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Insidious: The Last Key

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Insidious: The Last Key
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAdam Robitel
Written byLeigh Whannell
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyToby Oliver
Edited byTimothy Alverson
Music byJoseph Bishara
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures (Theatrical)
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (Home Video)
Release dates
  • January 5, 2018 (2018-01-05) (United States)
  • January 12, 2018 (2018-01-12) (United Kingdom)
  • April 20, 2018 (2018-04-20) (UK Extended version)
Running time
103 minutes (Theatrical)
108 minutes (Extended cut)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[1]
Box office$166.5 million[1]

Insidious: The Last Key (also known as Insidious: Chapter 4) 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 $166 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, when Christian and Elise are going to bed, Elise encounters a ghost in their room. Frightened, Christian looks for the whistle their mother gave them to call for help, but it's lost. Their parents come to see what the commotion is, and Gerald, furious, beats Elise and locks her in the basement. A voice lures Elise to a door which she unlocks. A demon called "Key Face" comes through the door possessing Elise. Audrey investigates, finding Elise, but the entity kills Audrey by hanging her. Elise comes out of the possession as Gerald arrives, finding 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 she tells her colleagues about her history there. They accept the job, intending to solve the problems.

They arrive and Elise stays at Ted's house. He says many paranormal incidents have happened, mostly in her old bedroom, which he has blocked off and won't enter. Elise walks through the house with a night vision camera. In her old room, she finds the lost whistle. She also finds keys attached to her father's uniform. Hearing mysterious sounds in the basement, Elise goes to investigate. A female ghost appears and attacks Elise, shouting "help her", before vanishing with the whistle. Elise tells them that she has seen her before, as a teenager. Elise saw the ghost in their laundry room. Gerald investigated and said he saw nothing. Fearing another beating, Elise fled the house and abandoned Christian.

The next morning, Elise, Tucker, and Specs visit a diner, meeting sisters, Melissa and Imogen. Christian joins them, and they learn that the girls are Christian's daughters and Elise's nieces. Christian is still furious at Elise for abandoning him and storms out. 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 downstairs. Elise follows the sound into the basement, where she realizes it is coming from behind a wall. Elise asks a series of questions and learns that what she is looking for is behind the wall. Elise sees that the wall is a door and rushes to her bedroom to get the keys. Behind the door, she finds a bloodied girl with a chain around her neck. Ted storms into the room and it’s shown that he was keeping the girl against her will. He locks the group in the room and tries to kill Specs, but he tricks Ted, and kills him with a bookcase. The police rescue the group and Elise is taken in for questioning.

Christian and his girls go to find the whistle. Melissa is lured into the basement and 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. During the questioning, Elise is startled by a vision of Melissa, realizing she is in danger. Elise, Tucker and Specs find Melissa in the basement. Christian demands that Elise stay away and Melissa is taken to the hospital. Imogen tells Elise that she can also astral project into The Further. Elise tells Imogen she intends to save Melissa by defeating Key Face once and for all, thereby ridding the house of the evil entities.

In the basement to rescue Melissa, Elise and Tucker look for the ghost and find the red door that is the entrance into The Further. Meanwhile, Imogen and Specs try to find a Bible that Ted held dear, because it could help them. In the basement, Elise sees something in the exhaust vent of the plumbing systems. She finds a night gown that belonged to the female ghost, Anna. In a flashback, Elise saw Anna in the laundry room. She was actually alive and escaped from the room she was locked in. When Gerald walked in, he saw Anna, but pretended that 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 have been locked in the house. While Elise examines a suitcase, she’s ambushed by Key Face, who takes her into The Further, leaving her unconscious body in the real world.

With Elise now trapped in The Further, Imogen enters, led by Anna into a prison realm where Key Face is holding all of the souls he has taken, including Elise's, Gerald's, and Melissa's. In her cell, 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 tries to hurting her father as revenge for what he did to her. Imogen shouts for Elise to stop. Elise sees through the ruse 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 captures Imogen and Melissa and chains them up.

Key Face stabs Melissa, causing her actual physical body to start dying. He attacks Elise, attempting to possess her. Imogen throws Elise the whistle, but she can’t reach it, so she grabs Gerald's walking cane, jabbing Key Face with it. Elise grabs the whistle and blows it. Audrey comes to save 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. They find Melissa in the next door, in the hospital, where her body is dying. Melissa's spirit returns to her body in the real world, saving her life. Elise says goodbye to her mom, who tells her to keep helping people. Elise and Imogen return to the real world and reunite with Melissa and Christian at the hospital. Christian forgives Elise and she gives him the whistle, and she goes home to California.

In her sleep, Elise sees a vision of Dalton, with the Red-faced demon looming over him, and she wakes up startled. Her phone rings. A woman, Lorraine, calls for help for her grandson, Dalton. Elise 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
  • Josh Stewart as Gerald Rainier, Elise and Christian's abusive father and Aubrey's husband.
  • Kirk Acevedo as Ted Garza, a man who makes residence in Elise’s old home and calls for her help.
  • 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.

Also, Stefanie Scott, who appears in the third film, reprises her role as Quinn Brenner 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. An extended version will be released in the UK for a limited time on April 20, 2018.

Box office

Insidious: The Last Key has grossed $67.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $99 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $166.3 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.

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.[6] 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.[7]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 31%, based on 86 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."[8] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest score of the franchise.[7]

Brent McKnight of the Seattle Times rated the film two stars and said, "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."[10] 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] Emily Yoshida of New York Magazine noted the criticism of genre films for playing "fast and loose" with their internal logic, but credited the fourth Insidious for having "wrapped up its own free-association illogic with an impenetrable tangle of woo-woo spirit-world mechanics and lingo."[12]

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.

Possible sequel

In an interview, Whannell stated that he does not know if he will be the one to write a potential sequel. On February 22, 2018, it was reported that, after the box office success of Insidious: The Last Key, a fifth installment is in development.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Insidious: The Last Key (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 10, 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. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 3, 2018). "'Insidious: The Last Key' To Scare Up Biz In Strong Holiday Holdover Period – Box Office Preview". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Anthony D'Alessandro (January 7, 2018). "'Jumanji' Goes Wild With $36M; 'Insidious' Rises To $29M+ – Sunday AM B.O. Update". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
  8. ^ "Insidious: The Last Key (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  9. ^ "Insidious: The Last Key Reviews". Metacritic. CB Interactive. Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  10. ^ "'Insidious: The Last Key': Horror franchise's fourth chapter only for die-hard fans". The Seattle Times. 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  11. ^ "Insidious: The Last Key Review". Screen Rant. 2018-01-05. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  12. ^ Yoshida, Emily (5 January 2018). "Insidious: The Last Key Makes Very Little Sense". New York Magazine. Vulture, New York Media, LLC.
  13. ^ Miska, Brad (February 21, 2018). "Surprise! Insidious; The Last Key Is The Highest Grossing Insidious Film". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved March 9, 2018. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
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