Jonah Naplan August 21, 2026
After six movies across sixteen years, it’s probably safe to say that the “Insidious” franchise, created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell, has become the king of PG-13 horror, somehow cracking the code for box office profit with each successive entry. Their level of quality, however, hasn’t been as consistent—the last two, in particular, employed cheap jumpscare tactics with a paper-thin story and barely felt like movies, while all the rest had select moments of inspiration, but largely left no impact. To say that the newest entry “Insidious: Out of the Further” is maybe the best and most creatively realized film in the franchise yet might not initially seem like high praise, but what allows it to rise above its predecessors so prominently is that it isn’t anything like the other “Insidious” movies at all.
This one, written and directed by Jacob Chase (“Come Play”), emphatically proves the filmmakers have learned a lot since the last time this franchise graced our screens. Declaring its independence early on from all the gobbledygook that came before it, “Out of the Further” throws you right into the life of dental hygienist Gemma (Amelia Eve), whose peaceful existence in an idyllic neighborhood with her precocious daughter Maya (Island Austin) will soon be disrupted by archaic evil spirits. Turns out Gemma is sort of a nexus between reality and the realm of the Further—that purgatorial netherworld that provides the pedestal on which this whole franchise swivels—and she can transport things and beings from one dimension to the next. An opening flashback depicts how long she’s been unconsciously living with this entity, dating back to the bloody suicide of her mother Ingrid (Laura Gordon) when she was a young girl.
When a trio of creepy old people move into the neighborhood, a whole rush of haunting memories come flooding back to Gemma and she senses something profoundly sinister is afoot. Turns out, they’re the vassals of a demon from the Further named Cyrus Lam (Sam Spruell), who vows to wreak havoc in the living world. When one of them sits down in Gemma’s hygienist chair, she realizes they’re in her pursuit. And that’s when the hallucinations start. “Insidious: Out of the Further” immediately proves to be superior in the way that it crafts several creative gross-out sequences throughout that will be a gnarly treat for genre fans and worth gagging at for everybody else. Unlike its overly self-serious brethren, this is the kind of horror movie that has put as much thought into its screenplay as it has its crowdwork—like a magician at a Renaissance festival—and jumping, gasping, and pointing and laughing at what’s onscreen is not only encouraged, but expected from the audience.
It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say that three out of the five best sequences in the whole “Insidious” franchise are from this movie alone. There’s the gleefully vile dentist chair scene, of course, but the dreamlike moment that follows it is packed with enough macabre imagination to provide abundant sauce for an entire movie, and the scene that precedes it is probably my favorite “Insidious” setpiece of all time, a claustrophobic nightmare inside an endless pillow fort that shows a real consideration for space from cinematographer Dave Garbett, something this franchise certainly isn’t known for.
Everything about “Out of the Further” just feels like it was created by real, creative people, not a studio conveyor belt. Even the smallest choices are rooted in the characters’ identities and motivations, not in an effort to propel forward the franchise lore. It’s the first movie since maybe the original “Insidious” to find something truly interesting to do with the Further, using it as a fully realized playground of unknown horrors rather than just a dark cavern of existential boredom. Even when it goes totally off the rails, for better or for worse, in the third act, the filmmakers are using all the tools at their disposal to create something viscerally exciting, rather than just more filler content for the box office machine.
Amelia Eve is at least as good in the lead role as Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne were as the Lamberts in the previous movies, if not even better. This is a fierce heroine who spends most of her screentime berated by ghouls and demons but then gets her big moments of triumph in return. And she’s elevated by a solid supporting cast, including Brandon Perea as her police officer boyfriend Nick, and Maisie Richardson-Sellers as an elusive tattoo artist named Clare who acts as the spirit of Elise Rainier’s (Lin Shaye) physical link to the real world. Unlike previous entries—“The Last Key,” in particular—“Out of the Further” finds the perfect balance of Shaye’s talent, making her an important part of the story without having the whole thing lean on her.
Where this one falters is, indeed, in its third act, where despite its admirable ambition, the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach doesn’t quite land as effectively as the filmmakers think it does. A late revelation about the so-called “rules” of the Further and how this movie breaks them, gets muddled, both because of the too-muchness of everything else going on and because of the dim, muddy lighting that harshly prevents you from taking in the wonderful practical effects and makeup work so uncommon in modern horror movies. The idea is there (Chase almost feels inspired by the animated horde of vampires that descend on Coogler’s heroes in “Sinners”), but the execution can only meet it halfway.
Yet for a movie that’s been marketed as being from the producers of other unconventional genre hits this year in “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” it’s nice to see a mainstream franchise veer off in such a vastly different direction, and take the bold swings that most modern offerings would be too afraid to. How unusual is it that as the sixth movie in a franchise, “Out of the Further” is the first to finally break “out of the mold”?
Now playing in theaters.