Dealing with paranormal activity can be scary, but facing abuse from real-life monsters is often far more terrifying. And while Insidious: The Last Key deals with plenty of ghosts and demons, it also tackles the timely topic of abuse.
The fourth installment of the Insidious franchise finds parapsychologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) forced to confront her past while dealing with a haunting in her childhood home. Through horrifying flashbacks, we learn that she grew up with an abusive father who would beat her if she ever mentioned seeing a ghost in their house.
The script was written before the #MeToo movement and the discussion of abuse was such a part of the zeitgeist, but Shaye says she was very aware of how important it was to shine a light on the topic — especially in a genre film.
“That blew me away,” Shaye told FANDOM about first learning of the abuse storyline. “I even to this moment think that it probably opened up avenues for young kids who don’t discuss that, who have been beaten in their families and it’s a secret, and somehow seeing it there on screen I wonder if it sort of resurrects their ability to talk to people about it.”
The veteran actress got emotional while discussing the impact that the film could have on people and you can watch her and writer Leigh Whannell discuss it in the video above.
The fourth film actually scored the biggest worldwide box office in the entire saga, so naturally, the next question is whether or not we’ll see a fifth Insidious film in the future.
And while Whannell says there’s not yet a definitive plan for another installment, he knows that The Last Key ended this chapter of the franchise.
“I feel like we closed the loop of this prequel story,” the writer said. “The third and fourth Insidious films take place before the first one and I feel like that loop is now closed. So maybe an interesting story to tell would be the future — to set the film now and examine what happened to the original family.”
Insidious: The Last Key is available on Blu-ray and DVD now.
