Insidious: The Last Key unlocks solid scares

Insidious: The Last Key will satisfy any horror lover's appetite for hair-raising thrills and chills. Not only do the jump scares work on the big screen, but they'll manage to scare you even on Blu-ray.

The story follows parapsychologist Dr. Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and her sidekicks Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson). Although this is the fourth film in the Insidious franchise, the film serves as a prequel to Insidious, about the Lambert family haunting.

Set in 2010, Elise receives a call from Ted Garza who asks for her help, because he believes his house is haunted. She initially refuses and tells Specs and Tucker the reason why: Ted lives in the house that she grew up in, in New Mexico in the 1950s.

She was terrorized by a demon in her childhood and she has never been able to stop thinking about it. After giving it some thought, she agrees to go on her own. At the last minute, Specs and Tucker insist on coming along. Once she enters the house, she revisits painful memories and we see a flashback of Elise's childhood.

Elise also reunites with her brother Christian (Bruce Davison), as well as his daughters Imogen (Caitlin Gerard) and Melissa (Spencer Locke). Elise soon finds out that the powerful entity that tormented her when she was a kid still resides in the house and plans on taking its revenge. This is the part where you start screaming and run away from the TV.

The film is well-written by Leigh Whannell, who also wrote the previous three Insidious movies. He is able to sustain the audience's interest throughout the movie. What I liked about this prequel is that it adds more layers to our favorite parapsychologist. The "monster" from her childhood explains her behavior in the past three films.

This final film in the franchise neatly ties up the stories and their characters as well as providing the missing piece to "The Further." Lin Shaye has evolved over the past four films and we have grown to count on her "demon" wisdom. She gives a brilliant performance, adding humor and emotion where needed.

The movie was better than I expected and the fact that the horror film still managed to scare me while watching it for the second time on Blu-ray means that this one's worth a watch. I found myself shrieking several times -- I definitely enjoyed watching this.

Special Blu-ray features include Alternate Ending, which was interesting but not a better one; 8 Chilling Deleted Scenes, definitely worth watching as there are some scary-as-hell moments; Becoming Elise, a look at Elise's origin; Going into The Further, self-explanatory and perhaps worth skipping and Unlocking Keyface, a look at the new demon to terrorize Elise... and us. ~Marriska Fernandes

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