In early 2022, I saw a mention that Insidious 5 would hit soon go into production. I reacted to this with a perplexed “there was an Insidious 4?”

Indeed there was an Insidious 4, though it didn’t enjoy that formal title, as the 2018 flick came with the title Insidious: The Last Key. Though I didn’t love the first three, I still thought I should give The One I Missed a look before Insidious Chapter 5 arrives.

As a child in the 1950s, Elise Rainier (Ava Kolker) deals with an abusive father (Josh Stewart). To complicate matters, she shows the ability to see ghosts, and when she refuses to deny this, her father beats her more.

In 2010, the adult Elise (Lin Shaye) works as a parapsychologist, and she becomes forced to revisit her painful childhood when new client Ted Garza (Kirk Acevedo) asks her to investigate a potentially haunted house. When Elise realizes this is her childhood home, she feels reluctant to go back there, but she eventually agrees to check out the alleged supernatural activity.

2011’s Insidious and 2013’s Insidious Chapter 2 concentrated on events that impacted the Lamberts, a young family. Dr. Elise Rainier played a supporting part in those two flicks.

However, in an unusual twist, 2015’s Insidious Chapter 3’s offered a prequel that focused on Elise to a decent degree. This worked, as Chapter 3 became the best of the series to that point.

Chapter 3 also did fine at the box office. Its $112 million worldwide marked a decline from Chapter 2’s $162 million, but its low budget meant it made a nice profit, and Last Key did even better, with a global gross of $167 million.

Which makes one wonder why the franchise waited seven years for Chapter 5, as the Insidious flicks routinely took in way more than they cost. Perhaps the producers waited until they could get original actor Patrick Wilson back into the fold, but given that the Elise-centric third and fourth entries did well, I feel surprised that this would matter.

Given that I enjoyed Chapter 3 and it revolved around Elise, I hoped this meant Last Key would appeal to me as well. Unfortunately, it delivers a less than compelling tale.

Perhaps the shift to a movie completely focused on Elise was a mistake. Though I referred to Chapter 3 as Elise-centric, that’s not fully accurate.

While Elise played a larger role in Chapter 3 than previously, the story still told of others who dealt with a haunting. Only in Key does Elise truly become the focal point.

And this doesn’t really succeed, though I can’t blame Shaye. As was the case with Chapter 3, it’s nice to see the veteran character actor get more time in the spotlight, and she does a more than credible job as Elise.

However, the film doesn’t build a particularly interesting story around her, partly because it splits in two. Key favors the circa 2010 material, but it spends enough time in the 1950s to leave neither era as especially dominant nor well fleshed out, either.

Really, I think a movie that solely explored young Elise might seem more compelling. This one just doesn’t commit fully either way, and when Elise returns home, the story goes too “soap opera” for my preference.

Key does attempt to connect the 1953 and 2010 tales. However, it feels clumsy in this regard and never brings them together in a satisfying way, partly because the movie needs too many coincidences to succeed.

More significantly, Key just lacks much material that seems likely to satisfy horror fans. I liked Chapter 3 because it delivered a nicely creepy tone, but Key simply comes across as a mix of jump scares attached to a story of domestic abuse.

None of these factors turn Key into an actual bad movie, as even with its flaws, it works better than a lot of its genre mates. However, that acts more as an indictment of the crummy nature of so many horror flicks. Key offers a pretty forgettable effort.

Insidious: The Last Key appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a strong visual presentation.

At all times, sharpness seemed very good. Any instances of softness remained negligible, as the film appeared accurate and concise.

Jagged edges and moiré effects didn’t mar the presentation, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

We got the usual slant toward amber and teal here, with an emphasis on tan tones during the “flashback” sequences. Within stylistic choices, the hues seemed well-depicted.

Blacks were dark and dense, and low-light shots gave us good clarity most of the time, though a few interiors could seem a bit murky. I felt pleased with this largely impressive transfer.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, it offered a fairly typical horror movie soundscape. This meant a lot of creepy atmosphere and occasional “jolt moments”.

Along with good stereo music, the soundfield was able to open things up in a satisfying manner that embellished the story. The mix didn’t dazzle, but it worked fine.

Audio quality was always good. Music appeared full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy.

Speech was natural and distinctive throughout the film. Again, this wasn’t a heavily active track, but it made sense for the story, and it kicked into gear well when necessary.

A few extras show up here, and we start with some featurettes. Dive Into the Insidious Universe spans four minutes, 38 seconds and provides a summary of the first three movies.

This comes with an oddly snarky tone. Still, that makes it more interesting than the usual stale recap, and it does refresh memories pretty well.

Unlocking the Keys runs two minutes, 35 seconds and presents info from executive producer Bailey Conway Anglewicz, writer/actor Leigh Whannell, and actors Angus Sampson, Kirk Acevedo, Spencer Locke, Tessa Ferrer, Caitlin Gerard and Lin Shaye.

“Keys” tells the movie’s story and teases its villain. It offers promotional fluff and nothing more.

Next comes Going Into the Further, a three-minute, 30-second reel with Anglewicz, Shaye, Whannell, Gerard, production designer Melanie Jones, and actor Aleque Reid.

This show brings a few notes about its “Further” location. It offers a couple decent details but remains pretty superficial.

Becoming Elise fills five minutes, 29 seconds with Shaye, Anglewicz, Ferrer, Gerard, Sampson, Locke, Acevedo, Whannell, and costume designer Lisa Norcia.

Here we get basics about Elise and Shaye’s performance. Expect another lackluster featurette that fails to deliver much substance.

In addition to an Alternate Ending (3:02), we find eight Deleted Scenes. These occupy a total of 18 minutes, 52 seconds.

The “Alternate Ending” doesn’t offer a radical change, as it just shows a little more in the Further. It doesn’t seem especially compelling.

As for the “Deleted Scenes”, most of them feel pretty ordinary as well. They tend toward filler and lack much to give us much of interest, though they offer a bit more comedy, some attempted scares and some minor exposition.

The disc opens with ads for November Criminals, Slender Man, Proud Mary, Crooked House, Welcome the Stranger and Flatliners (2017). No trailer for Key appears here.

Four entries into the series, Insidious: The Last Key attempts something different, as it focuses on a supporting character from prior films. Though this concept shows promise, the end result feels mediocre and not especially involving. The Blu-ray comes with positive picture and audio as well as a lackluster set of supplements. Maybe Insidious Chapter 5 will rebound after this forgettable tale.