Related Article: Actor and Director Patrick Wilson Talks ‘Insidious: The Red Door’

Initial Thoughts

Gemma (Amelia Eve) in ScreenGems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

We initially lost count of how many ‘Insidious’ movies exist, thinking that this was the fifth one when in fact it’s the sixth. But that only points up how unmemorable some of them have been. The first two, directed by James Wan and starring Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne as a couple whose family is besieged by evil spirits from the ghostly realm known as the Further, were frightening, frenetic good fun, like an amped-up ‘Poltergeist.’

But the next two entries got into dull prequel territory, and 2023’s ‘Insidious: The Red Door’ wrapped up the Wilson/Byrne story in rather perfunctory fashion. ‘Out Of The Further’ is a standalone tale, more or less, and director Jacob Chase, new to the franchise, expands the mythology a bit and delivers some deliciously creepy sequences and monsters, while channeling a whole lot of other horror movies old and new. It’s serviceable and even wild, even if it lacks the identity of the early outings.

Story and Direction

Gemma (Amelia Eve) in ScreenGems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As ‘Out Of The Further’ opens in 1999, as we see a little girl watch in horror while her mother – who’s either mentally ill, addicted to drugs, or both – violently takes her own life. Twenty years later, that poor little girl grows up to be Gemma (Amelia Eve), a dental hygienist who’s now raising a nine-year-old daughter of her own, Maya (Island Austin), and seems to be doing a better job of it – even though they’re living in that same house, which Gemma inherited.

Who took care of Gemma in the interim (there’s barely a mention of a dad or other family) and why she stayed in that ghastly house (it’s in a nice neighborhood – she could have sold the damn thing and bought elsewhere) are two aspects of the story that are simply skipped over to get to the good stuff. And we know what that is: Gemma soon begins to have terrifying, dreamlike experiences while both awake and asleep, the apparitions appearing in the house as unsettling as the three decrepit old people who walk up and down the block outside.

In one white-knuckle sequence, she thinks her daughter is hiding in a fort made out of blankets and couch cushions. Gemma playfully crawls inside – and finds herself in a labyrinth of fabric-covered walls that stretches impossibly into the distance. The scene channels some of that ‘Backrooms’ energy (not to mention an old Joe Hill short story, ‘Voluntary Committal’) and is one of director and screenwriter Jacob Chase’s (‘Come Play’) best moments.

(L to R) Amelia Eve and Director Jacob Chase on the set of Screen Gems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

With the help of a psychic tattoo artist who is able to summon the spirit of franchise mainstay Elise Rainier (a still game Lin Shaye), we learn to no one’s surprise that Gemma is being haunted by the Further, the ‘void between this world and the next’ where restless, troubled, and malevolent spirits reside. But there’s a new wrinkle: Gemma is apparently gifted with the ability to bring things out of the Further into the real world, and there are beings in that domain who are eager to exploit that.

The ‘Insidious’ franchise has always been about generational trauma (in fact, the series may have kicked off the genre’s embrace of those themes in the last decade or so, for better or worse) and ‘Out Of The Further’ is no different. But the movie’s parallel mother-daughter relationships aren’t as emotionally involving as that of the Lambert family in the first two movies, leaving the film to rise or fall on its horror elements.

Acolytes from Screen Gems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

At least those mostly succeed; in addition to that couch scene, there’s a ghastly confrontation in Gemma’s dental office as well as the standard (yet still chilling) use of deep shadows, negative space, silence, and scary old people. Yet we wonder if the script or movie went through changes or reshoots in response to other recent horror outings, as certain moments made us think of ‘Weapons’ and ‘Bring Her Back,’ while later scenes call up memories of ‘The Sentinel’ and Lucio Fulci’s ‘Zombie.’

And although the narrative begins to unravel in the third act (let’s just say it involves a lot of body-hopping and a bizarre expository sequence done as a puppet show with grapefruits) it’s still an all-out horror assault as Gemma faces the full wrath of the Further and its denizens, a number of which you’ll recognize from previous entries. The movie never quite recovers from the story’s collapse, but it does go out swinging (stay for the credits).

Cast and Performances

(L to R) Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and Gemma (Amelia Eve) in ScreenGems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Amelia Eve starts out kind of lightweight as Gemma, but both she and the character become more impressive as the film goes on, with Eve effectively portraying both Gemma’s absolute terror (at both the supernatural happenings and the thought of becoming like her mother) as well as her eventual conviction to stand up to the horrors of the Further.

With the exception of Lin Shaye’s comforting (if mostly expository) presence and gravitas, the rest of the cast is basically functional. There’s no real character development, with Perea’s Nick and Richardson-Sellers’ Clare mainly there to support the story at key moments. Laura Gordon stands out a bit as Gemma’s anguished mother, but even she has little to do except express her inner torment.

Final Thoughts

Cyrus (Sam Spruell) in Screen Gems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

While missing the family dynamic of the clan at the heart of most of the other ‘Insidious’ entries, and tangling itself in a knotty narrative that falls apart in the third act, ‘Out Of The Further’ nevertheless provides a pretty gnarly good time, with some genuine scares, a few moments that had us squirming in our seat, and that go-for-broke climax.

That the keepers of the franchise (James Wan, Leigh Whannell, Oren Peli, and the rest of the Blumhouse/Atomic Monster team) still manage to wring some eerie material out of this fairly basic mythology is impressive, but whether that warrants a seventh entry taking the story even, uh, further (should this one get the job done at the box office) is a legitimate question.

‘Insidious: Out Of The Further’ receives a score of 75 out of 100.

Doll Girl (Taylor Bogrand) in Screen Gems’ ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’. © 2026 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What is the plot of ‘Insidious: Out Of The Further’?

Gemma, a young mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, discovers she can travel into the realm of lost souls known as The Further. When something evil comes after her, Gemma discovers an ability that changes everything: she doesn’t just enter The Further, she can bring what lives there back to the real world. Once the demons realize her power, our world becomes their playground.

Who is in the cast of ‘Insidious: Out Of The Further’?

• Amelia Eve as Gemma
• Brandon Perea as Nick
• Lin Shaye as Elise Rainier
• Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Clare
• Sam Spruell as Cyrus Lam
• Island Austin as Maya
• Laura Gordon as Ingrid
• Joseph Lopez as Lester

‘Insidious: Out of the Further’ opens in theaters on August 21st.

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