Fourth film in franchise the best of the bunch

Four films in, the horror franchise “Insidious” deserves recognition for its unusual star, Lin Shaye.

The character she plays — a psychic named Elise — isn’t what’s noteworthy; it’s her age.

Shaye is 74, which makes Elise Rainier at least three times as old as the babysitters and camp counselors who traditionally serve as horror-film heroines.

Elise is allowed more dignity than those girls: She never has to seduce the audience by taking a shower, or run from a killer wearing only her bikini. Shaye’s Elise is as much the hunter as the hunted, a dogged ghostbuster who is always first through the darkened doorway with a flashlight.

Good for Shaye, enjoying a terrific run after a 40-year film career. And good for this teen-targeted franchise for casting her time and again.

If only the movies were just a little better.

The early installments felt awfully slapdash, with crude effects and Directed by Adam Robitel.

PG-13 (for disturbing thematic content, violence and terror, and brief strong language) 1:43 at the Columbus 10 at Westpointe, Crosswoods, Dublin Village 18, Easton 30, Georgesville Square, Grove City 14, Lennox 24, Movies 16 Gahanna, Movies 11 Mill Run, Pickerington, Polaris 18 and River Valley theaters

even cruder acting (even though co-creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell were established professionals who had given us the “Saw” franchise).

“Insidious: The Last Key” is a step up, boasting some clever scares from new director Adam Robitel, a reasonably impressive demon-creature and, finally, something like an original story from Whannell.

In this originstory episode, Elise — Shaye plays her like a more-earnest, less-puckish version of Angela Lansbury in “Murder, She Wrote” — is called upon to cleanse her own childhood home in New Mexico, where she developed her psychic gifts. It’s also where she endured years of abuse from her father (Josh Stewart).

As Elise tries to help the home’s new owner, a roughneck named Garza (Kirk Acevedo), she discovers a secret about her family that she never knew.

That’s relatively deep stuff for the “Insidious” franchise, which until now has been content to copy the 1982 film “Poltergeist.”

The execution in “The Last Key” can be a bit clumsy, especially the attempts at comic relief by Elise’s assistants, the swaggering Tucker (Angus Sampson) and nerdy Specks (Whannell himself). The best creation here is a demon whose fingers, shaped like skeleton keys, can lock the scream in your throat.

The title of “Insidious: The Last Key” suggests an end to the franchise, which would be too bad.

The franchise feels as if it’s just getting started.