Insidious: Out of The Further (dir. Jacob Chase)
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 106 mins
UK Distributor: Sony Pictures
UK Release Date: 21 August 2026
WHO’S IN INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER?
Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Lin Shaye, Sam Spruell, Island Austin, Laura Gordon
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Jacob Chase (director, writer), Jason Blum, Oren Peli, James Wan and Leigh Whannell (producers), Joseph Bishara (composer), David Garbett (cinematographer), Gregory Plotkin (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
The demonic entities who reside in The Further are brought into our reality…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER?
It’s usually around the sixth instalment when it becomes clear as day that a horror franchise is running purely on fumes. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Paranormal Activity movies and see exactly where they dipped significantly in quality before being either rebooted or put on semi-permanent hiatus. Sometimes, though, a sixth instalment in a horror series can break the cycle, like Friday the 13th Part IV: Jason Lives and Scream VI which are considerable favourites among their respective fanbases for doing things a little differently than previous entries.
Insidious: Out of the Further, writer-director Jacob Chase’s sixth movie in the supernatural franchise from producer and original director James Wan, somehow fits into both categories and also belongs to neither category. It features a couple of decent sequences that prevent it from landing at the very bottom of the series, but at the same time it perhaps comes closest to jumping the shark with a concept that alone stops it from being among the top. In all honesty, the movie is just too unmemorable to be among the worst or the best of the franchise, instead seeming perfectly content with being the very definition of “mid”.
Set a short while after the events of the previous film The Red Door (not that it matters, for beyond a brief flashback that film has no connection to this one whatsoever), Insidious: Out of the Further follows dental hygienist and single mother Gemma (Amelia Eve) as she, of course, begins having disturbing dreams and visions of demonic entities residing in the spooky supernatural realm of the Further. Only in this case, Gemma has a unique gift where she can physically bring objects and spirits back to reality with her, making her a “courier” according to franchise regular Elise (Lin Shaye) who assists from the Further with her handy exposition dumps. However, her abilities make her a valuable target for a sinister spirit named Cyrus (Sam Spruell) who, along with his small group of elderly acolytes who exist in the real world, seeks to use her as a portal into the mortal realm for him and all the monstrous demons at his disposal.
The film is being sold on that very premise, to where it’s spelled out for the viewer in the very title, which as ridiculous as it is does raise some curiosity as to how certain familiar spirits like that red-faced Darth Maul demon or the shotgun-wielding “Doll Girl” would function and spread chaos when let loose beyond the reach of the Further. But perhaps not so surprisingly, that only makes up less than a quarter of the actual movie, which is otherwise business as usual for a franchise that apparently has a fetish for its own, increasingly stale formula.
It certainly retreads a lot of themes from previous movies, such as dealing with family trauma that’s conveniently connected to the film’s present events – Eve’s Gemma apparently had an absolute nutter for a mother… or was she? – and a few of the scares, as well-staged as Chase makes them feel, are very familiar to many of the more effective ones you’ve seen before. The film also borrows heavily from other horror films beyond the Insidious franchise, including the psychological turmoil of the Smile movies, almost frame-for-frame shots from Wan’s own Conjuring series, and at one point during the climax it even takes a turn into Poltergeist and Exorcist II: The Heretic territory. As for the new characters, they’re largely just stock types that are buoyed by decent performances (though it’s hard to shake the feeling that Amelia Eve may just be an exact genetic clone of a young Naomi Watts) but could be interchangeable with just about any other supernatural horror movie, right down to the sceptical cop who also doubles as the doting love interest. At least Lin Shaye’s still around to give the film some gravitas, though sadly she’s not in it for very long (meanwhile, her sidekicks Specs and Tucker are nowhere to be seen, but given how obnoxious and slightly predatory they became in previous movies, that’s probably for the best).
However, the film does have some strong elements as well, many of which come from the film’s few standout set pieces that are pretty well-executed. One sequence set in a never-ending tunnel made out of sofa cushions is an assault of pure claustrophobia, as Chase – who previously had success with his 2020 genre feature Come Play – makes effective use of the increasingly limited space and lighting to create a creepy and genuinely unsettling mini-atmosphere where literally anything could come screaming out of the darkness. Another, which takes place in a dentist’s office, contains the kind of gross body horror that you’d find in a Lucio Fulci zombie movie, and it’s as fascinating to watch as it is disgusting. It’s in these moments where you can still feel that Insidious energy, much more so than the parts where it just feels like box-ticking fan service.
It all adds up to the film that’s neither outstanding nor truly awful, even though it contains hints of both. The film is just painfully mediocre, something that you’re unlikely to remember not even a week after seeing it, and whatever you do end up recalling from it are not enough to make one eager to watch it again. I’d say that I hope this is the last one in this series, but I remember saying that about the similarly forgettable Insidious: The Red Door, which carried a particular sense of finality, and look how that turned out. For now, though, I’ll just comment that wherever the franchise goes next, here’s hoping that they find a way to make it more memorable.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Insidious: Out of the Further is a middling standalone sequel that contains some effective set-pieces and decent performances, but by rigidly clinging on to its stale formula and plenty of other horror tropes, it struggles to be as memorable as its predecessors.
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