kind of bad some great scares but wasted by terrible plots. Insidious 1 was one of the best horror movie made and din't get sequels that could come close to it.
So with Insidious 4, I saw the trailer was happy the were making a new one, but the trailer in my opinion was the worst, it looked so bad and ridiculous ....... an evil with keys on his fingers ..... ohhh wow super scary, no the idea looked dumb. So my first look at the movie was bad, I was not hyped for it to hit theaters.
I was wrong, the movie is done in a twisted way a brillant way that makes connection with the first Insidious in a really great way. The movie is far from being the scariest, but he may be the one with the best characters and the most tragic one. The acting from the whole cast is good, and as always Shaye still is the best part just like all Insidious movies, her performances is always fresh, new and amazing, plus the characters Elise is one of the strongest horror characters I have seen on the big screen. The villans in this one such as the demon himself is not scary and is not the best, but Elise *Spoiler* is one of the most well made adition in the franchise it's orignial and makes the whole franchise more real and good.
There are some great scares but if you really want to get scared this one is not the best one, it had some memorable scares, but overall it was more of a psychological horror movie with troubled people that are someway possesed.
That said I don't want to spoil anything so let's just say that it's great if you see this movie has an horror movie not a movie that would win an award or anything it's fun to watch with friends or alone and is a great movie for Insidious fans. Ohhh and lots of great scenes from the trailer are cut .... so don't try to look for them.
Thanks for reading my review and enjoy Insidious: The Last Key
So with Insidious 4, I saw the trailer was happy the were making a new one, but the trailer in my opinion was the worst, it looked so bad and ridiculous ....... an evil with keys on his fingers ..... ohhh wow super scary, no the idea looked dumb. So my first look at the movie was bad, I was not hyped for it to hit theaters.
I was wrong, the movie is done in a twisted way a brillant way that makes connection with the first Insidious in a really great way. The movie is far from being the scariest, but he may be the one with the best characters and the most tragic one. The acting from the whole cast is good, and as always Shaye still is the best part just like all Insidious movies, her performances is always fresh, new and amazing, plus the characters Elise is one of the strongest horror characters I have seen on the big screen. The villans in this one such as the demon himself is not scary and is not the best, but Elise *Spoiler* is one of the most well made adition in the franchise it's orignial and makes the whole franchise more real and good.
There are some great scares but if you really want to get scared this one is not the best one, it had some memorable scares, but overall it was more of a psychological horror movie with troubled people that are someway possesed.
That said I don't want to spoil anything so let's just say that it's great if you see this movie has an horror movie not a movie that would win an award or anything it's fun to watch with friends or alone and is a great movie for Insidious fans. Ohhh and lots of great scenes from the trailer are cut .... so don't try to look for them.
Thanks for reading my review and enjoy Insidious: The Last Key
Good: For the most part, the acting is decent with Lin Shaye's calm and pleasant presence performing exceptionally well for 74 years old. The intro is engaging and suspenseful, but as the movie unfolds, it falls apart...
Bad: Some of the worst writing I have seen from the convoluted story with confusing plot points to the unfunny humor. The movie tries to pull twists and turns, but most of them do not make sense logically and end up being confusing. For 103 minutes, the movie tends to drag due to a lack coherence and ineffective scares.
Overall: Shaye cannot hold up the messy and sloppy writing. As a fan of the Insidious series, I felt this to be an outlier and desperately fail at being an adequate entry into the series.
1.5/5
Bad: Some of the worst writing I have seen from the convoluted story with confusing plot points to the unfunny humor. The movie tries to pull twists and turns, but most of them do not make sense logically and end up being confusing. For 103 minutes, the movie tends to drag due to a lack coherence and ineffective scares.
Overall: Shaye cannot hold up the messy and sloppy writing. As a fan of the Insidious series, I felt this to be an outlier and desperately fail at being an adequate entry into the series.
1.5/5
- Yee_Reviews
- Jan 4, 2018
- Permalink
Honestly, I figured that this movie, technically the fourth in its series, wasn't going to be all that good. Series tend to have diminishing returns the further into them you wander. But this one was pretty inventive and definitely scary, as it flashes back to Elise's horrible childhood and connects it rather convincingly to her present. Chronologically, this fourth movie occurs after the third but before the first - it is itself a second prequel. Elise (the incomparable Lin Shaye) needs to confront her past when the current owner of her childhood home needs her ghost-hunting services. With her associates Tucker and Specs, Elise finds the place pretty much as she last saw it, when she was 16 years old. Then as now, the house contains spirits. Now, there are some jump scares, and of course there are those of us who are tired of them (and usually anticipate them) and there are those of us whose hearts skip a beat when they happen. But it's the fear of the supernatural coupled with the dread of renewed confrontation with real-life demons that really make this movie work. And even if the plot sometimes feels a little obvious, Lin Shaye's amazing performance should sell the movie to you. The Further is still a terrifying place, and this movie (and its predecessor) each provide essential background for the Shaye's Elise and how utterly haunted she is when she visits the Lambert family in the first Insidious movie.
- dfranzen70
- May 9, 2019
- Permalink
...and neither of them are worth watching. When I saw the 'last' in the title I inwardly started hoping that meant the studio powers that be had decided this, the fourth installment in the lamentable Insidious franchise, would close out the saga of pointless, unoriginal, uninspiring horror movies. Having browsed over to BoxOfficeMojo however, and looked at Last Key's $167.9 worldwide cume, an improvement somewhat over its predecessor, I'm sure we haven't seen the back of them just yet. It isn't like Last Key is the worst of the series either, from what I can remember of it Chapter 3 holds that dubious honour. The switch of focus, pioneered in the last title, to Lin Shaye and her compatriots ('She's psychic. And we're sidekicks.') isn't unwelcome either, bringing with them both empathy and comic relief. Sadly, the other side has nothing to offer these potentially intriguing characters but boredom and Wittertainement-coined quiet-quiet-bang moments, accompanied by poor monster design. The switching between time periods, and over arching mythology weighs down rather than enhances the set-up, and moments toward the end of the movie to tie this back into the larger franchise are unneccessary and add extra minutes. It's the second time Darth Maul popped up where he wasn't wanted in cinema last year. I had planned to follow this with the director's next effort, Escape Room, instead I took the time to contemplate why bad films like this need to exist, in order to allow us to contrast great things against them. So, Last Key I thankyou, for allowing me to enjoy Hereditary more.
- filmexperienced
- Jan 22, 2019
- Permalink
I must say the first 2 were gold that's for sure and others had pretty good elements mashed in well. An interesting view on Elises's backstory furthering showing how good of an actress Lin Shaye is she carries everything quite well! The acting and writing is much more bearable in The Last Key compared to Chapter 3 I'm grateful for that, unfortunate this one has the lowest ratings to me its a satisfying sequel to the series of Insidious. The voices are great, the thrill is well done, more seriousness than previous one was lacking this one does well, and the directing is great; sure the humor is one of the most added aspects I like it and glad to be caught on these thrill rides.
- UniqueParticle
- Apr 22, 2023
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Wasn't expecting much after the third entry was alright at best, pretty happy with the turnout, funny at moments but I did enjoy it better than I thought.
I like how it somehow links to the first movie but all in all a good watch.
Hope for a fifth and not the last..
I like how it somehow links to the first movie but all in all a good watch.
Hope for a fifth and not the last..
- moviexclusive
- Jan 3, 2018
- Permalink
It's one of those mistakes that Movie Franchises have. There is no need for sequels if the story is already done.
Insidious featured a solid and very scary first movie (6/10), an improvement with a very interesting second one (7/10) and another solid entry as their "prequel" third movie (6/10). This 4th installment was just not needed.
The Story is predictable, except for Lin Shaye's Elise no character can really shine and the humor is disgustingly bad.
There are some okay jump scares, but they offer nothing new and are just there because they need to be there.
It's not a complete failure, but if you are no fan of the franchise, this movie is not for you.
4/10
- philipposx-12290
- Jan 23, 2018
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