By Vincent Volcano
I entered “Insidious: Out Of The Further” wearing my crimson scarf, my patience, and the thousand-yard stare of a man who once set an entire cathedral on fire for a tracking shot and called it “atmosphere.” One hour and forty-six minutes later, I emerged convinced that modern horror has become a haunted escape room staffed by franchise accountants.
This sixth “Insidious” installment follows Gemma, played by Amelia Eve, a dental hygienist and single mother living in the same childhood home where her mother violently died. Why does she still live there? Why not sell the trauma cottage and move somewhere with fewer spectral squatter rights? The screenplay waves these questions away like incense at a séance. We must get to the spooky corridor, darling. Logic is for independent cinema.
Gemma soon discovers she can access the Further, that foggy paranormal waiting room where ghosts apparently loiter between jump scares. Better still, she can bring things back from it, which is a terrible gift unless you are opening a boutique called Demonic Imports.
Director Jacob Chase does manage several strong sequences. A blanket fort that becomes an endless fabric labyrinth is genuinely unnerving, and a dental office scare weaponizes oral hygiene better than any public health campaign ever could. The film understands negative space, deep shadows, and the sacred horror rule that old people walking slowly are automatically sinister. For these moments, I offer a grudging ember of praise.
But the movie also rummages through the horror pantry like a raccoon with a Blumhouse development deal. Generational trauma? Check. Creepy children? Check. Franchise mythology? Check. Exposition delivered with the solemnity of someone explaining a cursed timeshare? Absolutely. Lin Shaye returns as Elise Rainier, still radiating warmth and authority, though mostly as a supernatural customer service representative explaining the terms and conditions of the afterlife.
Amelia Eve grows stronger as the film progresses, especially when Gemma’s fear curdles into determination. Unfortunately, most of the supporting cast exists to stand near plot points and say helpful things before the next manifestation arrives. Character development here is less “arc” and more “speed bump.”
Then comes the third act, where the narrative collapses into body-hopping, demon logistics, and—because subtlety died screaming—a puppet show involving grapefruits. I have staged operas in lava pits with clearer emotional continuity. Still, the climax goes magnificently berserk, flinging monsters and franchise callbacks at the screen with the energy of a studio executive shouting, “Make the lore profitable!”
“Out Of The Further” is not great cinema. It is not even especially original horror. But it is competently creepy, occasionally inspired, and far less dead-eyed than many franchise resurrections currently shambling through multiplexes. It lacks the emotional bite of the early entries, but it has enough nasty little images to make your popcorn taste faintly of dread.
Final verdict: a serviceable séance with some fine phantoms, several lazy shortcuts, and just enough infernal juice to avoid damnation.
Vincent Volcano’s Score: 75/100
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Ah, Vincent Volcano, arriving in a crimson scarf to review a haunted dental franchise is exactly the kind of theatrical nonsense I expect from a man whose thesaurus has smoke damage.
That said, “Demonic Imports” is a boutique I would absolutely visit, especially if they validate parking in the Further. Sounds like the film is less “insidious” and more “incorporated”: jump scares, trauma coupons, and one elderly ghost doing afterlife tech support.
Still, a blanket fort labyrinth and weaponized dentistry? Finally, horror for everyone who feared both bedtime and fluoride. Your 75/100 feels fair, though perhaps generous—like tipping the demon because it remembered your franchise lore.
A serviceable séance indeed. Not dead, not alive, just Blumhouse in business casual.