Going Even Further: Insidious: Out of the Further (2026) Review

Director: Jacob Chase

Notable Cast: Amelia Eve, Island Austin, Brandon Perea, Lin Shaye, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Sam Spruell, Joseph Lopez, Robina Beard, Susan Gray, Laura Gordon, Charli Pent 

 

If I’m being honest, there hasn’t been an Insidious movie that I didn’t like to some extent. Sure, I feel like most sequels have mixed results when it comes to balancing lore-building, genuine jump scares, and trying to interject some familial dramatic lessons, but they've all worked for me overall. Even when the series returned to the original family in the fifth installment, Insidious: The Red Door, it still had intriguing elements that made it really enjoyable for me. What the hell, why not go back to the father and son dynamic of the original film for a sort of legacy sequel in the middle of the series? I’ll take another trip into the Further with y’all. 

 

For this sixth entry, Insidious: Out of the Further, the series is absolutely looking to find what its next era is going to be about. If the first, second, and fifth entries focused on the Lambert family, and the third and fourth ones acted as prequels focusing on the medium Elise, played by the incredible Lin Shaye, maybe it was about time the series introduced some new characters and their own lore within the world of Insidious. 

 

Thus, Out of the Further focuses on the Hall Family and how their familial lineage has ties to the purgatorial ghost realm, The Further. Jacob Chase, who serves as the writer and director, is aiming to establish new lore and new villains within the world while still maintaining the aspects of the series that fans have come to love - brilliantly laid tension and jump scares, monstrous creatures from the realm of death, and family-focused emotional merits. In those ways, Out of the Further is absolutely in line with the rest of the franchise. 

 

Yet, it’s notable that Chase takes some wild swings here, particularly in establishing new rules and types of people who can travel into The Further. While the first films dealt with “travelers,” people who had the ability to astral project out of their bodies and explore this void like mist-laden Further, Out of the Further is introducing the next step - people who can bring things from the Further back into the real world. It follows Gemma, a single mom and dental hygienist extraordinaire, as she discovers her innate powers to drift into the Further begin to awaken while she sleeps. This, naturally, attracts the attention of a monstrous soul who has promised other beings that he would bring them back to the world of the living. With the help of a new medium, her police officer boyfriend, and the series’ icon Elise, Gemma will have to focus her powers to save her daughter, herself, and maybe learn a little more about the tragic end of her own mother. 

 

Given that previous entries in the franchise have added new ‘dimensions’ to the Further that have been treated with, let’s say, lackadaisical awareness, it was nice to see this film put rules around the idea at its core. Considering it’s similar to what Nancy is able to do in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, it’s not like it's a huge stretch, but there’s a lot of plot around her abilities that make it feel like they are something of a game changer for the series. While so much of the previous films was about venturing into the Further to find someone and simply survive, it’s refreshing that the protagonist here has more ‘power.’ Sure, the film ultimately leans into its survival elements fairly often, but the idea that someone can do more than just exist in this otherworld is fun, and Chase plays it up a lot as the film moves from the basic blueprint into newer territories. 

 

One issue is that the film takes its sweet, sweet time unveiling all its pieces for the finale. Because it’s introducing a lot of new concepts, including how the villain of the film, Cyrus, comes in completely blindfolded, with long hair, and claw jewelry to try and stand with other recurring villains in this film series, and has Acolytes in the real world that can traverse into the Further to assist him, it doesn’t want to alienate its audience too quickly. Particularly if they came with certain expectations. So, its first half plays it fairly safe, sticking to the style of the series before really launching into its new arenas for its final act. 

 

Not that it makes the first half disappointing. Far from it. The Insidious franchise has always grabbed some intriguing artists to write and direct its various entries, and Chase pulls off some incredible scare sequences. After a disturbing opening sequence that taps into the familial disharmony and themes Insidious films are known for, it quickly lays the groundwork for the ghostly hauntings and bigger scares. An early sequence where Gemma finds herself in a liminal, unending space within a pillow fort might be one of my favorite scare sequences of the franchise and for the entire year. Tense, surprising, and it uses its new Acolyte characters to maximum effect. Chase does this throughout the film, including a dental appointment that was teased in the trailer, and for my money, Out of the Further is worth seeing just for these, even if you don’t buy into the entire new plot.  

 

Stylistically, Chase’s previous film, Come Play, set him up to be perfect for this series, and he ably fits into the visual mold quite well. At times, I still want the series to embrace the visual difference between the two worlds - boosting color for the real world to contrast the desaturation of the Further - but Out of the Further does use it quite well here. The film succeeds best in the transitions between the two worlds, as it has a knack for folding them together, playing on the dream-like elements of falling asleep and not realizing it. Without getting too much into spoilers, the finale features a lot of jumping between the two realms, and the film uses camera movements to really give the audience that sense of vertigo when characters bounce between the two, building up a sense of dizzying tension that pops wonderfully to create the feeling of a chase without a lot of footing. It’s pretty snazzy even if it occasionally doesn’t make the most sense from a narrative or plot standpoint. 

 

To be fair, though, it's noticeable that Out of the Further wants to recreate what worked before, and it can feel forced. Gemma’s boyfriend, as necessary as he might be for the tiering of the final standoff against Cyrus’ evil plan, is fairly underwritten and serves more as a trope-like plot progression than as a character that builds up the bigger themes around family. The same goes for the new medium Clare, a tattoo artist played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who mostly serves as Elise’s voice and hands in the real world, then as her true replacement in the series, as she feels intended to be. It’s one of the reasons that, despite how much I enjoyed Out of the Further, it doesn’t quite hit the heights as some of the other Insidious films. There just doesn’t seem to be as much oomph in its characters and their interactions to solidify the messages behind the style and scares and elevate it to that next level. 

 

Still, despite its lukewarm reception from critics, fans, and the box office, Insidious: Out of the Further isn't the series slump it might seem from the outside. There’s a lot to love in the film, especially its intent to move the franchise forward rather than rehash the same ideas and characters that have seemingly run their course in the five films before. There’s a lot of great style in its scares, some impeccably built sequences, and the new lore adds a lot of entertainment value and potential for the future. The writing remains fairly patchy in developing those new characters or relationships to lay the most solid foundation for its ideas, but it still manages to be a helluva scare factory in its spooks and creeps. 

 

For my money, the Insidious franchise has always been best enjoyed with a side of schlock and a grain of salt to spare, and Insidious: Out of the Further still packs some solid ideas and scares into the mix to make it worthy of the franchise. Here’s to hoping the audience finds it on home video so we can explore a few more entries in this new part of the Further. 

 

Written By Matt Malpica Reifschneider