KeyFace

Javier Botet

**KeyFace**, also known as **The Key Bearer** or **The Man with the Keys** is the main antagonist of *Insidious: The Last Key*. He was portrayed by Javier Botet.

## Appearance

He has an emaciated skeletal face with angular cheekbones, sunken eyes and lacking both his lips and nose. He has long, dark, greasy hair, although he has none on top of his head. He's tall, grey and gaunt, yet he has a somewhat bloated belly, giving him a corpse-like appearance. His arms seem to be connected to the sides of his torso by long, translucent strips of skin, which almost look like slime.

His most telling trait are his fingernails, which are metallic keys of varying shapes, which he uses to lock people in the Further or to lock their voices in.

## Personality

Much like other demons, The Key Bearer seems to strive to cause pain to others. In his particular case, through keeping spirits as pets, which he locks with his powers in his lair. He does not seem to do that only for a sadistic sense of pleasure, as he feeds on the negative emotions that pulse from the suffering of others.

As explained by Young Elise, The Key Bearer also seems determined to "open all doors" in The Further. As each door in The Further leads to the essence of a particular entity, this could suggest that The Key Bearer seeks to obtain supreme dominion over The Further and all its inhabitants. It is worth mentioning that it also seems to desire a stronger bond to The Living Realm, as it manipulated Elise into opening one such door between her world and The Further (although there is some speculation that it was perhaps sealed behind that door under previous unknown conditions).

The Key Bearer also seems to seek out particularly clairvoyant individuals, such Elise, and her niece Imogen. It seems as though it is capable of using their powers as a conduit to further affect The Living Realm. It is likely that such individuals are highly prized, and serve to expand its influence throughout The Further. If that is the case, it is likely that some of its other captives are psychic as well.

## Powers and Abilities

The Key Bearer's two major abilities are utilized by 'locking' its victim in two separate places on the body. It seems the first locking silences its victims and in some cases makes a lock appear around the neck of its victims in the real world. The second locking seems to 'lock' the victim into The Further and not allowing them to escape and also may cause real physical harm as exemplified when Melissa is locked twice.

Apparently, to keep on existing, he must feed on negative emotions, which he produces from others through causing them pain and tampering with their lives. To this end, he seeks out individuals who possess considerable resentment or anger, as it is adept at sharpening these feelings into hatred.

Like other Demons, such as The Fire-faced Demon, The Key Bearer is physically very powerful and can teleport instantaneously from one place to another as well as moving with extreme speed. He can also knock people off their feet with a roar.

## History

### *Insidious: The Last Key*

#### 1950’s

The Key Bearer is an entity that haunted a young Elise Rainier before fully realizing her power. After Elise is sent down to the basement as a punishment by her father, The Key Bearer tricks her into unlocking a door in The Further he himself could not open. Elise's mother, Audrey Rainier ventures down to the basement and is strangled by The Key Bearer who used Elise's powers as a conduit.

#### 1960’s

At some point after killing Audrey Rainier, The Key Bearer begins to feed on the hatred of Gerald Rainier, Elise's father. Using his powers to invade Gerald's mind, The Key Bearer coerces Gerald into kidnapping nurses and locking them in the basement to be tortured and killed before hiding the bodies and their belongings in a ventilation shaft.

#### 2000’s

Ted Garza purchases the Rainier family home which has since been abandoned. Subsequently, The Key Bearer begins to influence Ted to emulate Gerald and abduct more nurses to be killed.

Under the influence of The Key Bearer, Ted attempts to murder Elise and Tucker upon their discovery of his latest victim. He is instead killed by Specs.

Melissa, daughter to Elise's brother, Christian, is captured by The Key Bearer while looking for her father's whistle. The Key Bearer uses his powers to first rob Melissa of her voice, then "lock" her soul within The Further.

Elise investigates the house, looking for Melissa, and is guided by the spirit of one of her father's victims to the hiding place in the ventilation shaft. When Elise examines the contents of the cases hidden there, The Key Bearer emerges and drags Elise into The Further.

After imprisoning Elise as he did with Melissa, he reveals that he has also imprisoned the spirit of her father. He encourages Elise to beat her father in the same way he used to beat her during childhood for saying she saw spirits. It is revealed that this is merely a ploy to feed off the hatred Elise has for Gerald's cruelty. Elise regains her senses when Imogen (who has entered The Further to find Elise) arrives. The Key Bearer imprisons Imogen as well, but Elise offers herself in exchange for releasing her nieces.

The Key Bearer attempts to attack Elise, but is stopped by Gerald's spirit, who protects Elise and offers his apologies moments before he fades away. Elise manages to impale The Key Bearer through the nose with Gerald's broken cane. With The Key Bearer momentarily disabled, Elise is able to blow Christian's whistle (given to her by Imogen). Audrey's spirit appears within The Further to aid Elise. She is able to defeat The Key Bearer with Imogen's Lantern and cast him back into the darkness.

In an alternate ending, The Key Bearer reappears after Audrey's spirit attacks it, then goes after Malissa and Imogen. Elise is able to get close to The Key Bearer while he's focusing on them and use Gerald's broken cane to impale its trachea. The Key Bearer staggers from the fatal blow and falls to its knees before exploding. The many keys it has amassed (presumably from wandering The Further and manipulating other psychic individuals) fall to the floor and the cell doors that held its numerous captives are unlocked. After all the imprisoned entities emerge, Audrey helps Elise lead Melissa and Imogen's spirits back to The Living Realm.

## Trivia

* The Key Bearer's motifs are largely based around keys, the name of the town "Five Keys" also corresponds to the Five Keys it has for nails on its hand.
* The Key Bearer may have been brought into the world as an evil spirit due to the nearby prison and manifesting from the spirits of the Death Row inmates who were executed. This is further exemplified by The Key Bearer's prison motif behind the red door in The Further and also the clean prison shown to the Young Elise from behind the door when it first lures her to unlock it. Gerald also works as an assistant warden at the local prison as seen by his hanging jacket in the childhood bedroom in Last Key's present.
	+ Alternatively, The Key Bearer could simply be an entity who has resided in The Further for a long time, similar to The Fire-faced Demon, and felt that the prison was ideal, as it provided considerable hatred to feed on and souls to torment. The prison motif may also be due to the numerous inmates in the prison it likely manipulated or fed off of. This theory would correspond with the nature of many entities in The Further, as the various red doors (each one corresponding to a particular resident of The Further) tend to contain a setting that reflects their ties to The Living Realm (For example, Parker Crane's contained the house he grew up in and was manipulated by his mother, The Woman in White. The Wheezing Demon's contained the apartment building it haunted and influenced its victims to commit suicide).
* The reason why The Key Bearer influenced Gerald and Ted to kidnap and kill nurses is unclear, but this may have something to do with the prison, perhaps they are involved with administering the executions at the prison or are seen as pure spirits to torture. Another theory is that The Key Bearer delights in murdering compassionate individuals, as it felt compelled to murder Audrey Rainier. Although this could have been to prevent her from interfering with manipulating Elise, or to worsen Gerald's emotional pain, making it easier to feed off his hatred.
* The Key Bearer is able to manifest itself in and outside The Further but seems to be anchored to the basement or at least the house, as it influences occupants to feed it. It also seemed compelled to lure Elise and later Melissa to the basement and ventilation shaft to drag them into The Further. However, it could be that The Key Bearer is free to venture wherever it desires, and simply prefers to use the basement because of the numerous atrocities that have occurred there.
	+ With this in mind, it is possible that all entities in The Further are more powerful in certain locations of The Living Realm. Parker Crane's spirit seemed to be strongest in both the bedroom and basement of Josh Lambert's childhood home. Parker's mother (The Woman in White) seemed to maintain significant power in the house where she raised Parker. Similarly, The Wheezing Demon seemed to have extensive influence over the residents of the apartment building it haunted.
* If The Fire-faced Demon is indeed the supreme being in The Further, it is possible that The Key Bearer envies him and wishes to surpass him by "opening all doors" in The Further. This may indicate that The Key Bearer feels that extending its influence throughout all of The Further would make it superior to The Fire-faced Demon (As The Fire-faced Demon isn't shown to typically venture too far from its dwelling in The Further, except for when it invades The Living Realm).