Further Education
INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY The horror saga unlocks a revealing origin story…
It’s the last day of summer in the southern California desert. In the town of Pomona, about 25 miles east of LA (doubling for New Mexico), parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) walks out of a hospital; her arms around gentle giant Tucker (Angus Sampson) and brainiac Specs (Leigh Whannell) – her Spectral Sightings partners. Teasers is on set to witness a third act shot from Insidious: The Last Key. And if the look on Elise’s face is any indication, the team’s latest case is a whopper.
The fourth film in the hit horror series, The Last Key breaks with tradition by making Shaye’s character – the Insidious equivalent of Poltergeist’s Tangina – its central focus, as she confronts the tragedy that set her on her path. During a break in shooting, director Adam Robitel (who wrote Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension) explains, “It’s sort of an origin story. Elise is the superhero of the franchise. And it deals with her upbringing and some of the not-so-pleasant things that happened in her childhood.”
Robitel – who has taken over from Insidious: Chapter 3 helmer Whannell
– is four weeks into shooting, with just one week remaining. Whannell, who
has scripted all four instalments of the franchise, was keen for the latest chapter to turn the series’ formula on its ear. “The case of this movie,” says the writer, garbed in Specs’ white shirt and black tie, “is that it’s a haunted house. But the haunted house is [Elise’s] house, the one she grew up in. She’s basically dealing with a literal demon and a metaphorical demon, all the demons of her past sort of come back.”
Whannell admits that it isn’t easy coming up with a new demon for each chapter of the supernatural saga. “But that seems to be a hallmark of the Insidious films,” he concedes. “These distinctive demons. We’ve had the Bride in Black and the Red-Face demon and then in the last film [2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3] we had ‘The Man Who Can’t Breathe’ with his breathing apparatus. Having to one up oneself with each film, I was like, ‘Alright, what’s unique?’ I think we really came up with something great. He doesn’t really have a name, so we’ve nicknamed him KeyFace. He’s kind of a gatekeeper. He has keys for fingers and he can unlock doors between this world and The Further.”
Shaye, who now headlines the series at the age of 73, says she was left speechless by the route that her career has taken. “I’m probably gonna cry during this interview,” she warns us. “This has been a very loaded experience for me. It’s the biggest role I’ve ever had in my career. This film goes beyond entertainment. It’s an eye-opener about how you have to grow, no matter what happens to you as a child.”
ETA | 12 JAnuAry / InSIDIOuS: THE LAST KEy OPEnS nEXT yEAr.