The Insidious franchise is no Conjuring, but it charms in its own haunted way, mostly thanks to the steady presence of Lin Shaye as parapsychologist Elise Rainier. Before Elise returned to assist Josh Lambert again, she had to return to her childhood home to exorcise some demons of her own and make up with her estranged younger brother, Christian (played as an adult by Bruce Davison). 

The series has its formula down at this point. Someone gets in trouble with some spirits; Elise travels into the Further to rescue them; Tucker and Specs (Angus Sampson and writer Leigh Whannell) provide the comic relief. Hopefully, 2018 will offer stronger horror efforts, but The Last Key certainly will not be the year’s worst. New director Adam Robitel follows up his well-received debut, The Taking of Deborah Logan, with an acceptable sophomore feature. 

Whannell does not add much to the mythology; the new antagonist, KeyFace, does not seem to have anything to do with the original’s Darth Maul lookalike. Still, the movie provides a few more facts for Elise’s entry on the Insidious wiki and provides some new blood through which the movies can continue considering Elise dead in the franchise’s current timeline.