I remember being a curious 10-year-old, begging my mom to let me go watch the new Insidious movie. Here we are, eight years later, and I was walking into the same movie theater to go watch the fourth movie in the series: Insidious: The Last Key.

These horror movies follow the story of a ghost hunter and psychic named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). The movies do not make sense unless you watch them in order. The first one, Insidious, is about a family who is being targeted by ghosts because their little boy, Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins), has astral projection abilities. This means that his soul or conscious can leave his physical body and travel to the world of the “further,” which is the world of the dead. The movie ends with something terrible occurring to Elise, and this is continued in the sequel Insidious: Chapter 2.

In the second movie, Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) investigate what happened to Dalton and his family and what happened to Elise. They end up uncovering secrets about a serial killer who not only terrorized people when he was alive, but also terrorized Dalton’s family while he was dead. This movie ends with a foreshadow of the possibility of more movies coming out, following the adventures of Specs and Tucker, Elise’s helpers.

Insidious: Chapter 3 is the prequel to Insidious. It is all about how Elise encountered the serial killer before she met Dalton’s family and helped them. This movie is a foreshadow to the ending of the first movie.

Finally, this last movie, Insidious: The Last Key is all about Elise. It takes place sometime in between Insidious and Insidious: Chapter 3. The movie begins with a 1950s family in New Mexico. A little boy and girl and their parents live in a home right next to a prison, and the entire aura of the house is dark. As the movie continues, we quickly realize that the little girl is Elise and her supernatural abilities are already beginning to emerge. Her father is abusive and attempts to beat the ability out of her. He locks her in the basement for the night, where young Elise releases a dark entity that has only one intention: causing suffering.

The movie then skips forward to present-day Elise. She gets a phone call from the current owner of her childhood home, and the man living there is experiencing strange things. Elise goes with her sidekicks, Specs and Tucker, to investigate the house, but she already knows what is waiting for her in the dark.

Elise ran away from her abusive home when she was a teenager, and left her brother behind. The movie not only follows a horror, ghost theme, but also a theme of love between siblings and family. Along with Elise’s struggle with the multiple entities living at the house, she is also trying to find her brother and reunite with her family.

Toward the middle and the end of the movie, lots of plot twists and surprises occur. The movie holds the story of supernatural occurrences, the struggle with relationships, and how twisted the human mind can be. This isn’t your typical horror movie. There are the usual jump-scares and creepy sounds, but the movie itself isn’t as terrifying as the trailer makes it out to be.

I would recommend seeing this movie if you want a horror movie with a realistic twist to it. The story of Elise left me and my friends in tears of sadness, not fright. Insidious: The Last Key is a movie that tugs at your heart strings, while also making you jump. It’s not a movie you want to miss out on.