The spirit world is something that some believe in and some do not, but I am a person who believes there is possibility, so I guess that puts me in the middle somewhere. When I was child, I saw “Poltergeist” in the theaters and it scared the heck out of me to the point where I was scared to sleep downstairs in the dark by myself. So, why not check out a film that could take me back to that time?
“Insidious: The Last Key” is the new film directed by “Adam Robitel (The Taking of Deborah Logan, Love Your Customers). Starring Lin Shaye (Dead End, Grow House), Leigh Whannell (Saw, Cooties), Angus Sampson (Winchester, Shut Eye), Kirk Acevedo (Invincible, Boiler Room), Josh Stewart (Interstellar, The Collector), Spencer Locke (Monster House, Spanglish), Tessa Foster (Extant, Excision) Caitlin Gerard (The Social Network, Magic Mike), and Bruce Davidson (X-Men, Willard). This chapter in the franchise (also a prequel is the story of Elise Rainer (Shaye), who has had the gift of being able to see and communicate with spirits since she was a young girl. Her mother, Imogen (Gerard), also has the gift, but her father Gerald (Stewart) is abusive and tries to beat the “gift” out of her. As an adult, Elise is called back to her childhood home by current resident Ted Garza (Acevedo) to try to clean the house of spirits. She reluctantly returns along with her aides Tucker (Sampson) and Specs (Whannell) to deal with her past and the spirit world.
The film is based mostly in the house, but it works well. I could tell where the CGI is used, but after a while it just blended for me. The look and lighting of the film is good for it being a horror film. Shaye does well, but I have to shout out to Sampson in the role of Tucker, whose comic relief really adds to the film from making me laugh out loud to shaking my head.
I am a little mixed when it comes to the script here because it felt like there were too many different directions in style and type. I did in a way like the horror style mixed with some quick comedy bits, but my issue is how it went into a certain direction about her childhood and father and did not follow through. There are also some cheap jump scares added in with the dark and house sounds and background noise. At about an hour and forty-five minutes, it did not seem too long or drag. This is the kind of film where you should go in knowing what to expect and have a good time with it, so I will recommend this film as a Red Box rental.