AT THE MOVIES

by Isy Jordan

Insidious 4: The Last Key
Director: Adam Robitel
Starring: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Caitlin Gerard, Spencer Locke, and more...

Parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier faces her most fearsome and personal haunting yet -- in her own family home.

Fans of the Insidious franchise are in for a treat with this fourth, and likely, final installment of the creepy horror series. For those playing the home edition, while this is the fourth movie in the series, it's actually chronologically the second story to take place in the partnership between Elise, Specs, and Tucker. It takes place after the events of Insidious 3 but immediately before the events of the first movie.

In The Last Key, we're taken back to 1950s New Mexico, to the home where Elise lived as a child with her parents and brother next door to a prison. One night, tragic events shape Elise's future between loss and manipulation. In the present, Elise is contacted by a man needing help with paranormal disturbances in none other than the same tragic house from Elise's childhood. Can Elise and her young helpers solve the puzzle of the disturbances? Can they stop a great evil from her past to save themselves and others?

Insidious 4 doesn't disappoint and it didn't take long to figure out where the story fell in the series timeline. We not only get a fascinating view of Elise's childhood, we also see further development of her relationship with her team. The story itself is well-crafted and terrifying. There were some loose ends I wish they'd tied up. Since the story was about Elise and her family's past and present, I guess that's okay. The acting was strong, there was the right amount of humor. The scares and jump scares were, as always, spot on.

The ending of the story is a gem in itself because, as this series has done before, it clever loops back around to connect with what we already know. The ending, as a fan of the series, had me heading home to watch the first two movies so I could enjoy them all over again.

The film is PG-13 and there are jump scares, violence, suggested sexual violence, paranormal imagery, and more. Not for children but teens and above will love it!