- Directed by: Adam Robitel
- Written by: Leigh Whannell
- Stars: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acQyrwQyCOk
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one gives us a look at Elise’s childhood and in the modern day of 2010 the creature that haunted her then is still causing trouble. When she goes back to her childhood home after a call for help from someone currently living there, with her sidekicks Specs and Tucker, there are ghosts and demonic dangers. But since this is another prequel, we know the three of them will come out okay in the end. If you’re a fan of the Insidious series, this is another decent entry.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re in Five Keys, New Mexico, in 1953 at the Dewbend State Penitentiary. At the Rainier household, the lights dim, and the children know all about who just got executed. Young Elise knows all this because the voices tell her. Also, she says the ghost of a little boy has been playing in her room. Her mother knows all about Elise’s gift, but she says to keep her gift secret. When her father finds out, he punishes Elise by locking her in the dark basement.
Elise hears the voice of a little girl who’s behind a door. She wants Elise to open the door; then she can open all the doors. The door opens and something terrible comes out. Elise’s mother comes downstairs and something makes a cable kill her.
Old Elise wakes up many, many, many years later. OK, it’s California in 2010. She still remembers the creature who wanted the key and killed her mother. Specs and Tucker live with her as they run their ghost-hunting psychic business.
Episode gets a call from someone who lives in her old house in New Mexico; he’s got some kind of supernatural problem. She gets rid of that guy quickly. After some thought, she decides to go and help him… alone. The boys won’t take no for an answer, and soon they all arrive in Five Keys.
Mr. Garza lives here now, and most of the furnishings haven’t changed since she lived there. He bought it cheap because it was supposed to be haunted; he didn’t believe it, but now he does. Most of the activity comes from her old bedroom, so she decides to spend the night in there. She finds an old whistle that belonged to her brother. A ghost comes and takes the whistle.
Elise tells a story, and we see the flashback to when she was sixteen years old. She and her brother Christian heard a ghost, but then their father walked in and didn’t see anyone. She grabbed his head and gave him a vision of his own death– then she left town, not to return until now.
The group goes to a diner and meets Imogen and Melissa, two sisters. Then their father comes in, and it turns out to be Christian, her brother. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with her. He drives off, leaving her, but the two girls want to know more.
Back at the house that night, Elise and the boys try to track down the spirit she spoke to on the previous night. It communicates with her through the whistle, once for yes, two for no. She finds a secret room in the wall with a locked door. She finds the key and opens it.
The ghost on the other side gives back the whistle– no, that’s not a ghost, it’s a live woman chained in the room. Garza shows up with a gun, and he’s not happy. He locks them all in the little room and then goes looking for Specs. Specs wins the fight and kills Garza; the police ask Elise to stay in town a few days.
Meanwhile, Christian comes to the house, looking for his whistle, and his two daughters are with him. Melissa goes into the basement and finds more than she expected. The creature that attacks her has keys for fingers.
Elise explains that the creature has taken Melissa’s spirit, and this is when Imogen admits that she can see things too and joins the group. Elise has another vision; her own father kept women downstairs in that cell as well. He killed Anna, the woman that Elise thought was a ghost. Her father did the same thing that Garza did; the house made them do it. She finds a suitcase with Anna’s bones in it and then finds a whole pile of suitcases just like it. Then she gets a jump scare.
Elise confronts the younger version of herself in the Further. The young one says the man with all the keys is controlling everything. He opens all the red doors. Elise is attacked by the baddie, and Specs and Tucker get Imogen to go in after her.
Imogen wakes up in the Further, and she’s not alone. Anna leads her to a red door. In a prison cell, Elise is tormented by the memory of her father’s abuse. Elise gets out of the cell and comes face to face with KeyFace, who is also tormenting Melissa. Keyface beats up Elise, but then Imogen throws her the whistle. When Elise blows the whistle, her mother shows up, as promised long ago, to defeat KeyFace.
Elise then sends Melissa’s spirit back to her body and says goodbye to her long-dead mother. In the real world, everyone wakes up and rushes to the hospital, where Christian is actually happy to see Elise now; he knows what she did. Elise and friends then leave town.
Some time later, Elise has another dream, this time about Dalton, which leads us right into the first movie of the series.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s another prequel featuring Elise and her friends. It’s definitely going to appeal to fans of the various “Ghost Hunter” TV shows as well as people who like dark, creepy haunted house movies. The acting is on par with the rest of the series.
If you like these characters from the previous films, this is pretty decent.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was slightly tired of this even before we started. It’s not bad. The cast is good, the effects are good, the writing is… well, they all kind of run together. I know there are some serious fans of the series, but I find it kind of bland and forgettable. This was another one of them in the series. Yep.