Snakes on a Plane (2006)

It was January 2016 when I first heard of Snakes on a Place, when many people picked it for the airplane themed week of Thursday Movie Picks. That's for how long I've been meaning to watch this but kept putting it off instead. 

The plot goes like this. After witnessing the murder of an American prosecutor by the powerful mobster Eddie Kim (Bryon Lawson) while on vacation in Hawaii, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) is persuaded by FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) to testify against Kim in Los Angeles. For the trip back, they take the entire First Class section of a red-eye flight, thinking that Jones would be safe there. Unfortunately for them and everyone else on that plane, Kim has dispatched hundreds of venomous snakes with a crate with the intent of crashing the plane and hence stop Jones from testifying. 

Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

As if Insidious: Chapter 3 wasn't awful and pointless enough, a clear sign that writer Leigh Whennell had run out of ideas, here it comes Insidious: The Last Key, the ultimate proof that Whennell has run out of ideas. 

Set after Chapter 3 and right before the first Insidious, the film mainly revolves around psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). She is having nightmares with her childhood in New Mexico, where she lived with her small brother Christian (Pierce Pope), her supportive mother, Audrey (Tessa Ferrer), and her abusive father, Gerald (Josh Stewart), who used to hit her every time she claimed she had seen a ghost in the house. It's not long before she gets a call from Ted Garza (Kirk Acevedo), the man who is now living in her childhood house, and asks Elise for help as he believes there are supernatural forces lurking in the house. Reluctant at first, Elise accepts to help Garza and travels to her old house with her assistants, Specs (Leigh Whennell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)

Although Insidious: Chapter 2 turned out to be a huge disappointment, I still decided to check out Insidious: Chapter 3, naively thinking that a change of director and cast could bring the franchise back from the dead. I was wrong as it turned out.

The film is set several years before the events of Insidious and follows Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott), a teenage girl who, after trying to connect with her dead mother (Ele Keats), asks psychic Elise Reinier (Lin Shaye) to help her. Elise refuses to help her, Quinn tries again to contact her mother alone against Elise's advice and ends up awakening and being haunted by The Man Who Can't Breathe (Michael Reid MacKay).

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

I think we can all agree Insidious is no horror masterpiece. Despite this and the fact that sequels are usually disappointing, I was expecting Insidious: Chapter 2 to be a solid horror. You know, it's still directed by James Wan, the same guy, Upgrade's Leigh Whannell, wrote it,  and the cast is pretty much the same. And I couldn't have been more wrong. 

The film picks up where the previous left, with Renai (Rose Byrne) being interrogated by a police detective (Michael Beach) about the death of Elise (Lin Shaye). While the police continue their investigation, the Lamberts move in with Josh's (Patrick Wilson) mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), and try to put everything behind them. However, the spirit world isn't done with them yet.