All 4 Insidious movies ranked from worst to best

4. Insidious: The Last Key

Taking place shortly before the first Insidious movie, Insidious: The Last Key offers up more background on Elise’s story as she’s called to investigate a paranormal haunting at the house in which she grew up. As she faces the demonic entities that tormented her past, Elise must also confront the dark secrets that have followed her for nearly her whole life.

Lin Shaye reprises her role as Elise Rainier in Insidious: The Last Key, which is directed by Adam Robitel and written by Leigh Whannell. Other actors in the cast include Ava Kolker and Hana Hayes as younger versions of Elise, Angus Sampson as Tucker, and Whannell as Specs.

I’m going to come out and just say it — this movie is skippable. I promise I’m a fan of the franchise, but the fourth installment is really disappointing.

Though the premise of learning more about Elise’s upbringing sounds interesting, it’s just not executed well. The movie doesn’t live up to the quality of the earlier ones, and it ends up feeling generic. At this point in the franchise, the storyline is very formulaic, which in turn prevents it from feeling high-stakes or even remotely scary. The tone is also inconsistent.

Despite negative reactions to Insidious: The Last Key, however, it still did well at the box office.

The horror magic that’s put into the first Insidious movie is definitely gone by the fourth, which is a shame. Fingers crossed the fifth one is an improvement!