Insidious: The Last Key

Alright everyone, for the final review of this year’s “Halloween Month,” let’s look at the latest stinker that came out at the beginning of this year, “Insidious: The Last Key.”

Roger Moore started his review by saying, “God help me, but I found the climax to “Insidious: The Last Key” to be quite moving.”

At least for a horror sequel or in this case a sequel to a prequel.

Moore said, “Sure, much of what’s come before that, an hour and 40ish minutes of backstory, lulling detail, inane banter and scenes one can only describe as “filler” interrupted by quick-cut soundtrack-amplified SHOCKS, is a bore.”

A lot of what Blumhouse Pictures and screenwriter Leigh Whannell are worried with nowadays is working each new film (this is the fourth) into “The Insidious Universe.” Moore stated, “Then there’s the job of giving Whannell, a sometime actor who found his true calling with “Saw,” another acting role where he gets to be the nerdy ghostbuster awkwardly creeping on starlets half his age (he’s about to turn 40).”

With these other tasks to complain about, is it any reason these movies have downgraded from a smart “Poltergeist” difference into a tired, idea-wasted formula was a supporting cast that’s grown past “cute” that can’t find a new scare to keep it going?

A backstory shows us the abusive, working class childhood of our main character, Elise, reprised by Lin Shaye. Young Elise (Ava Kolker, who you might remember from “Girl Meets World”) could see and hear the spirits in the Five Keys, New Mexico house she and her afraid brother Christian (Pierce Pope) grew up in. Her mother, played by Tessa Ferrer, understood. However, her tough, prison-guard dad, played by Josh Stewart, didn’t like Elise’s brilliant descriptions of death sentences at the prison, which she didn’t see.

Dad beat Elise with a cane, and those spirits in the house? They murdered her mom.

Fifty-seven years later, Elise gets a call from the new owner of the same house. No, she can’t go back there to remove the ghosts. She can’t, but she will, because we would not have this sequel.

She calls her supernatural expert colleagues who helped set up Spectral Sightings with her, Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

“She’s psychic, we’re the sidekicks!”

They’ll find out why this house is haunted and Elise’s lasting guilt over the brother (Bruce Davison plays Christian as an adult) she left behind. Yes, there’s a key, a door to unlock and an emergency whistle her mother had gave to her to retrieve.

Horror actress Lin Shaye, who is thankful to her career being the sister to New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye, is great to see at the core of these movies. However, in the original films, she was the cavalry, coming to save whoever was really needed to free themselves of supernatural problems, a supporting actress who only had to make a huge impact in a few scenes. Moore said, “She’s no Helen Mirren and making her carry these movies is a burden she’s not up to.”

Put her in a scene with horror great Bruce Davison, a successful character actor, and he underplays/appeal’s her right off the screen.

The colleagues have displayed their entire back of character and acting tricks. They’re not as tough as Elise, and if she doesn’t make them wear white shirts and ties, they don’t blend in at all. The originality’s gone and they’re not appealing any more. Giving them a supernatural tracking RV doesn’t help.

Moore noted, “The ghosts are the long-fingered ghouls with skeletal faces so popular in the genre these days.”

Everything adds up to a movie that has no right to the moving payoff Whannell has made, a nice resolution to a movie that isn’t really worth seeing to get to that resolution.

As you might have guessed, this is the worst in the series. I don’t understand why they felt like they needed to go backwards, when they could have just stopped or moved forward from how the second film ended. The worst part about this: this film did well in the box office that a fifth film is in development. Stop making movie sequels to this franchise, just end it already! This is a horrible franchise.

Thank goodness I’m done with that review. Anyways, Happy Halloween everyone! Hopefully everyone has great plans tonight, they picked out a costume that they can go trick-or-treating in, but make sure not to get too much candy or you will seriously need to go to the dentist. Still, make sure to enjoy tonight and watch plenty of horror films or enjoy any haunted house you go to. This year’s “Halloween Month” actually turned out to be easier on me, which I’m happy I decided to do this now.

In the meantime, I will see everyone next month where I start back on my traditional Friday reviews. Stay tuned to see what I have in store for everyone next month.