DON'T DIMENSION THE WAR

3 hours ago
7 min read

INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER (15)

Director: Jacob Chase

Screenplay: Jacob Chase, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Leigh Whannell

Starring: Amelia Eve, Island Austin, Lin Shaye

Running time: 106 minutes

Cinema

Review: David Stephens

So, Insidious: Out of the Further … Or Insidious 6 if you prefer (and yes, we do). By the way, isn’t that the most non-descript and lamest subtitle for a horror film? Sounds like a failed shopping list (“Couldn’t get that bottle of Further that you were after”) or a weird rom-com. The previous title (“The Bleeding World”) was a touch better, but maybe they should just go back to numbers again. Anyhow, Insidious: OOF (or I: OOF as we’re needlessly and childishly going to refer to it as, mainly for shits and giggles) is technically a sequel to Insidious: The Red Door … except that the franchise hasn’t taken a linear route to get to this point. As followers of the films know well, the timeline is all over the place with each entry. If the first film is taken as a starting point, we’ve had the original, followed by a direct sequel, followed by two prequels to the original, followed by a sequel to the second film, and this is a sequel to that (although it’s mostly standalone). Got it? The only thing that links all six films is the lore conceiving of a purgatorial dimension known as “The Further”, where (mostly) evil demons/spirits/whatever lurk with the intent of returning to the living to create chaos. Well, that and the presence of beloved character actor Lin Shaye as medium Elise Rainier, who acts as a gatekeeper to the access points between the dimensions, both when she was alive and now that she’s dead! It’s been directed and written by Jacob Chase, who is best known for Come Play, the boogeyman film from 2020. In development since May 2024, it’s had its release date bumped a few times (as have most films these days), but is now out and haunting UK and US screens on the same date. Welcome to the Further adventures of…

… Gemma Hall, who is introduced in 1999 as a young girl (Charli Penton, soon to be seen in Wolf Creek: Legacy) with a troubled childhood. After witnessing a disturbing episode with her mentally unwell mother, the narrative jumps 20 years to the present, where Gemma (Amelia Eve, best known to genre fans for The Haunting of Bly Manor) is now a dental practitioner and a single mother to Maya (an excellent turn by relative newcomer Island Austin). Perhaps unwisely, she still lives in the same house that she was unhappily brought up in, but hey… the housing market now, right? A pragmatic and loving person, with a mellow new Police boyfriend in tow (Brandon Perea as Nick), everything seems stable in her life. That is until she starts to encounter 3 creepy old codgers, both in real life and in nightmarish forms in her dreams. After several harrowing ‘dreams’, she encounters Elise Rainier (Shay, of course) in what is now revealed to her as the Further. Elise reveals that she is not only a ‘traveller’ to the realm, but also a ‘courier’, which means she can bring objects and entities from one dimension to the other. And there’s a creepy new villain on the playing field that would love to use this ability… and he’s not alone.

To call some of the reactions to I: OOF ‘mixed’ is probably an understatement. There are some incredibly vitriolic reviews with some very low ratings. But then again, some out there are very positive about it and praise it as the best entry since the first one. As ever, the ‘truth’ (on a purely personal perspective) is pretty much in the middle. Is it a startlingly and wholly original take on the premise, shooting the franchise to new heights? No. Is it a boring and lazy cash-in on the Insidious mythology with no surprises and lacklustre scares? Also, no. Let’s be frank here. You should know what to expect when you see an Insidious film. Long atmospheric build-ups to intense jump scares (with orchestral ‘bangs’) and ‘Where’s Wally’ scenes where ghoulish figures lurk in the background. And of course, a nonsensical plot with an earnest exposition dump from Shaye. Suffice to say, this entry definitely knows its assignment and pretty much hits the bullseye for the most part. But to its credit, it throws in a few new things (and characters) into the mix, all of which help to keep it entertaining for the fans and make the 1h 46m time just fly by.

Whilst the Lambert family were a focal point of 3 of the entries, it was entirely the right choice to keep them out of this one (and any future instalments if they happen). Instead, the introduction of Gemma (and Maya) is managed nicely, especially given the disturbing first scene and the connotations it has for all involved. Eve is very good here and handles all the scary and emotional beats well, making her an easy character to root for. Like a lot of horrors these days (even the studio franchises), there are underlying themes, with the old favourites of ‘trauma’ and ‘mental health’ rearing their heads. Luckily these aren’t played off lightly and lead to neat narrative twists in the later stages. Perhaps most effective is the fear that Gemma has of sliding into her own mental instability like her mother and alienating her daughter. It helps that Eve is so good and that Austin rises to the occasion, being believable as the scared youngster and also as the conflicted daughter. A nice performance that manages to avoid any cloying or annoying tropes.

You’re here for the bombastic scares though, aren't you? Yup, those are present and correct, and some are pretty damned good. Whilst glimpsed in the trailers, the ‘pillow-fort’ 5-minute sequence is actually a surprisingly great assault on the senses. It is far, far better than you would expect. And, yes, Gemma does the realistic thing and tries to kick her way out of it. But prepare for an intense, and oddly David-Lynchian, moment of surreal horror as heads peek around corners and grotty spectres chase down the protagonist. Genuinely unsettling and with a nice ‘punchline’. And whilst a lot of the old tropes (and some VERY familiar faces) pop up consistently, at least there has been some attempt to inject some new elements into the plot threads and lore. Having Gemma as a ‘courier’ and being able to shift things between planes is a nice detail, even if it does feel like it’s a bit of a ripoff from the original Nightmare on Elm Street. The ‘Acolytes’ are as creepy as hell, looking like aged extras who have wandered in from a Smile movie, with the creepiest ‘old guy’ since Reverend Kane in the Poltergeist sequels. And the new Big Bad (Sam Spruell as Cyrus) is an effective menace, a dead cult leader who is strong enough to lead past characters and influence some of his still-living followers. He also has a voice that sounds like Aaron Eckhart, if he gargled gravel for a week.

There’s also a central premise that opens up the goalposts and makes for an intriguing hook, elevating it beyond a family crisis and into a much wider menace. We won’t spoil it, but think of a zombie apocalypse, only more spectral. It’s one of several nice ideas. But perhaps the most skin-crawling moments are… wait for it… the excruciating scenes of bad oral hygiene! The terror! In all seriousness, Gemma’s profession allows for horrible close-ups of decaying gums and rotting teeth! It’s a laughable excuse to provide PG-rated gruesomeness, but you should have seen the crowd recoil at our screening! As far as creepiness and intensity go, it stays firmly within the PG-13 levels (15 in the UK) and avoids full-on blood spatter or bodily wounds. Although it has to be said that the scenes where Gemma and Maya are physically threatened, restrained, and punished (along with some other characters) are still pretty full-on.

So that’s all positive stuff, and things mostly unmentioned by the negative reviews. But it has to be said that, whilst in terms of quality and content it’s better than the last couple of entries, it is still well within the expected confines of the franchise. The narrative beats, plot structure, and even the soundtrack are all very much like all the other movies. It will actually work for newbies as a good ‘jumping-on' point, but aficionados will get a kick out of the references to the past movies. However, even with the new characters and concepts, this isn’t anything startingly different to what has gone on before. It doesn’t help that it’s also possibly the ‘silliest’ film in the franchise, with some of the worst dialogue and a collection of exposition dumps that hurt the ears. You can’t help smirking when a character starts a long monologue with the opening gambit of: “Right. First of all, he’s going to snatch your astral body from the material plane…) and then gets much goofier from there. And whilst the denouement has to be lauded for its audaciousness and final image, it makes the climax of the original Poltergeist feel like an HBO documentary.

Whilst the running time is tight, and there are occasionally neat plot developments, the ‘rules of the game’ remain as vague as before. If a ‘demon’ comes into the land of the living, can they be killed again? If so, how? And just where do the ‘couriers’ get this new power from? Want answers? Not here. But having picked those plot holes open and emphasised some of the negative aspects, you can’t fault I: OOF for what it brings to the table. It’s another studio horror that some people might eye-roll at and cry for more original horror, but it does what it sets out to do. Provide some chills, some jump scares, some likeable characters, and safe Saturday night horror that you can enjoy without guilt. There’s enough here to warrant ‘Further’ (heh) entries in the franchise, although that will depend on the financial reception of this one. We’ll just close by saying that it played to a packed Saturday night crowd at our screening and, get this, it got a ripple of applause when it ended, and that barely ever happens at our cinemas! It won’t break any records, but you can safely say ‘job done’ with this franchise extension. Worst of the franchise? Get Outta Here!