Insidious: The Last Key Review

Insidious is a film series that takes what may be considered a tired premise and breathes new life in to it with a great amount of originality in the form of writing, casting and set/character design. Taking on the concept of paranormal investigation in haunted houses in this day in age, whilst still making a strong film is a challenge in itself, never mind turning it in to a franchise. But that is exactly what writer and actor (and director of Insidious: Chapter 3) Leigh Whannell (Saw, Insidious 1,2 & 3), director and producer James Wan (The Conjuring, Saw), producer Jason Blum (The Conjuring,Paranormal Activity) and now director Adam Robitel (The Taking of Deborah Logan) have managed to achieve.

Insidious: The Last Key takes place after Chapter 3, following Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye) and her “sidekicks” Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) after their meeting in the previous chapter. Without delving to much in to spoiler territory, our protagonists are called to take on a case in what turns out to be Elise’s childhood home, causing her not only to face literal demons, but her own personal demons as well.

Right from the start I feel the writing was very strong, giving us a deeper understanding of Elise and her childhood, coming to terms with her gift and how it effected her. Through out the rest of the film the plot stays strong and steady through out bouncing between our paranormal mystery and the Elise’s family life based drama, both of which I found very easy to be invested in. A few twists that take place thoroughly took me by surprise which only furthers my admiration for Whannell’s writing. My one issue with the writing that is not within spoiler territory, is that of the humour, while personally many of the jokes did make me chuckle, I felt a good portion of them where rather ham fisted and one moment n particular simply didn’t land for me at all. Aside from that though, I was fully immersed in the story.

Robitel did a great job directing this film in my opinion, allowing long suspenseful scenes to draw out only furthering the tension before a very earned scare takes place – continuing Insidious’ streak of keeping the scares for things we should actually be afraid of. The pacing of the film worked very well for me, I never felt anything went on longer than it needed to and nothing felt rushed, apart from a few scenes where things seemed to happen far to fast.

Just like all of the Insidious films, these are great looking movies that make heavy use of colour, lighting and set/character design to bring the dead to life! The further continues to be a place of immersion and intrigue as we see new realms and learn more about the spirits within it. The make up and effects team did a great job as usual creating the main antagonistic demon as well as the other lost souls in the further, solidifying the originality in this series’ interpretation of the afterlife.

The score was unfortunately not very memorable, although still effective in the common sound designs aspect which many modern horror films play on, using long drawn out notes and looming bass drones to build the suspense. Not bad, but not great either, very neutral overall.

As a whole, I really enjoyed Insidious: The Last Key, the negatives are there but by no means outweigh the positives in my eyes. I think this is a great film that I will happily watch again. I feel this would be a good place to leave the franchise as the prequel era resolves back to the first film, leaving is with a strong modern horror quadrilogy (which is pretty unheard of).

If you’re a fan of the series I think you will really enjoy The Last Key, I’d say it’s just as good as Chapter 3, but not quite as good as the first 2. Still a intense and unnerving film and I am giving Insidious: The Last Key 76%!

Thanks for taking the time to ready my first review, let me know what you thought of the film and my review in the comments below!