Insidious: Out of the Further made me squirm with chilling sequel

Is it possible for Insidious to still be scary in 2026? 

After five films, 16 years and a very different horror climate, you’d assume that the long-running franchise would have run out of steam. However, its latest sequel, Insidious: Out of the Further, ushers in a new era and yes, it’s possibly the most chilling the series has been in years. 

That is coming from someone who didn’t exactly go in with the highest of expectations, honestly. I’ve long been a huge fan of the Insidious world, but it did start to feel like the past couple of films had lost the sinister edge of the early films. 

Well, director Jacob Chase – best known for his 2020 horror Come Play – is now at the helm and has taken the story in a whole new direction for its sixth installment.

After reprising their roles in the 2023 sequel The Red Door, Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne are sitting this one out and handing the baton to a largely new crew.

Amelia Eve stars as Gemma, a single mother haunted by her past after discovering she can enter the Further. Sounds much like the previous five movies until you realise that Gemma can bring what she discovers in the Further straight back into the real world. 

And yes, it provides for some of the most unsettling scenes. If you thought a trip to the dentist was terrifying for you, spare a thought for hygienist Gemma, who’s forced to pull what feels like a metre of hair from her patient’s gums while he simultaneously grows another set of gnashers. Then, there’s the fact she’s being spied on by a triplet of creepy, very starey elderly neighbours with menacing smiles. 

Until now, the Further – also known as the purgatorial realm of lost souls – has largely been separate from the real world. However, Gemma encountering them in very real scenarios in her everyday life moves the lore of Insidious into a place that feels fresh. 

And it’s necessary. 

With the Lamberts’ story closing after five chapters, ushering in a new cast now is the perfect time to shake the table with new rules. To an extent, Out of the Further is very self-aware, with director Chase and writer James Wan, who created the franchise, realising that at this point, the rules might have gotten a little muddled and blurred. 

So, what better way to educate Gemma and her charming police officer boyfriend Nick (Brandon Perea) about the Further with illustrations of the demons on grapefruits? What serves as a moment of comic relief is really a much-needed witty tool to refresh the audience’s memory. 

However, where Insidious succeeds in its first half with genuine scares – sofa cushions have never made me feel more claustrophobic – it meanders into a slightly overdone second half. Its grand finale with Gemma confronting the Further acolytes had some good jump scares, but sometimes, less is more. 

I will say, the casting choices were pretty perfect, with Eve and Perea fine choices to carry the baton from Wilson and Byrne as our new on-screen couple. It’s easy to root for them, and where Eve serves as the emotional drive behind the story, Perea offers complimentary light relief in those tense moments, particularly when it comes to his relationship with Gemma’s young daughter. 

And fortunately, the series hasn’t lost its true anchor in the form of formidable paranormal expert Elise (Lin Shaye). She is the real connector between each instalment and, despite her character dying in the first film, always finds a way to showcase the best of humanity against the supernatural. Plus, it’s always great to see her kick ass in The Further. 

However, when it comes to where Out of the Further sits in the current landscape, and where this instalment ranks in the entire franchise, they are very different perspectives.

You’ll have an incredibly fun time watching this and it does have some of the best scares in the film series that feel different to what we’ve seen so far, albeit nothing can quite top the original. But when you consider the originality of some of the great horrors we’ve seen this year, Out of the Further doesn’t necessarily offer anything different in the grand scheme of things.

That’s not necessarily a terrible thing though if you want to have a good scare and an entertaining watch – after six films, you couldn’t possibly expect anything more.