‘Insidious: Out Of The Further’ Review – A Haunted Maze With Some Heart

Normally, when a horror franchise reaches the sixth installment and the previous installment was the “Final Chapter” for the characters that the series is known for, there are some bumps in the road. Logic dictates that the story is only going to get bigger and more convoluted as we have to add in new characters, new rules, and other ways to up the stakes for audiences. Now, with Insidious: Out Of The Further, the escalation of those rules are right there in the title. We’re taking the dead from the Further and putting them in our world. But through all of those roadblocks, the film provides the necessary scares that people have come to expect, but it also has a bit of heart that shines through.

The story follows Gemma (played by Amelia Eve), who’s been through a rough childhood seeing her mother slowly go insane to the point of death. She has a daughter, Maya (Island Austin), who loves being creative, building couch forts, and generally leads a sheltered life from the horrors of Gemma’s past. They also happen to live in the same house that Gemma’s mother went insane in, but that doesn’t come up… until like 15 minutes into the movie.

So, Gemma starts getting these horrible nightmares, and you guessed it, the Further is back. Some of these dream sequences are among the best in the movie, including a ghostly couch fort, a horrific trip to the dentist, and a trip to a house filled with geriatric waste and an old tube TV.

I Was Locked In To My Seat Watching This

Yeah, those creepy-ass old people in the picture above are central to the plot of Insidious: Out of the Further. Without spoiling too much, they’re helpers for an ancient evil that comes from the Further, and they assist in the real world. Lester, the guy in the middle, is part of one of the more squirm-inducing scenes with Gemma working on his dental hygiene at work. The scares in the film all feel like they’re a bit frontloaded, but when the movie is scaring you, it’s doing a magnificent job of it. Every scene feels like walking through a Halloween Horror Nights house with the anticipation of a scare coming. But really, the most effective ones aren’t just a jump scare; it’s when you see something in the background of the shot in the lowest light.

Director Jacob Chase and his crew do a great job of not only making these scares as effective as possible, but they also LIGHT THE FILM PROPERLY. There are night scenes that are actually shot like a night scene in a movie should be. It goes to show that you can still scare the living hell out of seasoned horror audiences and still make everything visible.

Now, not everything is rosy and wonderful in Insidious: Out of the Further. Yes, this is a sixth entry in a long-running horror franchise. So those logical leaps are going to really stretch the old suspension of disbelief. There’s also some “power scaling” issues with Gemma and her family that come up. The explanation of her powers in The Further and real life are kind of glossed over and that was really the one big question I had.

Outside of that, there are some other things that feel a bit off, and like I was saying about the scares being frontloaded, the second half of the film has fewer scares and almost morphs into a supernatural action movie.

Brandon Perea, MVP, Rest Of Cast Also Good

Brandon Perea has a smaller role as Gemma’s boyfriend who’s a cop, but he nails it. Like his role in Nope, there’s just something about this guy that screams STAR and you get to see a bit of it here. He does play the traditional “oh honey, you need to see a shrink” kind of boyfriend at first, but once he sees that Gemma isn’t making things up, it kicks into high gear. Lin Shaye is also obviously fantastic here. She’s the franchise steward at this point and seeing her whip that lantern around in The Further won’t get old.

Amelia Eve has to carry the film, and she does an admirable job, especially in the more hectic scenes. You try to act while dead people are chasing you in an endless pillow fort tunnel. You get it all with her, final girl, mother, victim, and a pretty good dental hygienist. The relationship between her and Maya is the crux of the film. When it’s revealed what actually happened to her mom, she really turns it on. That whole sequence drives home some of the heart at the center of the film.

All in all, Insidious: Out of the Further is a pretty solid entry in the Insidious franchise. It might get a bit silly, but the third act and their plan to close the door end up with some great sequences.

Insidious: Out of the Further releases in theaters on August 21st, 2026.

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