Honestly, I figured that this movie, technically the fourth in its series, wasn't going to be all that good. Series tend to have diminishing returns the further into them you wander. But this one was pretty inventive and definitely scary, as it flashes back to Elise's horrible childhood and connects it rather convincingly to her present. Chronologically, this fourth movie occurs after the third but before the first - it is itself a second prequel. Elise (the incomparable Lin Shaye) needs to confront her past when the current owner of her childhood home needs her ghost-hunting services. With her associates Tucker and Specs, Elise finds the place pretty much as she last saw it, when she was 16 years old. Then as now, the house contains spirits. Now, there are some jump scares, and of course there are those of us who are tired of them (and usually anticipate them) and there are those of us whose hearts skip a beat when they happen. But it's the fear of the supernatural coupled with the dread of renewed confrontation with real-life demons that really make this movie work. And even if the plot sometimes feels a little obvious, Lin Shaye's amazing performance should sell the movie to you. The Further is still a terrifying place, and this movie (and its predecessor) each provide essential background for the Shaye's Elise and how utterly haunted she is when she visits the Lambert family in the first Insidious movie.
Review of Insidious: The Last Key
