Insidious: The Last Key (2018) (Blu-ray Review)

Insidious: The Last Key (2018) (Blu-ray Review)
Directed By: Adam Robitel
Starring: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson
Rated: PG-13/Region O/2:39/1080p/Number of Discs 1
Available from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

The creative minds behind the hit Insidious franchise bring you the most horrifying chapter of the series, Insidious: The Last Key. In this gripping Blumhouse film, Lin Shaye reprises her role as parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier, who returns to her family home to face the unrelenting demons that have plagued her since childhood. Accompanied by her two investigative partners, Specs and Tucker, Elise must delve deeper into the Further to unlock the mystery and destroy her greatest fear.

We’re once again doing the whole prequel thing instead of following up where part 2 left off in Insidious: The Last Key. Still, I don’t mind too much because I feel these movies have always either been really good or really solid and this one might even take the cake as being at least better than the last. It’s another story dealing with Elise and her two goofy pals leading up to the first film on the series, but this time around we get more backstory for Elise as we find out about her childhood. She lived in a house full of spirits, as well as her brother and abusive father. Well, now she’s back at that house when the new person living there gives her a ring. This opens a whole can of worms as even meet her pair of nieces she didn’t know she had and one of them may or may not have more in common with her than one would probably think. It’s a story that seems to go in a lot of directions but never gets dull going in those directions. It also sets up much more for later if they want to keep this path or perhaps even follow up to the second film at long last.

I still stand by my words that the first Insidious was a modern day classic. This one doesn’t reach that peak and the series probably never will, but I don’t think we’ve ever gotten a bad entry into this franchise either. Yes, the style of the movie has gotten a bit more formatic and we all know this basically boils down to a jumpscare movie, but they do at least try to get a bit tricky with where the jumps are coming now in this film. Insidious is now four films deep and it has already managed to stay interesting this far along, which is something Paranormal Activity couldn’t do and something SAW even had trouble doing. If you like a good jumpscare film then you’ll like this one. Even if a little bit of the drama is gone with us knowing this is a prequel and we know our main characters are still alive later from the first movie.

Extras

– Alternate Ending
– 8 Deleted Scenes
– Franchise Recap: “Dive Into the Insidious Universe”
– Three Featurettes:
“Becoming Elise”
“Going Into the Further”
“Unlocking Keyface”

Quality of Transfer: 98%