Mildly engaging, but lazy and inane with very few scares, little suspense, and no surprises. The charismatic Lin Shaye is its only asset. She deserves a far better screenplay.
Lin Shaye continues to offer the best performances in the horror genre and The Last Key rewards her with a bigger meatier role. Even though the film detracts during the climax, it's able to overcome it by having a strong story.
The fourth installment of Leigh Whannell's ghost-and-mediums horror series wraps up its own free-association illogic with an impenetrable tangle of woo-woo spirit-world mechanics and lingo.
This fourth entry in this successful horror series is an example of diminishing returns; though the characters are still interesting, it's clear that less care and attention were given to this movie.
Four films into the series, the layout of the spirit realm has become too familiar, a soundstage of fog machines and grotesquerie that Robitel and Whannell haven't populated with any fresh shocks.
Of the four Insidious films, only one has been any good and, although The Last Key may not be the worst of them, it's easily the most irrelevant and generic.
Lin Shaye's performance grows in complexity with each entry, and this is the most intimate introduction to the character to date, as effective for newcomers and series regulars alike.
The Insidious timeline is becoming so murky, even a scary ghost lurking behind a locked door in the basement might give up and say, "Time out! Am I even supposed to be in this particular story? Who am I haunting again, and what's my motivation?"
