Day 21 - Insidious The Last Key (2018)
Platform:
Borrowed disc from Clermont County Public Library.
Quote:
“She’s psychic; we’re sidekick.”
Synopsis:
Elise is must revisit her traumatic past when she gets a call for a case in her old childhood home. She’ll come face-to-face with the literal and figurative ghosts of her past as she drives out the evil she unwittingly let into her home when first discovering her abilities.
Review:
We’re back in the world of Insidious with the fourth film in the franchise. This one though takes a different approach by dropping the chapter names and going with a subtitle: The Last Key. Dropping the chapter gimmick is a good move here, what with the timeline fluctuation. I’m not sure about the actual subtitle of this one since it’s clearly not the last anything. It’s not the last story in the timeline. It’s not the last film in the series because they are working on Insidious 5. It’s not Elise’s last case because she still has to help the Lamberts. It’s an odd choice, which really only highlights the Big Bad in this film. Odd choice for sure.
Weird naming aside, this one is a solid entry in the series. There will be some mild spoilers in this review so that I can discuss the storytelling that makes this a unique entry to the franchise. So, if you want to keep the mystery, stop reading now.
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Ok, moving on. I’m not a big fan of the creature in this one. They call him Key-Face, which is another weird naming move on their part because the keys are on his fingers. The design also is only so-so with this guy. This time we are dealing with an actual demon, not just a malevolent spirit like in Chapter 3. The best thing about this demon is that it does have some cool powers with being able to lock away voices and trap souls using its key fingers. He’s also kind of weird to reconcile because they have him being way more powerful than Elise, which makes sense because he’s a demon and not a human spirit, but then a human spirit comes and kicks his ass like nothing… So is it Rock, Paper, Scissors? Living human beats dead human, demon beats living human, and dead human beats demon? It felt very strange.
That’s the biggest problem I have with the film, though. I like getting to see more about Elise’s past, and it’s interesting to see how warm and loving she is given what her home life was like back then. I like how they also set up her nieces who have similar abilities to hers so that going forward in the timeline, they can keep a character like her around without having to worry about Lynn Shay getting too old to keep doing the part. Not to mention other complications that come up in the other films that would make it difficult to keep her around in a major capacity.
Now for the really spoilery part. What I appreciate most about this particular entry, and what I think really makes it unique, is the additional villain(s) they include. Apparently, the creature doesn’t just come after the living to take their souls, it also corrupts people to make them do horrible things. In this entry, there are real-world villains that are kidnapping and torturing teenage girls, which later Key-Face takes for his own. I loved the twist that some of the things Elise saw weren’t actually ghosts, but she thinks they are because why else would these people just be seemingly hiding out in the house like they do. It was a twist that I didn’t see coming, and I can usually pick those out way in advance, so nicely done.
For me, even though we get more Tucker and Specks, which I really enjoy, this is the weakest entry in the franchise. However, I still give this one a recommendation for being a little different swatch of fabric in the tapestry of the Insidious universe, and it still delivers, just not as well as the other movies.
Movie Count:
New = 14
Total = 21
DVD/Blu-Ray Borrow Breakdown: I'm sure this feature is not new to anyone really, but I'll still point out some of the benefits and drawbacks. Let's start with the benefits. Most of the digital titles you find on the Hoopla and OverDrive platforms are going to be a few years old or going to be fairly obscure titles. New release, major motion pictures are going to take a while before they relinquish streaming rights to general public services like these. But the library regularly purchases physical copies of new releases for patrons to borrow. Libraries also offer hold services so that even if your library's copies have all been checked out, you can go ahead and put in a request to be put on a waiting list so that you hold your place in line to borrow that title when it's ready for you. Interlibrary loans also allow you to check out books and movies even if your local library branch doesn't carry the title, so your options are pretty much limitless as long as you have the patience to wait for delivery. The drawbacks to this service are that you do have to pay close attention to due dates. Videos usually have a higher late fee than books, and you have them for a shorter loan period (usually 7 days). One big leg up on borrowing physical copies that the digital platforms have, is that you don't have to worry about late fees because the titles automatically return when your loan period expires. However, if you know that the movie you want is very popular, and you want a little more time with it, you could always shell out the extra $1 to keep it another day. Another drawback is that you are using shared materials. That means that you are at the mercy of the treatment that other patrons apply to the material. Sometimes you get a DVD or Blu-ray that could be scratched (I know that Blu-ray's are supposed to be nearly unscratchable, but it seems that some people have taken that as a personal challenge), or dirty to the point that it skips, or is even unwatchable.
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