Fear comes home (Insdious: The Last Key 2018)

178.

Insidious: The Last Key

   

 

 

 

6.5/10

 

Another in the series of Insidious films and this forth one, it named 'The Last Key' which may well be the last in this franchise, as it is starting to run its course a little bit, in my opinion. As shown in the trailer, we are once again following the parapsychologist, Elise Rainier, played by Lin Shayne, as this time, she will be helping with a case in her childhood home. It turns out that this ended up being the highest grossing movie in the franchise, but then again, who doesn't like going to witness a horror movie. Let's get into it and see if we are about to open up a new 'scare fest' or witness a movie that should have stayed behind lock and key.

The movie begins with a flashback to 1953, with the young Elise, in her childhood home, witnessing paranormal activity, which only angers he father and scares her brother and mother. These ghosts are of the prisoners that have been executed in the prison next-door. One night, she is visited by another ghost, who ends up scaring the brother and as he grabs for his whistle, to call his parents for help, it is replaced and in all of the commotion, their parents break in and the father beats Elise before putting her into the basement. There, she is greeted by a voice of an entity and is told to unlock the door in front of her. After doing this, a demon named Key-face emerges and possesses her, just as her mother enters the basement and is hung from the ceiling by a loose wire, which the demon controls. She is killed and just as the father enters, the demon releases his daughter and he finds the two bodies lifeless. Not a bad start to the movie.

Years and years later, Elise is now working in her profession, looking to help others in their time of need, when no one else believes them. Her usual two colleagues are helping her and one day, she receives a phone call seeking her help. Ted Garza, on the other end of the phone, he reveals his address and Elise recognises it as her childhood home and the home that we have already seen. She shits herself at first, but then decides to help out, knowing what this guy is in store for. She also wants to make things right for what happened all those years ago. While she is in New Mexico, she stays in her old home, telling the new owner that a lot of things regarding the paranormal, had happened there over the years. After doing a walk through at night, she comes across the whistle that was lost, also finding a set of keys attached to her Dad's old prison uniform. She is led to the basement by mysterious noises. A female ghost appears, only visible to the crew on their monitors and attacks Elise before asking for her help. Elise recognises her from when she was a child and had spotted her in their laundry room and we are back with another flashback. We see her father enter the laundry room to investigate, but he finds nothing and she fears another beating, so runs from home, leaving her brother behind.

The next morning, the three crew members visit a diner, where two young females walk in and Elise instantly feels a connection with them. They are sisters and soon, their father walks in, it's Elise's brother, Christian, who she has not seen in decades. When she tries to talk to them, he turns anger and storms out. Outside, the nieces come to talk to Elise and hoping to repair their relationship, Elise hands them a picture she took of the whistle that she had found. That night, on another investigation, Elise hears the whistle being blown downstairs, leading her to the basement once more. This leads to a scene we are quite used to, filled with questions and the answers being one whistle for no, two for yes. She looks at the wall that the whistle is coming from and soon realises that it's a door, rushes to get the keys she found the day before and when she opens it, she finds a bloodied girl with a chain attached to her neck. The owner, Garza, storms into the room and it's revealed that he had been keeping this woman there, against her will. She is real and the ghost was helping Elise to find her. He locks the room and sets off to kill Specs and Tucker, Elise's crew. The two end up killing this crazy man and after the police turn up, Elise is taken for questioning.

Whilst Elise is being questioned, she has a vision of one of her nieces and instantly knows that she is in trouble. At the old house, Christian and his two daughters enter and find the whistle, before Melissa is lured into the basement and attacked by Key-face, before it inserts a key-looking finger into her neck, stealing her voice. The next finger takes her soul, which sends her into a coma. As the crew arrive, Christian demands that Elise stays away and takes his daughter to the hospital. Imogen stays with her Aunt, after declaring that she also has visions and wants to help. Elise tells her that they need to go into the further and finally defeat the demon, ending the curse on the house. Elise and Tucker end up in the basement once more, searching for our usual red door and entering The Further. Imogen and Specs try to find the bible that Garza was fascinated with. Whilst in the basement, Elise sees something in the exhaust vent, a night gown, which belonged to a female ghost, who called herself Anna. Elise saw Anna in the laundry room all those years ago and a flashback takes us back once again. We see that Anna wasn't a ghost, but a girl that the father had been keeping in the basement, much as Garza had been doing. He did see her in the laundry room but pretended that no one was there and after Elise run away, the father went back and beat Anna to death. As she climbs further into the vents, she finds suitcases, full of remains of women that had been abducted by the men of the house. As she searches, she is abducted by Key-face and taken into The Further, leaving her unconscious body in the pipe.

Imogen takes the steps to enter The Further and help he Aunt, being led by Anna to the prison realm. This is where Key-face is holding the souls of Elise, her father and Melissa. Key-face had been manipulating the fear of these men, generated by the abductions and storing their souls. The demon no turning its attentions to Elise, wanting her to harm her father for the history that they have. She can see they and refuses to feed this demon anymore and as this massive demon attacks, her father leaps to her help and saves her, before being stabbed, causing his soul to vanish. This demon looks ridiculous and very cheaply done, as if this movie was from the 90's. The demon captures the two nieces and chains them down. He then stabs Melissa, which causes her real body to start dying in the hospital. Then, moving onto Elise, the demon tries to take her voice, but as this happens, Imogen throws the lost whistle to Elise. She cannot reach it and instead stabs the demon in the nose with her father's walking-stick. She now reaches for the whistle and blows it, causing her mother to come to her aid and save them all. Ok then, I don't know where she has been hiding. Elise tries to apologise for her death, but her mother had already forgiven her. Melissa is still dying and the trio try to find her body, opening a door, which shows them Dalton, falling from a ladder, a link to the first movie. They accidentally leave the red door opening, releasing a demon and sending it into the first instalment. The movie finally ends with Melissa returning to her body and Elise and Imogen racing to the hospital to be greeted by a forgiving Christian. They embrace and she hands him the whistle before heading back home to California. In her sleep, Elise sees a vision of Dalton and the Lipstick Demon leaning over her, which frightens her enough to wake her, just before her phone rings and a woman on the other end. She explains how she helped her son years ago and now his son is in trouble. Elise agrees to help and the story goes on. This concludes the prequel aspect.
I wasn't too aware that this was going to be a prequel, mainly with the use of flashbacks showing the history behind some things. When it came to the end, that's when it finally dawned on me that number 3 and this forth are set before 1 and 2. The film had its moments as a horror, a little jump scare here and there, which you knew would be coming due to the musical score. The main demon was pretty pathetic looking towards the end and the main fight scene, with it looking really cheap and a chucked together puppet. Altogether, the movie seems a little expected from the storyline, with the same settings, action and storylines, making this franchise seem a little tired at times. One thing that I found confusing, was the fact that some of the trailer scenes didn't even feature in the movie, with one kind of prison guard in the demon's prison being missed out. If this franchise is to go any further, mind the pun, it would probably end up being another movie too far. 

Can I get a normal-sized beer for a normal-sized guy? (Downsizing 2018)

177.

Downsizing 

 

 

 

 

6/10

 

 

 

Since watching Suburbicon, I'm a little apprehensive when it comes to watching another Matt Damon film to soon. I'm hoping that movie was down to Clooney, rather than anyone else. I've seen plenty of this movie's trailers and it seems a very interesting concept, with people wanting to shrink themselves down, in order to have a better life. Damon's character can be seen in the trailer, going through a bit of turmoil, as his wife decides to back out of the 'treatment'. Let's take a look and put this one under a microscope, hoping that it will be larger than life.

The film begins in Norway, as a doctor is performing an experiment on a lab mouse. He sees on mouse and suddenly cannot hide his joy, as he runs to meet his colleague, telling him the news and both of them hug in celebration. Obviously, this guy has found the shrinking technique. Five years on and one of these men, Andreas, is speaking to a group of people about the worries of overpopulation. He explains how him and Jorgen, they guy who found the technique, have both found a solution, leading to Jorgen being revealed and the followed up by a group of scientists and their family being revealed to the audience. They are all 5 inches tall and over an extended period of time, they have only filled one bag of waste between them. One couple have even had a baby, Ronnie, who is the first to be born small. This is watched by people all around the world, including Paul, Matt Damon's character. He runs home after work to see to his ill mother, thinking about what he has witnessed. He seems to have a small house and no free time.

Ten years now pass, Paul's mother has passed away and he is now married to Audrey, played by Kristen Wiig. They still live in the same house and at a high school reunion, he sees a couple that they used to be friends with, who have now gone small. Dave and Carol, the small couple, chat about how amazing their life is now and how much their money got them. They live in a small community called Leisureland. Paul and Audrey end up at a seminar about going small, living at Leisureland and the positives about such a change. The audience seem to have all been swayed. The couple we have been following, head back home to a phone call about their mortgage being denied and this is the final straw to the couple wanting to go small. We can already see a look of doubt on Audrey's face. Their friends end up throwing them a party, maybe as a farewell, but in the bar, a drunk is offensive towards small people, claiming that they have better benefits than normal people, with the fact that they don't contribute to society in the same way, which is pretty spot on. As time passes, the two fly out to the facility, ready for the downsizing. They got through questioning and still, they seem pretty calm about it. Paul is shaved all over his body, with his false teeth being removed and body waste being sucked out. He later wakes as a nurse presents him with a massive cracker, just to wind him up. He asks for his wife and the nurse, instead, brings him a phone and on the other end is Audrey. She reveals that she has shit out of the change and she is sorry. She wasn't ready to leave her family and life behind. He's clearly furious, shouting at her but she doesn't really give a great answer to his troubles.

He is take to his mansion, where he is still depressed and sits down to watch the news, seeing a story about Vietnamese activists, who were shrunk against their will, with only one surviving and being taken to hospital for a leg amputation. Ngoc Lan, played by Hong Chau, is now also small without anyone else. This film jumps once again. This time by a year and Paul is signing the divorce papers, as he heads back to his job at a telemarketing company, instead of living off his riches. He attends his friend's party, as Dave tries to cheer him up. He does admit that he has been dating someone and we instantly meet her. They are having dinner at his apartment as a neighbour above has a party which is a bit too loud. Dusan, the neighbour played by Christophe Waltz, comes downstairs to invite the couple to the party, to which Paul declines and gets back to his date. When he sees the new woman out, he offers to meet her son, to which she is hesitant and instead of being understanding, he just walks off and leaves her. He heads upstairs to the party, drinks, gets slipped a drug on the dance floor, meets a now grown-up Ronnie and passes out. Waking up on the floor to the cleaning crew, he recognises one of the cleaners as Ngoc Lan. He approaches her to sort out her dodgy fake leg, as he was an occupational therapist before being made small. After doing so, she forces him to come back with him to help a woman in need. She is pretty persistent and with the struggle of the English language, everything seems to be shouted at him.

She takes him to where the poor live on the outskirts. There, she tends to the needy and she takes Paul to Gladys, who has cancer and not long left. Her husband died during the shrinking process and she has clearly been dealt a bad hand. Paul gives them something to take for the pain and explains to Ngoc about turning her on her side to stop any bed sores. Paul then tries to fix Ngoc's leg for good, only to break her prosthetic. As a result of this, he must now help her with her job, her errands for everyone else and when they get to clean Dusan's, the man offers him a job to get away, to the first community in Norway. Ngoc wants to go with them and despite Dusan saying no, she reveals how her and the scientist Jorgen used to write letters to each other, as he felt sorry for what happened to her. These brings a bit of comedy as the three men, who are discussing the moves, as hiding the fact that they are moved to tears by her story. Off she goes. The arrive in Norway and travel a fjord to meet Jorgen and his wife. On the boat, Paul and Njoc end up climbing into bed together and the next morning Dusan can tell that the two got 'jiggy with it'. When they finally get to the scientist, it isn't long before he gives more bad news about the world. Due to so much Methane being emitted, humanity is near extinction. He and his first small community, have created a vault to preserve humanity and all crops and animals. Paul is soon swayed to join them, thinking that is a great thing, joining this bunch of hippies to watch their last sunrise together but Dusan and Ngoc want no part of it. She wants him to go back home with her and for them to live together. Instead, he enters the tunnels with his luggage, as the community get ready for a 17-mile walk, deep into the mountain. Paul says his goodbyes and just as the walk begins, he turns back to the door and in obvious fashion, runs back, just in time to escape the vault. A bit more humour comes as an explosion goes off, sealing the vault door but it's pretty much a firecracker and a little rock dropping down. The film ends with Paul and Ngoc back at Leisureland's slums, helping everyone with their day and a look on Paul's face that tells the audience that he is finally happy.  
After not expecting too much from this interesting concept for a movie, it actually turned out to not be half bad. You would have to go into this movie with an open mind and not take it too seriously and with that mind set, you can enjoy it and notice the humour, which at times, could even be taking the piss out of its own ideas about the movie. On the other hand, the trailer can be pretty deceiving. If you came in thinking that you would learn of the effects of being downsized, or to see the struggles this would bring, even seeing them being 5 inches and being chased by a rodent, you were wrong. This movie opened up with that, but the second half of the movie seemed a completely different direction, with nothing more than normal life problems becoming the main topic. I did expect goofball and got a lot more serious topics than I had imagined. With saying that, the movie was still enjoyable for that. The Asian character's shouting did becoming annoying after 5 minutes and I was surprised that we see as little of Kristen Wiig as we did. The storyline, if you were being serious about it, seemed a little empty towards the end and when the ending did actually come, it seemed as empty as the last 45 minutes of the movie. Damon and Wiig could have made a funny movie together, but this chance had been wasted.