Insidious: Out of the Further

James Wan’s original Insidious film was a major sleeper hit when it was released in the spring of 2011, grossing over $100 million worldwide on a $1 million budget. Wan’s return to the horror genre proved to be the kind of original, creepy horror picture that audiences were craving after horror remakes saturated the market. This led to a franchise being born, now spawning five sequels, regular appearances at Halloween Horror Nights and turning veteran actress Lin Shaye into a genre icon. While the franchise arguably hasn’t had any downright clunkers, six entries in is typically where the formula begins to run dry. Thankfully, the series remains in good position with Come Play director Jacob Chase at the helm. The latest Insidious film isn’t a classic by any stretch, but Chase delivers more than enough memorable scares and crafts what is the most visceral entry thus far.

Courtesy Screen Gems

Gemma (Amelia Eve) is a single mother raising her young daughter, Maya (Island Austin), in the same childhood home where her mother, Ingrid (Laura Gordon), took her own life in front of her. Despite the childhood trauma, Gemma insists on raising her daughter in the home that was inherited to her, making it a point to make the house the friendly, loving place she never was able to have as a young girl. Gemma works as a dental hygienist and has been seeing the local, kind-hearted police officer, Nick (Brandon Perea). Yet, Gemma has been having an increasing amount of vivid nightmares, taking her to the Further, where she is eventually contacted by Elise (Lin Shaye) and is told to seek out the conduit Clare (Maisie Richardson-Sellers). After reaching Clare, Gemma is told that she is a “courier” and has the ability to pull anything into the Further, where a demonic cult leader named Cyrus (Sam Spruell) is seeking to use Gemma’s powers to bring himself and his acolytes back into the real world.

Directed by Jacob Chase, Insidious: Out of the Further is an eerie and spooky new chapter in the franchise, one that delivers its fair share of skilled jolts and frightening set pieces. After the previous installment, The Red Door, which served as a closing arc for the Lambert family, Out of the Further serves as a soft reboot of sorts, taking place in 2019 and featuring a new set of characters — with one major exception. Being the sixth film in a franchise, Chase’s film avoids feeling tired or played-out by introducing new wrinkles to the Insidious mythology and telling a stand-alone story. It also helps that the writer/director crafts some of the most visceral and effective scare sequences in the franchise since Wan’s original film.

While nothing comes close to the “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” sequence in the first film or the iconic jump scare of the Lipstick-Face Demon appearing behind Patrick Wilson, Chase delivers his own memorable assembly of skilled set pieces. Two back-to-back show-stopping sequences in the first hour alone cement this as a solidly effective entry, with one involving a pillow fort and the other a twisted appointment at the dentist. The sequence involving Maya’s living room pillow fort is drenched in claustrophobia as a seemingly small array of pillows becomes a Backrooms-like labyrinth that Gemma is forced to navigate through, with not one or two, but three different ghosties tormenting her in the process. It’s a tense, excruciating sequence that expertly builds tension by withholding the expected jolts, making the inevitable jump scare all the more powerful. This is quickly followed up with a set piece involving Gemma doing a dental cleaning on one of Cyrus’s acolytes, resulting in a shocking, visceral punchline that delivers in making an already squirm-inducing scenario all the more rattling.

Courtesy Screen Gems

The rest of the film doesn’t quite live up to the one-two punch of scares set up in the first hour, but Chase shifts gears into something more decidedly fun and classically spooky. As the filmmaker takes the characters into the Further, the final act eventually feels like something of a demented Haunted Mansion ride, with the ghosts of the Further infiltrating the real world. While there is ultimately more ghostly chaos promised than delivered, the climax earns points for forgoing the usual franchise formula and finds a new form of danger in the villain of Cyrus. Actor Sam Spruell is effective as the demonic cult leader, giving the franchise its first memorable villain since the Bride and Lipstick-Face Demon in Wan’s original. His trio of mute, elderly acolytes are deeply unsettling  and help solidify the eerie tone. The new additions to the mythology and rules of the Further also add a good deal of intrigue to the film, keeping the formula — six films in — feeling lively and somewhat fresh.

While Chase proves himself to be a skilled and fairly inventive builder of tension and scares, his writing chops are not as up to par. Most every attempt at dramatic resonance lands with a massive thud due to the trite screenplay. Chase’s script regurgitates many of the same tired tropes regarding generational trauma that we’ve seen in countless horror films from the past decade with nothing new to add. It becomes clear after the opening sequence where the film is heading and, sure enough, Chase gets there right on cue. Amelia Eve is a likable performer and helps anchor the film —  whenever the wonderful Lin Shaye isn’t on screen, but Gemma isn’t much of a compelling character. It is refreshing to see a single mother without the mention of a dead husband or abandoned partner leading in a tentpole franchise film, but Gemma isn’t given much personality or spark behind Eve’s spirited performance. Brandon Perea, who was a breakout in Jordan Peele’s Nope, is also given a dull boyfriend character that fails to compliment Perea’s comedic abilities.

Courtesy Screen Gems

Insidious: Out of the Further is one of the strongest and most delightfully spooky entries in the franchise since the original film. Writer/director Jacob Chase delivers a well-paced, atmospheric, frightening, albeit silly, and entertaining new film that has more than a few lingering scares in its arsenal.

Insidious: Out of the Further is now playing in theaters.