Insidious: Out Of The Further Review - Terrifyingly Dull & Unintentionally Funny

The next chapter in the Insidious franchise focuses on brand new heroes, but it fails to capture the strengths of previous entries.

Over the last fifteen years, the Insidious franchise has maintained its place among the horror elite. Originating with James Wan’s Insidious in 2011, the series has gone on to build an entire world around astral projection, demonic entities, and the realm beyond the living known as the Further. In total, there have been five movies that, collectively, have grossed well over $700 million worldwide. Factor in the relatively small production budgets for each film, and that feat looks even more impressive.

The last installment in the franchise, 2023's Insidious: The Red Door, was something of an ending chapter – but it also became the highest-grossing entry yet. It was inevitable that Sony and Blumhouse would open the doors to the Further once again. Now, following the conclusion of the Lambert story, Insidious: Out of the Further moves things in a new direction.

Directed by Jacob Chase, Out of the Further follows Gemma (Amelia Eve), a single mother who lives in her childhood home with her young daughter. After having some disturbing nightmares, Gemma is told that she has a special ability: Not only can she enter the Further, she can bring things (and people) back with her to the real world. This presents a problem for Gemma, who is actively trying to ward off these evil spirits and prevent them from taking advantage of her power.

Insidious: Out Of The Further Is A Clever Inverse Of The Previous Films

The driving premise at the center of Out of the Further positions the film as the inverse of the Insidious franchise’s previously established formula. In the other movies, the danger comes when the heroes enter the Further and are trapped inside the world with a host of unruly spirits. This time, however, the danger comes when those unruly spirits threaten to escape and enter the world of the living. It’s an interesting enough premise to grab the audience’s attention, even if Out of the Further ultimately boils down to the same sort of story as the others.

Unfortunately, Out of the Further stumbles with arguably the most important aspect of any horror movie: the scares. The film has an eerie enough atmosphere, with rain hitting the windows and darkness engulfing the world outside the house. Combined with that are a series of attempts to create jump scares, though only a select few are ultimately successful. More problematic, however, is that Out of the Further also commits the cardinal sin of any movie in the horror genre – not only are the attempted scares not frightening, but they actually play as silly.

Horror and comedy can go well together, and have many times in the past. But, typically, that's only when the combination is deliberate, which is certainly not the case in Out of the Further. Some moments, such as shots of three old acolytes of the main antagonist watching Gemma on the street, are meant to be serious in nature, but end up provoking laughter rather than terror.

Out of the Further also struggles with its protagonists. Both Gemma and her daughter feel like classic horror movie characters, almost to a fault. Gemma is the archetypal devoted single mother who is desperate in her attempts to protect her child, while her daughter becomes the target of demonic entities trying to enter the real world. That these characters’ general identities are familiar isn’t a problem, but Out of the Further doesn’t make enough of an effort to give them anything extra beyond these basic roles. That’s no fault of Amelia Eve or Island Austin, both of whom give fine performances. Yet, the sheer lack of originality in the characters makes it that much harder for the audience to build an emotional connection with them.

Out Of The Further Takes Far Too Long To Find Its Story

The continuous issues regarding the film’s scares and its main characters are especially noticeable in the first two thirds. Much of the first half of the movie, in particular, consists of one dreamlike sequence after another, with Gemma continually meeting spirits (or followers of the main villain). In a day and age when horror films are more intelligent and innovative than ever, these set-piece scenes fail to impress. There’s only so many times the audience can see the same character trapped in a dark environment with evil spirits around her before it becomes dull, and Out of the Further falls into that trap continuously.

To its credit, Out of the Further does get better as it goes along. The top of the third act is when the main villain, a cult leader who committed suicide years before in order to show his followers that he has the ability to come back from the dead, is properly introduced. That backstory provides enough of a hook to keep audiences invested in the film’s climax, but it still arrives too late for the movie to give the character the depth he deserves.

Insidious: Out of the Further opens in theaters on Friday, August 21.