Insidious: The Last Key review

         Insidious: The Last Key came out early in January and its taken me awhile to review this, but here you go. This is the fourth Insidious film and this one take place in between the first and the third film. In this one, Lin Shaye, who plays the almighty Elise, is the star and she helms this installment all on her own. Elise finds herself at her childhood home when the current resident calls concerning a hefty amount of paranormal activity. Elise musters up the courage to face her childhood fears and goes to fight back the demons, both paranormal and non paranormal, in order to help this man.
          Like I said before, this is the fourth installment so, of course, there is some wear on the franchise. I will say that I liked this one much better than the third installment, but this one still has its fair share of problems. First off, the jump scares. Most of them are too predictable and the original, fun style of scares that the first insidious film had has decreased in shock value. There are a handful of good, creepy moments, but the predictable ones sort of overpower the good parts. Another problem I had was with Elise's partners, Tucker and Specs. There acting is fine, its the comic relief that didn't sit well with me. There humor doesn't really work most of the time and I found myself sinking into my seat cringing at their jokes and awkward seduction attempts. As far as story goes, I was fine with having a movie dedicated to Shaye's character. Her background is interesting and we all have been wondering what her story was ever since the first film. It does expand the lore and the universe that surrounds these characters, which is something that satisfied me, but I felt somewhat betrayed by the lack of even story flow. Towards the middle and the end, between the middle and end, the focus sort of goes away. Something else that kinda irked me was the flashbacks and how they tie into the present. These flashbacks and their tie-ins all lead into whats supposed to be the horrifying reveal of the main demon, but it comes off unsatisfying. The reveal was dealt with as if it was just a monster in a video game that you have to kill before you can get to the next level. Another problem I had was towards the end. The characters find themselves in an inescapable situation and the movie employs an easy cheat out of the situation which honestly should be a sin at this point. Very rarely can an easy cop out work, if at all.
          Things I did love about the film, however, starting off was the performance from Lin Shaye. Like I said before, she helms this movie all on her own and she does a fantastic job. The expansion of the lore and the universe is another thing I really liked, although the rules behind The Further and what is in it keeps getting more confusing, it still grows more intriguing.
          Overall, this movie is fairly competent. The franchise has yet to produce a truly awful movie in this series. Even though the films have gotten worse with each entry, they still aren't terrible. Some of the characters are weak and storytelling has a bit of unevenness to it, but it sill holds up as an enjoyable entry in the Insidious franchise. 7/10