INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY (Adam Robitel). 103 minutes. Opens Friday (January 5). See listing. Rating: N
Oh, Lin Shaye. These movies don’t deserve you.
Insidious: The Last Key is the fourth Insidious movie and the second prequel to the original, the better to keep the focus on Shaye’s reluctant psychic warrior Elise Rainier, who was both introduced and dispatched by screenwriter Leigh Whannell and director James Wan in the shameless Poltergeist knockoff that launched this franchise.
Don’t worry, there isn’t going to be a test or anything all you really need to know is that whether Elise is alive or not, each Insidious film begins with paranormal occurrences that lead the heroes to face down creepy face-painted monsters in the dry-ice black box netherworld they call The Further. They’re all exactly the same, built on Wan’s signature spookhouse tactic of long, long scenes in which people walk alone into darkness, waiting for a scary thing to grab them.
Indeed, Insidious: The Final Key sets a new record for those scenes, which is really impressive considering that’s all this exhausted franchise has ever had to offer besides Shaye’s steadfast character work (which is far more thoughtful and engaging than the series deserves). This one picks up in 2010, following Elise and her nondescript sidekicks (played by Whannell and his pal Angus Sampson) as they investigate a haunting in her childhood home.
New director Adam Robitel (The Taking Of Deborah Logan) sticks to the playbook, providing an even more leaden pace, botching the script’s sole interesting idea and making the whole thing look like cheap television.
Bruce Davison and Kirk Acevedo turn up for a couple of scenes apiece, and American Crime’s Caitlin Gerard makes an impression as Imogen, a young woman who shares Elise’s gift for seeing the unseen.
I expect she’ll be returning for the next one, because that’s just how these things work. Me, I’m in no rush.
