‘To end this evil I need to go deeper into the Further…’
So Insidious was the first film. That’s fine. Insidious: Chapter 2 was a direct sequel with a cliffhanger ending that left things open for another sequel. Fine. Insidious: Chapter 3 didn’t resolve that cliffhanger, instead it was a prequel. Strange choice but still, I get it. Insidious: The Last Key surely wraps up the unresolved story line from Chapter 2 right? Right?! Wrong. Instead, The Last Key is a direct sequel to the first prequel that was Chapter 3. Jesus, I need a drink. All this messing about makes you long for the days when Freddy Kruger would show up in a new movie once a year and murder some teenagers. Simpler times…
All this confusion would be acceptable if the Insidious films were doing groundbreaking things onscreen. It is safe to say that they absolutely aren’t doing that however. Instead they are wheeling out Lin Shaye (who, to be fair, is better than all of this) to utter po-faced yet anodyne dialogue, sending in a couple of zany monsters and having a pair of average Joe’s making shitty jokes at every opportunity. This isn’t a movie, it’s a highlights reel. It’s Insidious’ greatest hits. Red face guy even pops up at the end.
Insidious was genuinely a game changer in the horror landscape. It was original, compelling and it scared me shitless. The sequels have ranged from the terrible (Insidious: Chapter 2) to the slightly above average (Insidious: Chapter 3) without ever even flirting with becoming something that could be considered interesting. Horror sequels need to be either entertainingly terrible or different enough from the original to justify their existence. The Last Key is neither. It just is. Like beef and onion Space Raiders or Blue Peter, Adam Robitel’s forgettable film is there just for the sake of being there. This isn’t helped by the fact that every single actor apart from Lin Shaye is either offensively bland or aggressively nondescript.
I didn’t hate The Last Key but it goes without saying that I didn’t love it. I left this movie feeling nothing and that is surely the biggest criticism of all.