Insidious - Out Of The Further

The Further Adventures...

Insidious - Out Of The Further
Directed by Jacob Chase
Australia/USA 2026
Blumhouse
UK Cinema Release Print

Warning: Slight spoilers.

Okay then... another Insidious movie, namely Insidious - Out Of The Further and, well, it’s actually quite good in many respects, even though the franchise is now pretty much divorced from its original creator other than a production credit. Which means, of course, that Elise’s two assistants from the previous movies are no longer with us. 

But, hey, Elise is... as played by the 83 year old Lin Shaye and, yeah, that actress is still kicking ass in this movie. Elise is still dead, of course... but as usual, she’s helping out people from her unique place in The Further, the realm between life and death where the evil entities that plague the various corporeal, human inhabitants of these films live. And, since her two regular helpers are not in this installment (she’s the only character/actress to appear in all six movies to date), we’re introduced to a new, physical world helper in the form of Clare, played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers... and she’s a likeable enough character and the actress does a good job on selling her here, even though she’s really only brought in for the last third of the movie.

Okay, so this film focuses on a new family, three generations of daughters headed up by main protagonist Gemma (played by Amelia Eve), her daughter Maya (played incredibly well by Island Austin) and her own mother Ingrid (played by Laura Gordon). We initially see Ingrid die in a violent fashion in front of the young version of Gemma in the past. This is followed by the usual, big Insidious title coming up with the ferocious, atonal music accompanying it but, either my cinema had rubbish sound or it was pretty dialled back this time around. It didn’t startle me like they usually, quite purposefully do. 

And if I had a criticism of this film in general it’s that it does go through all the usual tricks of the trade of the modern horror film, like showing you where you think the scare is going to come from or shifting the audio landscape to not-quite-subconsciously herald in another intense scene... but it somehow manages to be completely unscary this time around. I don’t think it’s me but... this film did feel somehow less stressful than any of the other movies in the franchise and... I wonder if that’s down to the director over anything else? 

There are, though, some unsettling moments for a certain sector of the audience, I reckon... Gemma grows up to be a dentist and there is a full on ‘dental horror’ scene in this. It wasn’t particularly scary for me but it was inventive in what it reveals about one of the characters. I could see how it might set some people’s teeth on edge if they have a quite understandable fear of dentistry (I’m personally in a good spot with my dentist these days so... maybe that’s why I found it less distressing). 

My second criticism took the form of an homage scene and, my problem is it didn’t go far enough. So you remember the eye slowly being pulled towards a big, sharp splinter and then being gouged out in Zombi (aka Zombi 2 aka Zombie Flesh Eaters, reviewed here)? Well, a similar scene but using a much cleaner, sharper instrument is restaged here in reference... except the director seems to have an eye on the censors and it doesn’t quite get to the eye gouging. But that would have been nice to see in a modern movie, for sure... especially since the victim is also the main protagonist here. That would have really shocked the audience if she’d lost an eye and helped build the kind of ‘the gloves are off’ momentum that the film needed.

But. like I said, the film is pretty entertaining and a fair bit better than Insidious - The Red Door (reviewed here), especially because Lin Shaye has more of a role this time around. 

And that’s me done with Insidious - Out Of The Further. I thought this was a fine addition to the franchise and, I think if fans give it a chance, they should be into it too. It does open up a possibility of having sequels that are not just centred around the same family from the first five movies and I thought it did that in a more than credible manner. I just wish the scares could have been ramped up a notch. Oh, and stay for the mid credits scene and especially because, during those credits, you can hear in more detail something that composer Joseph Bishara does in the movie too... which is go into the realms of John Carpenter style scoring, specifically The Fog, at some points. So that’s cool too.