Straight Outta The Further

Insidious has always been a fairly low tier horror franchise. The Conjuring's budget cousin, if you will. If you look at it that way then Insidious: Out of the Further is actually fairly good. It's certainly the most entertaining the series has been since the first instalment.

Like that first breakout hit from back in 2010, Out of the Further has a much stronger first half than it does second. We start with a fairly harrowing scene of a young girl named Gemma witnessing the grisly death of her erratically behaving mother. We then fast forward a couple of decades to find the adult Gemma working as a dentist while raising a young girl of her own, yet still living in her childhood home. Spooky things begin to happen as some unfriendly OAPs start stalking the neighbourhood and Gemma tries to keep her daughter safe while worrying she is becoming like her mother. In typical Insidious fashion, things become more silly than scary as the plot is revealed and we build towards a ludicrously overblown finale.

The early movie scares are some of the best work the franchise has ever done. Director Jacob Chase knows when to drop a quick cut scare and, crucially, when to let the camera linger. A segment inside a seemingly never ending pillow fort is a particular highlight, blending a sense of claustrophobia with scary faces in the distance and a "he's behind you" jump. Like its predecessors, Out of the Further doesn't go in for any gore but it has a dental examination scene that is as disgusting as any amount of blood. The main character being a mother worried about her child while also reckoning with her past relationship with her own parent gives the narrative a little pathos, though the script doesn't really go anywhere with the themes.

What it does instead is layer on a story that is as ridiculous as it is formulaic. It does give us a lightly entertaining antagonist but the minute Lin Shaye appears from beyond the grave (dying in the first film has proved no barrier to being a series mainstay) to unload the exposition gun, the scares melt away. This would be less of a problem if the film switched up the tone a bit but it continues to take itself oh so seriously. Lead actress Amelia Eve is game enough but is eventually overwhelmed by po-faced dialogue and stupid decision making by her character.

There is some stuff in there for series diehards, with appearances from some of the previous movies' more well know spooks and more nonsense lore about "the further" and people who can travel there. There's also a nod to the franchise's future too, with the introduction of a new medium character making it clear the producers intend to keep their low cost cash calf going. Do we need any more of these films? No. But then again, we didn't need any of the previous sequels either and given that Out of the Further is actually an improvement on any of them, maybe another instalment wouldn't be the worst thing foisted on the moviegoing public.

6 toothy gas huffers out of 10

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