“Something is bubbling behind my back”

-Weezer “Say it Ain’t So”

INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY opens with a 15-minute flashback prologue. I’m not sure if there is a length that a prologue like this is supposed to be, but 15 minutes feels like 10 minutes too long. So, maybe it should be 5 minutes. Or 5-7 minutes? I don’t know. This wouldn’t have bothered me so much if there weren’t a scene a few minutes later where the film’s main character, Elise, explains the entire prologue out loud. The whole first act of the film is awkwardly structured, and really, so is the rest of INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY.

So is the rest of the INSIDIOUS franchise, honestly. All of the INSIDIOUS movies jump back and forth between timelines and realities, and the goofy mythology built out of that is what makes it my favorite franchise of the current supernatural horror cycle. “The Further” is a fun concept, and the different nooks and crannies of it are explored in each of the films. There’s a spunkiness to the INSIDIOUS franchise, and much of that is found in its mythology– and storytelling– as awkward as the individual plots of the film can be.

The concept of “The Further” is neat because it exists outside of normal time, and it allows the characters to jump from one time to another, so the flashbacks are built into the narrative in a way. The franchise itself is structured in a way that jumps around in time as well. Part two goes as far as to re-live the events of the first movie by having its main character, Josh, communicate with himself throughout different times in his life—including moments in the first film– by traveling through “The Further”. Part three takes place after Elise meets Josh for the first time, but before the events in the first one, and also dives deeper into some of the occurrences in the previous films. And now we have part 4, which brings the franchise full-circle and leads back into part one. The whole thing is kind of like a horror version of the original Planet of the Apes series in the circular way the franchise progresses (or regresses, I guess). Part of me wants to take the franchise to task, because like so many other franchises these days, it refuses to move forward and seems to be stuck in a perpetual prequel, but it’s so darn likeable and nice, that I let it slide.

Part of the reason that these movies are so likeable can be attributed to one of its main characters, Elise (Played once again by Lin Shaye), and INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY is the first time she is at the forefront. Elise also plays a big role in part 3, but much of the focus of that film is on the family that is being haunted, which is less the case in this one. This is Elise’s movie, and it’s better for it.

It’s 2010, and Elise receives a call from a man that is currently living in her childhood home, which we are shown in the aforementioned super-long prologue that kicks off the film. Apparently, spooky things are happening once again, and Elise agrees to visit him, despite some trepidation on her part. Elise’s reluctance to venture back to her New Mexico home stems from memories of an unhappy childhood, something that is also shown during that insanely-long prologue. Her childhood home was built near an old New Mexico penitentiary that performed experiments on its prisoners. Because of her astral projection ability, Elise can see these spirits, as well as travel into “The Further”– the red doors of which are aligned with the prison cells. Being a good-natured young girl, Elise wants to help these lost spirits find peace, but in doing so Elise unleashes Keyface—this movie’s monster-of-the-week—a spirit that is looking to open the red doors of “The Further” and combine the real world with the spiritual world. None of this sits well with Elise’s father, who punishes his daughter for her actions through physical abuse that includes whipping her back hard enough to leave scars that will last into her adulthood. All of this is a lot to take in, and it’s all presented in the film’s prologue, so maybe I’m wrong, and it does need to be 15 minutes long.

Back in the present, Elise heads to her childhood home with her pals, Specs and Tucker, to help the family that currently lives there. Also, while in town, Elise runs into her brother (a bow-tied Bruce Davison!), and his two adult daughters. Elise’s brother still blames her for their traumatic childhood, as well as the loss of their mother; so not only does Elise have to deal with the hauntings occurring in her childhood home, but she also has to reconcile with her still-mad brother. All this family drama is part of the reason I like this series so much. We’ll get to the hauntings in a second, but the fourth movie in a horror franchise taking this type of character-based approach is nice. I like Elise, and I want to know more about her, and “The Further”, and this movie does a decent job tying those two plot-lines together. On the flip side of the character stuff is the film’s spookshow set-pieces, and I think that’s where the cracks in the franchise begin to show.

We’re probably reaching the end of the current supernatural-horror cycle that kicked off around 10 years ago with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. That series just released its sixth movie a couple of years ago, and THE CONJURING movies are doing their Avengers shared-universe thing, with the fifth film in that universe being released this summer. We’re pretty deep into this cycle, and these movies are starting to get a little long in the tooth, and that’s fine. I think this has been a pretty good horror-cycle overall, particularly when it comes to craftsmanship. When it comes to craftsmanship, the CONJURING movies are the first ones to spring to mind, and I’m including ANNABELLE: CREATION in that group—a film that featured some next-level set-pieces.

INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY’s set-pieces never come close to reaching the heights of the best of those films, but they aren’t necessarily bad, just overly-familiar, and it’s hard to shake the been-there done-that-ness of it all. There are only so many scenes of people walking slowly through foggy basements that I can take before I start to zone out. In the movies defense, this style of horror movie works best in a dark theater surrounded by an audience of people looking to be scared, and I watched it at home in my living room, so it might be my fault. Sorry, I live in Michigan and I hate leaving my house from December thru March, and this movie’s theatrical release fell within that window.

It’s the goofy, deeper-than-expected mythology that these films have built—as well as the characters within the INSIDIOUS universe– that helped me get over that feeling of overfamiliarity in THE LAST KEY; Mainly, Lin Shaye and the character of Elise. There’s an inherent gentleness in Shaye, and it shines through in her performances in these movies. Much like the series she inhabits, Elise is spunky and sweet when confronting the darkness of “The Further”, and the audience is with her because of that.

Elise is also the main reason why I give the INSIDIOUS series a pass when it comes to its refusal to move forward. I like that they acknowledge the mistake of killing off Elise in the first movie, and continue to find ways to bring her back for the sequels. Although, I would argue that that with a little bit of creativity involving “The Further”, and a little bit more of not-giving-a-shit about keeping a character dead, these movies could find a way to bring her back in the current timeline. I think some of the issues I have with the current wheel-spinning within the INSIDIOUS franchise might be solved by taking this route, and could open some interesting new stories to tell with a resurrected Elise. A horror franchise fronted by a reanimated 70-year old woman would really be something to behold.

Elise’s age has been mentioned quite a bit by critics, but I want to reiterate it because I really do think it’s cool that one of biggest franchises in modern horror is led by a 74-year-old woman. I don’t love every movie released by Blumhouse, but I’ve always appreciated some of the storytelling risks they have taken– and a septuagenarian lead character is a pretty bold move, and it’s a move that I think the INSIDIOUS movies are better for making, especially on a story level. The filmmakers could have just made a monster-of-the-week style cash-in, but they didn’t. Instead they mixed a ghost story with the story of 70-year-old woman coming to grips with an abusive childhood, while reconciling with her family. It doesn’t totally work, but it should be commended, and I like it. I just hope next time a fifteen-minute prologue isn’t necessary for the stuff that I like.