Movie Review: INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: August 21st, 2026 / 05:47 AM

INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER | ©2026 Sony

Rating: PG-13
Stars: Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea, Lin Shaye, Island Austin, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Sam Spruell, Laura Gordon, Charli Penton
Writer: Jacob Chase, story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Jacob Chase, based on characters created by Leigh Whannell
Director: Jacob Chase
Distributor: Sony/Screen Gems
Release Date: August 21, 2026

The first INSIDIOUS film, released in 2010, directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell, was legitimately scary. (This reviewer has vivid memories of her screening companion scrunching twenty pages of press notes into a single sweaty wad.)

INSIDIOUS introduced us to Travelers, people who – often unknowingly – could astral-project themselves into the realm of the Further, a kind of limbo where souls of the unconscious and souls of the dead mingled with actual demons. Both the dead and the demons attempt to possess Travelers in the hopes of reaching the living world.

2013’s INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 is a direct, retcon-filled sequel to the original. 2015’s INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 is a prequel, set before the first two films. 2018’s INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY takes place after CHAPTER 3, but before 1 and 2. 2023’s INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR returns to the main characters from 1 and 2.

Got all that? It’s okay if you don’t, because while the sixth film in the franchise, the new INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER, returns to the mythology of the first (getting rid of the retcon) and retains one continuing character, it explains everything we need to know as we need to know it.

A prologue set in 1999 Pittsburgh gives us serious little girl Gemma (Charli Penton), whose mother Ingrid (Laura Gordon) appears to be suffering from substance abuse. Then Ingrid commits suicide in a particularly horrible manner, leaving Gemma traumatized.

Twenty years later, Gemma (now played by Amelia Eve) is a dental hygienist with a little girl of her own, bright nine-year-old Maya (Island Austin). They still live in the nice, large house where Gemma went through her crisis. When Gemma’s boyfriend, police officer Nick (Brandon Perea), asks why she doesn’t sell, she insists she’s gotten over any bad memories and it makes financial sense to stay.

But then Gemma starts having nightmares that cause her to wake up screaming. This alarms and dismays Maya.

Gemma also notices a trio of silent, unnerving-looking people who keep walking the block where she and Maya live. Everyone can see them, so we know these folks are real and alive, but they become more menacing as the days go by. And then …

Director/screenwriter Jacob Chase, working from a story he and David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick crafted, based on the characters created by Leigh Whannell, demonstrates that he knows how to pace and stage a sequence for maximum audience apprehension. Even when we have a pretty accurate notion of what is likely coming, darkness and confined spaces (not to mention a dentist’s chair) are potent sources of fear.

Eve, so compelling in THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, ably conveys the qualities necessary for Gemma: maternal tenderness and ferocity, buffeted by confusion and terror. Austin, as Maya, and Penton, as the younger Gemma, are both persuasive, and Perea and Maisie Richardson-Sellers supply staunch support. Sam Spruell is properly intimidating as an uncommonly malicious ghost.

Since Lin Shaye is prominent in the credits, and she’s appeared as Elise Rainer in all the previous INSIDIOUS films, it’s not a spoiler to say she shows up here as well. As always, Shaye is excellent as a source of warmth and compassionate exposition, as well as contributing a bit of derring-do.

Those who have seen multiple INSIDIOUS films will feel things start to jell into a familiar if gorier than usual pattern in the third act. There’s nothing wrong with this, per se, as it doesn’t let us down; it just would have been nice to have one more really frightening segment.

There’s also some question about how the filmmakers have selected certain dates. While the original INSIDIOUS was released in 2010, INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER sets that in 2011. Placing the main action of INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER “twenty years later” than its 1999 opening puts it in 2019 rather than the present, with a reference to the previous INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR, released in 2023, as happening a few weeks before the bulk of the new film. Again, it’s not a big deal, but it’s puzzling.

Meanwhile, while INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER won’t blow anyone’s mind conceptually, but at its best, it is marvelously creepy.

Side note (for those especially phobic on the subject): INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER will probably discourage many impressionable souls from a career in dentistry. The good news is, if they can handle this movie and still go into the dental field, they’ll be unstoppable.

Those who want a little extra should stick around for a mid-credits scene.

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