Insidious 4-The Last Key, review: Spectral Sightings by Psychic and her side-kicks

Was a time when unfriendly ghosts used to have a motive for their haunting, and usually, it was revenge. Then, they began to exist for existence’s sake, in an alternate world, or the beyond, paranormal realm, crossing over accidentally into mother earth. Over time, they have inherited one most condemnable human trait--sadism. Once we stipulate that ghosts can exist solely with the motive of torturing humans, à la a certain Mr. Devil, we open the doors to an endless barrage of movies that need not have logic or coherent narrative, for the shock cuts, the flitting shadows and the background music bangs will put the fear of the devil in you.

Here comes Insidious. Here comes the Key. The Last Key. And that is key.

Reputed American parapsychologist Elise Rainier receives a call from a man called Ted Garza who claims that his house is haunted. But Elise is reluctant to back to a world that has caused her so much torment. And then he tells her his address: 413 Apple Tree Lane, Five Keys, New Mexico. This is the home where Elise grew up as a child with her parents, and younger brother, Christian! She cannot say “No” now, and decides to make the journey. Although her Spectral Sightings partners Specs and Tucker offer to accompany her, she tells them to stay away, since this is a personal matter. They insist, nevertheless. Rainier travels to Five Keys, to confront and destroy her greatest fear--the demon that she accidentally set free years earlier.

Memories of her childhood and of her gift of spectral sightings, her mother’s understanding of her special condition, and her father’s beatings, all come flooding back. The house is located inside a huge jail facility where her father was employed, and after suffering a lot of violence, and seeing her mother getting killed by a demon, she had run away from this home. During the trip, Elise meets Christian and his two daughters and discovers that one of them has the same gift that she has. Christian is initially unwilling to get involved in the present exercise, but when Elise gives him the whistle that he was given as a child, to blow whenever he saw danger, he changes his mind. Parking their truck outside the house, the trio, aided by her brother’s family, begin the cleansing efforts.

There is little new in the latest writing effort of Australian Leigh Whannell (producer, director, actor; Saw, Dead Silence, all four Insidious films). Whannell made his directorial debut on Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015). In 4, where he is not wielding the megaphone, Every five minutes, the question, ‘why’ surfaces, and almost always, there is no answer. Co-incidences abound, explanations are missing.

What exactly was the ‘jail’? What exactly was Elise’s father’s job? How is it that both Elise’s father and the new tenant share the same sadistic/slave-keeping mental sickness? What was the new tenant’s job? Is it possible to keep slaves chained in a room when there are three other members living in the house, without they ever finding out? If you kept a slave locked up, would you invite a para-normal expert to get rid of ghosts, risking being discovered, or, would you rather move out? Who did the new owner/tenant buy/rent the house from? Why are all the belongings of the Rainier family still untouched although they have moved out quite some time ago? Are the ghosts three-dimensional, since they can pierce human skin, or are they uni-dimensional, since they float and flit. Is it possible for a para-psychologist, who has undergone some earth-shattering experiences and experienced death and possession many times, to have a pair of bantering techies as side-kicks, who keep referring to her as “psychic” while describing themselves as “side-kick”? Rhymes, doesn’t it?

Since Whannell is the a co-producer and actor too, playing the Spectral Sightings side-kick Specs, I suspect he wouldn’t mind if the film did not work out as a horror flick, but worked as a comedy instead. He used to co-anchor a show on TV which was a comic look at the para-normal. And guess who his co-anchor was? Angus Sampson, alias Tucker, his partner in Spectral Sightings. Another clue: Protagonist Lin Shaye (Elise Rainier) excels in mainly two genres of cinema—Horror (Nightmare on Elm Street, Ouija) and comedy (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something about Mary). So, is the purpose behind having a 74 year-old woman with a weather-beaten face and staccato dialogue delivery play an exorcist to help the comic cause? On a more serious note, the peg of having real captives, inhabiting the same space as ghosts, is an innovation that needs to be appreciated. The exchanges of dialogue show little imagination, varying from the functional to the obvious.

Now let’s look at the credentials of director Adam Robitel: The Taking of Deborah Logan-Director, writer; Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension-Co-writer. No comedy dimension here. There are a few genuine shocks in store, to be fair. And one can even make allowances for the Central Board of Film Certification’s possible excisions of the more horrific and violent scenes. Yet the shock value remains limited. The two demons, Key-Face (Javier Botet) and Lipstick-Face (Joseph Bishara; he’s the music composer too!!) are never shown long enough to be seen, and even then the background is hazy grey. Two main props on which the plot could stand credibly would be: a convincing explanation of Elise’s gift (or half-gift, considering she never has smooth sailing) and a logical presentation of the motivations of the demons of Furtherland. Both should have been key to the plot. But I guess this dissection is The Last Key, and comes a bit too late.

Lin Shaye has a quiet dignity about her. She speaks like a retired school teacher, which is counter-poised with the silly talk of her co-workers, the sound and light guys Leigh Whannell as Specs and Angus Sampson (Mad Max: Fury Road, Now Add Honey, The Mule) as Tucker. Ava Kolker as Young Elise Rainier, Hana Hayes as Teenage Elise Rainier, Josh Stewart as Gerald Rainier, Elise's abusive father and Aubrey's husband, Bruce Davison as Christian Rainier, Elise's estranged younger brother, Pierce Pope as Young Christian Rainier, Thomas Robie as Teenage Christian Rainier, Tessa Ferrer as Aubrey Rainier, Elise's mother and Gerald's wife (if only all mothers were so understanding---then again, see what happened to her!), Caitlin Gerard as Imogen Rainier, Elise's niece and Christian's eldest daughter (if the franchise owners think they can milk it further, they have the perfect pawn in place), Spencer Locke as Melissa Rainier, Elise's niece and Christian's youngest daughter (watch her heave on the bed and be honest about what you notice!) and Kirk Acevedo as Ted Garza, form the cast. Acevedo gets into the role and shows promise.

At 103 min, Insidious 4: The Last Key falls about 10.3 scares too short.

Incidentally, what do you call a music composer who also plays the ghost in a movie? A ghost-composer?

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcJ1MsZDnvQ

Rating: * ½