Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

Directed by Adam Robitel. Starring Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Caitlin Gerard, Kirk Acevedo, Spencer Locke, Josh Stewart, Ava Kolker, Tessa Ferrer, Hana Hayes, Bruce Davison, Pierce Pope. [PG-13]

Empathetic medium Elise Rainier takes a case that may as well come with a declaration of, “This time…it’s personal,” but the well has already run dry for this minor paranormal horror series. She and her colleagues head for her childhood home after the current occupant reports a haunting, giving her a chance to confront the demons of her past; she also confronts a literal demon from said past known as “Key-Face,” because, sure, it’s fun to laugh during a spook story. The “jump scares” are feeble, the atmosphere is middling, the plot is uninvolving, and the stop-restart structure is so ungainly, it’s hard to even figure out where the climax is supposed to be until it’s all over. Less time is spent delving into the particulars of the spirit world and demonic “motivations” than watching Elise’s cohorts clumsily hit on her young nieces, so there’s a sense that even writer Whannell is getting tired of the recycled material…although he’s credited as a co-producer for the first time in the franchise.

34/100