I decided to watch the “Insidious” franchise in chronological, not theatrical release order starting with “Insidious: Chapter 3” (2015), “Insidious: The Last Key” (2018), “Insidious” (2010), “Insidious: Chapter 2” (2013) and “Insidious: The Red Door” (2023) to prepare for “Insidious: Out of the Further” (2026), which is sixth on the list. Set a couple of weeks after the end of “Insidious: The Red Door,” Gemma (Amelia Eve), a mother and dental hygienist, starts having weird visions and dreams. Looking for guidance, she meets with tattoo artist Claire (Maisie Richardson-Sellers, “Legends of Tomorrow”), who channels Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), who is still in the ghostbuster business despite being dead. Elise explains that Gemma has the power to bring the dead and demons from The Further into the world of the living, which will mean the apocalypse. Will Gemma be able to stop them and save her daughter, Maya (Island Austin)? Writer and director Jacob Chase’s attempt to resurrect and reboot the franchise without the Lamberts or any of the paranormal investigators other than Elise is not the worst of the lot, but far from the best. It is like baby’s first horror movie to cut their teeth on. At least with such a low bar, newcomers to the genre are more likely to be impressed with any horror movie they subsequently watch, but there is a possibility that they could get turned off the genre in its entirety.
Gemma is a bit underwritten. She is part of a colorful, chipper world and prides herself on being a good mother. She is friends with all the neighbors. Eve is fine and functional as her character, especially her professionalism, devolves under the strain of the supernatural disrupting her sleep routine. Of course, the present holds keys to her traumatic past, and it is all predictable if you have ever watched a movie. It also will help her be a better mother to Maya and help Maya skip many of the pitfalls that Gemma faced as a child (Charli Penton).
Before the proverbial crap hits the fan, her boyfriend, Nick Mendoza (Brandon Perea, “Nope”), is eager to meet Maya and play happy family. “Insidious: Out of the Further” acts as if this is great news and uses the horror to speed up the timetable and trust between Nick and Maya. Voila, Nick is now a trusted adult who becomes Maya’s babysitter as the surrounding friendly, more suitable neighbors slowly get eliminated as viable options. Because he is a cop, he plays a crucial role in stopping the apocalypse because he can regularly break the law and use physical force under the veneer of authority. Um, how many red flags are in Nick’s plotline? While watching the movie, it may not be obvious, but do not try this at home. The more you know! Yikes.
Who are the ghostbusters? Shaye loves those checks, but Elise needs to go to the other side already. She sports one power that she has not tried to date, and it was fairly saucy. Otherwise, there was nothing that she did which could not have been done using Claire in the land of the living or a key figure from Gemma’s past (Laura Gordon). Fortunately, the sidekicks do not make a cyber appearance in “Insidious: Out of the Further” so no more uneven comedic relief. Also, no Steve Coulter. If you are going to reboot a franchise, reboot it all. Richardson-Sellers is unflappable at the weird stuff and was a good fit. Also, it was nice to see someone use different techniques to astral project and not get possessed.
“Insidious: Out of the Further” relies more on grossing out the audience than scaring them. Clearly Chase or his co-story conceiver David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick have a thing about teeth and fear dentists. (I love my dentist.) Also, roaches. Agreed. The three creepy people dressed in red often verges on hagsploitation. The backstory about them is far more intriguing than what is shown: rotten smiles, piles of diapers and oxygen tanks. If you spend time distinguishing among the crowds of the dead and demons, there are some new and familiar faces. Sam Spruell plays the head bad guy with the unique rings. Spruell has a great voice and presence and potentially played the most interesting ghost of the bunch. The apocalypse visions were fun, but hardly unique. Basically, intelligent and fast zombies without the need for consumption.
There is very little in “Insidious: Out of the Further” that was not done better in other movies or television series: “Bring Her Back” (2025), the “Smile” franchise, the “Final Destination” franchise, most of this franchise, “Poltergeist” (1982), “What Lies Beneath” (2000) and “Backrooms” (2026), which is complete with a rebirth / vagina dentata theme. Hell, soon, people are going to wonder which came first, this movie or “The End of Oak Street” (2026). Even “Drag Me to Hell” (2009) seems to inspire at a minimum the poster design. If there is an original moment, then it is smaller than a blink and miss it length.
Basically, the sum moral of the “Insidious” franchise is that nothing is child abuse because your parents were fighting demons and doing the best that they could. There is a lot of inner child work with the protagonist speaking to their younger self, sometimes simultaneously to protect them and get help from them. So even if an adult could talk to their younger self, there would still be a level of parentification, which is also abuse. It makes child abuse more of a necessary evil than an absolute evil. Sometimes this technique works, and other times it does not. Here it mostly does, but it is the equivalent of the devil made me do it. A parent’s love excuses a child’s pain with context. It is not a great look.
Do you need to watch the other movies to understand “Insidious: Out of the Further?” Not really but “Insidious,” “Insidious: Chapter 3,” and “Insidious: The Red Door” are so much better that it feels like a waste of money and time to not watch them instead of the most recent entry. Skipping “Insidious: Chapter 2” and “Insidious: The Last Key” entirely would be a blessing because this entry is far more nutritional and well-crafted than either of them. With all due respect to the pleasant, functional cast, other than Richardson-Sellers, no one has the potential to be the tentpole for the franchise moving forward, and the mythology is not visceral enough to care what happens next. At this point, only Shaye and the red doors are holding the franchise’s cohesiveness together. There are so many original and better horror movies out there that it seems like a shame to prioritize this one.
