While Insidious: The Red Door offered a proper closing chapter to the Lambert family’s arc, Blumhouse isn’t ready to close the Insidious book. With its latest entry, Insidious: Out of the Further, the franchise bends one of its biggest rules to deliver another supernatural thrill ride that’s better than most would expect.
With the Lamberts firmly in the franchise’s rearview mirror, fans are introduced to new protagonist Gemma (Amelia Eve). After witnessing her mother Ingrid (Laura Gordon) go through a fatal mental breakdown as a child, Gemma is determined to be there for her daughter Maya (Island Austin). Unfortunately, Gemma’s discovery of a power to pull spirits from The Further into the real world causes her and Maya to be targeted by a daunting, demonic force. The idea of Gemma being a “courier” who can bring spirits into the real world is a pretty big development for the franchise’s lore — one that’ll surely leave mixed reactions.
The franchise, for so long, has limited spirits to solely possessing people — mainly astral projectors — as their way to re-enter the physical world. In Out of the Further Gemma offers a new pathway that’s both interesting yet cheap-feeling. It’s hard not to see this new power as nothing more than an excuse to keep the franchise going — especially since it suddenly comes six films deep. There’s not much depth to it, and even bringing a beloved series vet Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye) back isn’t enough to fully validate it as a natural evolution. Yet, even hardcore fans will still enjoy (sort of) the direction this new power takes things as the danger heightens in fun ways. This power warps reality horrifically for Gemma as she slips into The Further without realizing it. It leads to great instances of terror like when she finds herself trapped in a claustrophobic couch cushion maze and ultimately is forced to fear every corner of The Further’s smokey corridors.
Director Jacob Chase also allows for a good, slow build within Gemma’s narrative which allows the audience (and Gemma) to really understand what’s happening and also nicely ratchets up the looming threat of this vile cult leader trying to control Gemma’s power for his own plans. There’s even some aspects inspired by Nancy Thompson’s dream-pulling in A Nightmare on Elm Street that are incredibly fun and sinister, especially in the film’s final act.
This addition of Gemma being a “courier” offers something fairly fresh for the franchise, which is good since the stories and characters, themselves, are pretty plain. Overall, the parts of the plot tied to Gemma’s lingering trauma and determination to keep Maya safe from all this are nothing more than fine. There are some decent emotional beats that keep viewers invested and good twists thrown in, but some of the franchise’s goofy storytelling cues stop it from finding anything special about this material. Stuff like a big plan being explained through tattooed fruit (dead serious about this) is funny, but it detracts from the serious approach these story elements and relationships need to leave an impact or have genuine stakes.
The performances are also just solid. Eve is a welcome newcomer for the franchise. She boasts the goods to entertain and guide audiences through all these horrifying thrills. However, it’s nothing overly memorable as Gemma just doesn’t have the depth to give Eve something bigger to lean on. It’s great to see Brandon Perea continue to work in the horror genre after his breakout role in Nope. However his character is also fairly thin and does nothing more than someone to keep the story moving while Gemma is out in The Further. At the very least, we get Shaye back in a beloved role that she continues to nail. Not only is she a great connecting piece to the wider franchise lore, but Shaye is such an enjoyable force in these films that fans will be over the moon to see her.
Where Insidious: Out of the Further flourishes is its horror as it delivers the biggest and best selection of spirits and scares of the franchise. The ghost designs are absolutely chilling, especially when it comes to the film’s big baddie Cyrus (Sam Spruell). His presence is perfectly unnerving and his batch of spectral followers are just as fear-inducing with their possessed smiles. Not to mention, Gemma’s power takes things in a direction that allows for many spirits to have some fun in the film.
There’s such an incredible variety of creatures for horror fans to marvel at here, and even some familiar faces that fans will be jumping up and down for. Chase also shows good patience when it comes to suspense-building as he develops build-up that leads to satisfying scares. Out of the Further features plenty of jump-worthy jolts that keep you on your toes and a finale that’s pure horror fun. It unleashes evil in a way that’s completely chaotic and will leave audiences on-edge the entire last act. Plus, Chase understands how to create fun scares that mix in comedic twists that tap into the enjoyable fear of a rollercoaster.
Insidious: Out of the Further is the haunted house ride that genre fans are always pleased to get. What’s lacking in its thin-feeling narrative and characters is more than made up for through a fairly refreshing lore evolution, creepy characters, and consistent scares. Insidious might’ve said goodbye to its staples with The Red Door, but Out of the Further proves the franchise still has some worthy life left.
