shannen-l-c In my opinion, Insidious is one of the best horror franchises released in the last decade, so when I saw the release of Insidious: The Last Key, I expected it to be every bit as good as the first three films. Unfortunately, The Last Key is a sub-par horror movie that doesn't deserve to have the Insidious name attached to it. The opening of the film is promising. I was engrossed and interested to learn more about Elise, the parapsychologist that had been featured in the first films. Unfortunately, as the film progresses it very quickly hits a dead end. There's not much of a plot and the nature of Elise's childhood/life means that most of the time it feels like a drama rather than a horror. There are a few jump-scare moments, but they're reliant on the cheap recycled tricks of loud music and dark figures creeping up behind the characters, that have been used a thousand times.An hour into the film my parents and I decided to switch it off (it had actually sent my stepdad to sleep!) because we were bored. Unfortunately, this film is one of many in the horror genre that is released because of the success of the previous films in the franchise and they want to make more money. The problem is, they're unnecessary and add nothing to the story. Insidious already has a fleshed out story and a prequel, and this prequel does nothing to add to what has already been told. It would been better if they'd continued to follow the family from the first films or even start from scratch with a new family, because Elise doesn't have enough of a story to tell to carry an entire film on her own.

phanthinga Insidious finally come to Chapter 4 and unlike most franchise at this point The Last Key still a solid horror flick with the awesome Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier the one that keep people interested in the franchise in the first place.A little bit disappointed with how they fight back Keyface the new antagonist with the same tactics as the last one but now we know he is the gate keeper of The Further so i doubt this is the last time we saw him

Ali Ahmad That was worst of all the insidious series. There was no sense of thriller at all.

Ibsen3 After enjoying the first film, you certainly get the impression that the makers of the franchise want to repeat their success. Whilst the second was underwhelming and the third unusual but a little flat, the fourth is an absolute travesty. I was left wondering how it all became so bad. Indeed, some of the recycled elements from previous movies mentioned in other reviews actually appear to make a mockery of the previous movies. It really is like some kind of parody made by amateurs.There was always a danger with continuing Insidious. After all, what made it work were a lot of features from sound to camerawork that were blatantly stolen from other films and rehashed. The jump cuts of the ashen-faced victims of the crime in the house combine 'The Shining' with the well-worn trope of crackling music from the turn of the 20th Century. There was an eerie vitality to it that raised it above the old candle-strewn, trans-dimensional cliches, revived the spirit of the classic 80s 'Poltergeist' and made you care at least a little for the characters. The techniques were strong, the comedy was fresh and unexpected and there were numerous avenues for the narrative to travel along whether exploring an historical tragedy or moving more into the realms of Demonology. However, whilst all the tricks worked nicely in the first one, the second was stale and left me quite puzzled, wondering whether they made a second film when they clearly didn't seem to have a clear direction to take the whole franchise. This is where the more serious questions were raised over whether the series was a case of style over substance.As a fan of some of the Paranormal Activity movies, I felt that they nevertheless flogged it to death when they should have trimmed it down and focused on what worked, rather than rehashing and refocusing just to prolong its shelf-life. But for me, my biggest problem with that series of films was the way that the third one ended but wasn't truly developed in the later films and lost its way. The essence of the storyline therefore became attenuated. With Insidious, the story arc wasn't actually going anywhere to begin with; it's just eating its own tail. The only thing to link it all together is Shaye and one actress alone is a long, long way from making an effective horror franchise. Whilst they re-imagined the ideas in the third Insidious, it nevertheless just didn't really work IMO and felt flat (but with extra marks for effort). Now with the fourth, they are just recycling the already recycled ideas, adding nothing. Shaye can't do much with a lazy script and worn ideas devoid of imagination. There were far cleverer ideas in the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series than the pitiful 'demon' in this one. Frights? Scares? If you've seen just one horror movie then you'll know what to expect and see it coming a mile off. I really do feel conned and, if I had seen this at the cinema, I would most certainly have walked out.It's worth saying that, as a big fan of horror movies, you notice some films getting reviews that are way too harsh but the low rating is wholly warranted here. I often find that some very good found footage movies are low-rated purely due to a cross-section of the public who regard them all as cheap and lacking credibility as they can't suspend their disbelief on who's holding the camera. Yet some of the ideas within them and the sense of horror in the viewing experience remain raw and effective. This, however, just feels very immaturely written and directed without any imagination. I don't truly know why Shaye attracts so many comments but she was good in the first and really saved #3 in the franchise.Nevertheless, this dog has had its day, maybe two more days than it should have. Now it's begging to be put out of its misery. I don't mean to be rude but if you rate this highly then you clearly haven't seen enough good horror movies to tell the difference between good and bad.