{"id":4202,"date":"2018-01-04T21:44:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-05T02:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/?p=4202"},"modified":"2018-01-04T21:44:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-05T02:44:12","slug":"insidious-the-last-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/?p=4202","title":{"rendered":"Insidious: The Last Key"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Directed by Adam Robitel<\/p>\n<p>Starring &#8211; Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">THE PLOT<\/span> &#8211; In the fourth installment of the Insidious franchise, parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) must delve even deeper into the infernal world known as &#8220;the Further&#8221; when supernatural forces target her own family, sending her and her team reeling from a haunting that takes place so close to home.<\/p>\n<p>Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content, violence and terror, and brief strong adult language<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/acQyrwQyCOk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">THE POSITIVES<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Lin Shaye&#8217;s reserved, yet emotionally wrenching performance that proves age is only a number.\u00a0 Visual scars are there, but it&#8217;s in Shaye&#8217;s haunting of her past where we embrace her at her edgiest. It&#8217;s incredible to see how an originally supporting character has become the focal point for this entire series, and because of such, we are treated to a film that centers around her character&#8217;s origins.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The idea that the most powerful of ghosts are the ones from our pasts that continue to haunt until we choose to confront them once and for all.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Continued excellence in lighting that articulately divides our world from the further. There&#8217;s nothing extravagant or costly about its effects, yet the graying state of this supernatural world omits a clear cut vibe of decay in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Jump scares are few and far between, and even better than that, the scares are patient. There were many times during the film where I felt that I had it predicted as to when someone or something would jump out, only to be duped into hanging on a bit longer before that itch had to be scratched.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; The seamless insertion of this film between chapters 1,2, and 3 of the series. Some sequels often feel unnecessary or even forced with their inclusion, but &#8216;The Last Key&#8217; doesn&#8217;t ever feel shy on what happened before or after this story, without using it as a gimmick to feed into fans of those previous installments.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">THE NEGATIVES<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; This is a series that accomodates to comedy quite well, but this film certainly isn&#8217;t one of those, as Whannell and Sampson&#8217;s comic relief duo feel every bit as desperate as they do speedbumps to the progression of this story. Each time a scene focuses on them, it either runs for too long in not cutting to the point, or highlights just how truly insignificant their characters are in this fourth chapter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Speaking of Whannell, this is arguably his weakest script to date. I could get over the fact that this film doesn&#8217;t continue to elevate the rules of the further like the previous movies, but for a writer to write himself as the guy who saves the group and gets the girl, reeks of shameless self-promotion that hinders the power of the pen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Too many characters and not enough exposition for any of them. The film&#8217;s introduction focuses on our central three characters, then introduces us to three more in the form of three locals who they meet at a diner, then abandons half of them before the pivotal third act. Bruce Davison&#8217;s character in particular feels like a wasted opportunity between him and Shaye to really feed into their secret connection.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Once again, the ear-shattering jolts that each jump scare exert play like an audible poison for your delicate drums. Thankfully there aren&#8217;t many of them in the film, but their level of intensity feels artificial when compared to the noise that would be made by those particular instances. For my money, a violin never shrieks whenever I accidentally run into someone who I didn&#8217;t see coming.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Because this is the second chapter chronologically in the series, the air of predictability can&#8217;t help but rear its ugly head. Even worse, Whannell does zero as a screenwriter in remotely subduing this handicap for even a minute, forgetting to instill even a slight bit of urgency or dread in visuals that all but paint the scenario for him.<\/p>\n<p>5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Directed by Adam Robitel Starring &#8211; Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson THE PLOT &#8211; In the fourth installment of the Insidious franchise, parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) must delve even deeper into the infernal world known as &#8220;the Further&#8221; when supernatural forces target her own family, sending her and her team reeling from a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,20,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4204,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions\/4204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}