Insidious: The Last Key

Insidious: The Last Key
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Adam Robitel
Produced by
Written by Leigh Whannell
Starring
Music by Joseph Bishara
Cinematography Toby Oliver
Edited by Timothy Alverson
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • January 5, 2018 (2018-01-05) (United States)
Running time
 103 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million[1]
Box office $167.7 million[1]

Insidious: The Last Key is a 2018 American supernatural horror film directed by Adam Robitel and written by Leigh Whannell. It is produced by Jason Blum, Oren Peli, and James Wan. It is the fourth installment in the Insidious franchise, and the second in the chronology of the story running through the series. Starring Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Spencer Locke, Caitlin Gerard, and Bruce Davison, the film follows parapsychologist Elise Rainier as she investigates a haunting in her childhood home.

The film was released in the United States on January 5, 2018, by Universal Pictures. It grossed $167 million worldwide, the highest of the franchise, and received mixed reviews, with praise for Shaye's performance but some critics stating that the franchise had run its course.[2]

Plot

In 1953, young Elise Rainier lives with her parents Audrey and Gerald, a prison executioner, and her brother Christian, in New Mexico. Elise claims to see the ghosts of the prisoners that have been executed, alarming her parents. One night, Elise encounters a ghost in their room. Frightened, Christian looks for the whistle their mother gave them to call for help, but it is lost. Gerald, furious, beats Elise and locks her in the basement. A demon called "Key Face" comes through, possessing Elise and killing Audrey by hanging her. Gerald arrives to find Elise and Audrey's body.

Decades later, Elise works as a paranormal investigator with her colleagues, Specs and Tucker. Ted Garza calls Elise, saying he'd been experiencing paranormal activity at his house, which is actually Elise's childhood home. She hesitates, but accepts the job.

Ted explains that many paranormal incidents have happened, mostly in her old bedroom. Elise finds the lost whistle in her room. In the basement, she is attacked by a female ghost that shouts "Help her!" before vanishing with the whistle. Elise tells them that she has seen her before, as a teenager, but when her father said he saw nothing, Elise fled the house in fear of another beating, abandoning Christian. The next morning, Elise, Tucker, and Specs meet sisters Melissa and Imogen, Christian's daughters. Christian is still furious at Elise for abandoning him. Hoping to repair their relationship, Elise hands Melissa a photo of the whistle, telling her to show it to Christian.

That night, Elise and Tucker hear the whistle being blown. The sound comes from behind a wall that is actually a door; behind the door is a bloodied girl with a chain around her neck. Ted storms into the room and it is revealed that he was keeping the girl against her will. He locks the group in and tries to kill Specs, but Specs gains an upper hand and kills him by dropping a bookcase on his head. The police rescue the group.

Christian and his girls go to find the whistle and Melissa is attacked by "Key Face". The entity sticks two keys in Melissa: one steals her voice, and the other takes her soul and sends her into a coma. Melissa is taken to the hospital, but Imogen stays in order to help.

In the basement, Elise and Tucker find the red door that is the entrance into The Further. Elise also finds a night gown that belonged to the female ghost, Anna. A flashback shows that Elise had seen Anna in the laundry room. Anna was actually alive and had escaped from the room she was locked in. When Gerald walked in, he saw Anna but pretended he saw nothing. After Elise ran away, Gerald brutally killed Anna. Inside the vents, Elise finds several suitcases filled with the remains of women that had been locked in the house. She is then ambushed by Key Face who takes her into The Further, leaving her unconscious body in the real world.

Imogen enters The Further, led by Anna into a prison realm where Key Face is holding all of the souls he has taken. Elise figures Key Face had been manipulating both Gerald and Ted by feeding on the fear and hatred generated by the women, whose souls were trapped in there. Key Face tries to coerce Elise into hurting her father as revenge for what he's done. Elise starts beating Gerald, but is stopped by Imogen and refuses to feed Key Face any more hatred. Key Face attacks Elise, but Gerald saves her before he is stabbed by Key Face, and his soul vanishes.

Key Face stabs Melissa, causing her physical body to start dying. He attempts to possess Elise. Elise blows the whistle, and Audrey saves them, vanquishing Key Face. With Melissa dying, they move to find her body in The Further. They open a door and see a young boy, Dalton Lambert, falling from a ladder, and he sees them. Realizing they opened the wrong door, they leave the door open and find Melissa in the next door. Melissa's spirit returns to her body in the real world, saving her life. Elise makes amends with her mother and says goodbye. Elise and Imogen return to the real world and reunite with Melissa and Christian. Christian forgives Elise and she gives him the whistle.

In her sleep, Elise sees a vision of Dalton, with the Red-faced demon looming over him. A woman, Lorraine, calls for help for her grandson, Dalton. Elise had helped her with her son Josh years earlier, and she agrees to help Dalton.

Cast

  • Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier
    • Ava Kolker as Young Elise Rainier
    • Hana Hayes as Teenage Elise Rainier
  • Angus Sampson as Tucker
  • Leigh Whannell as Specs
  • Spencer Locke as Melissa Rainier, Elise's niece and Christian's youngest daughter.
  • Caitlin Gerard as Imogen Rainier, Elise's niece and Christian's eldest daughter. She has also inherited the gift that Elise holds.
  • Bruce Davison as Christian Rainier, Elise's estranged younger brother.
    • Pierce Pope as Young Christian Rainier
    • Thomas Robie as Teenage Christian Rainier
  • Kirk Acevedo as Ted Garza, a man who makes residence in Elise's old home and calls for her help.
  • Josh Stewart as Gerald Rainier, Elise and Christian's abusive father and Audrey's husband.
  • Tessa Ferrer as Audrey Rainier, Elise and Christian's mother and Gerald's wife.
  • Aleque Reid as Anna
  • Marcus Henderson as Detective Whitfield
  • Amanda Jaros as Mara Jennings
  • Javier Botet as Key Face
  • Joseph Bishara as Lipstick-Face Demon
  • Ayub Veno as Imprisoned Spirit

Additionally, Ty Simpkins, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, and Patrick Wilson reprise their roles as Dalton Lambert, Renai Lambert, Lorraine Lambert, and Josh Lambert, respectively, from the first two films, in archive footage.

Production

Principal photography began in August 2016,[3] and ended the following month.[4] On August 29, 2017, it was announced via Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights that the film would be titled Insidious: The Last Key.

Release

Insidious: The Last Key was released on January 5, 2018.[5] The film was then released a week later on January 12, 2018, in the United Kingdom.

Box office

Insidious: The Last Key has grossed $67.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $100.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $167.7 million, against a production budget of $10 million.[1] It is the highest grossing film in the franchise, surpassing the second installment's $161 million, and the first film of the series to gross $100 million overseas.[6]

In the United States and Canada, Insidious: The Last Key was released alongside the wide expansion of Molly's Game, and was projected to gross $20–22 million from 3,116 theaters in its opening weekend.[7] The film made $1.98 grossed from Thursday night previews, the highest preview total of the franchise. It went on to debut to $29.3 million for the weekend, finishing second at the box office behind holdover Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and marking the second-highest opening of the series and grossing, behind Chapter 2.[8]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 32%, based on 87 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Insidious: The Last Key offers franchise star Lin Shaye another welcome opportunity to take the lead, but her efforts aren't enough to rescue this uninspired sequel."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest score of the franchise.[8]

Screen Rant's Sandy Schaefer scored the film 3/5 stars, stating "Insidious: The Last Key is a solid finale to the Insidious franchise that gives series lead Lin Shaye the chance to take a graceful final bow."[11] Brent McKnight of the Seattle Times rated the film two stars, saying "Old horror franchises don't die, they unspool tepid, uninspired sequels in perpetuity. And with the fourth chapter, Insidious: The Last Key, this saga is on a familiar path."[12] Emily Yoshida of New York Magazine noted how "the fourth installment of Leigh Whannell's ghost-and-mediums horror series wraps up its own free-association illogic with an impenetrable tangle of woo-woo spirit-world mechanics and lingo",[13] while John DeFore of Hollywood Reporter faulted the film's delivery of "the boos" as remaining "cheap and arbitrary."[14]

Home media

Insidious: The Last Key was released on Digital HD on March 20, 2018 and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 3, 2018, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Insidious: The Last Key (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Insidious: The Last Key Unlocks Few Scares". Rotten Tomatoes. January 4, 2018. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  3. ↑ "Insidious 4 starts filming, casting latest". Den of Geek. August 31, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  4. ↑ "'Insidious: Chapter 4' Has Wrapped Filming". Bloody Disgusting. September 28, 2016. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  5. ↑ Lang, Brent (April 20, 2017). "'Insidious: Chapter 4' Moves to January 2018". Variety. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  6. ↑ Tartaglione, Nancy (May 26, 2018). "Insidious: The Last Key' Locks Up $100M+ Overseas For Franchise First". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  7. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 3, 2018). "'Insidious: The Last Key' To Scare Up Biz In Strong Holiday Holdover Period – Box Office Preview". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  8. 1 2 Anthony D'Alessandro (January 7, 2018). "'Jumanji' Goes Wild With $36M; 'Insidious' Rises To $29M+ – Sunday AM B.O. Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Insidious: The Last Key (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  10. ↑ "Insidious: The Last Key Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Insidious: The Last Key Review". Screen Rant. 2018-01-05. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  12. ↑ "'Insidious: The Last Key': Horror franchise's fourth chapter only for die-hard fans". The Seattle Times. 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  13. ↑ Yoshida, Emily (5 January 2018). "Insidious: The Last Key Makes Very Little Sense". Vulture.
  14. ↑ DeFore, John (3 January 2018). "'Insidious: The Last Key': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
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