By Ben Wright (@Iamzavagno | www.xgeeks.co.uk)
This review is spoiler-free.
For anyone coming here looking for a review trashing Insidious: Out of the Further, this isn’t the place for you. Insidious is one of my favourite horror franchises of all time, and I’m deeply invested in this entire series. If you jumped over to my Letterboxd account, you’ll see I’ve never given an Insidious movie anything below four stars. That doesn’t mean I’m going to bury my head in the sand though, I’ll be talking about what didn’t work just as much as what did. I’m also not going to claim these movies are the absolute peak of horror, they aren’t. Horror is subjective, and what works for one person might completely miss for someone else. For me, Insidious just works.
The trend of being edgy, rage-baiting and trashing everything simply for the sake of it isn’t how we work here at X-Geeks. There’s enough hate and rage bait online already, so if we genuinely don’t like something, we’d rather just be honest about it than manufacture outrage for clicks. With that said, grab your blanket, close your eyes, grab your lantern and follow my voice as we head into Insidious: Out of the Further.
In terms of where it would stand alongside some of the bigger horror releases of the year, I don’t think it quite reaches the heights of Obsession or Backrooms. I’d put it closer to Evil Dead Burn, another established franchise that knows exactly what its audience is coming to see, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s not the strongest horror movie I’ve seen this year, but it’s certainly not the weakest either, it happily sits somewhere in the middle, and I’m perfectly fine with that.
The first act does a great job building the tension, and director Jacob Chase really knows how to use the camera to help tell the story. It’s dark, moody and atmospheric, and the scares feel earned rather than constantly thrown at you. That’s not to say there aren’t some generic jump scares in here, because there absolutely are, but at least the film is trying to do something creative with some of them, and I think that should be applauded. The pillow fort scene is probably the best example. We saw quite a bit of it in the trailer, and you could easily assume it’s going to be a quick little sequence designed to get a few scares before moving on, but thankfully that’s not what happens. The scene is given time to breathe, allowing the tension to build rather than rushing towards the payoff, and for me it actually triggered something from my childhood. There’s something about being a kid, sitting in the dark and convincing yourself that the smallest noise could be something coming to get you, and I had a proper moment of panic watching this scene, which gave it a much more visceral reaction for me. It’s filmed incredibly well, and I think Jacob Chase has done a fantastic job of bringing his vision to the screen.
There are also plenty of Easter eggs scattered throughout the movie, some subtle and some really aren’t, but long-time fans should feel rewarded without it ever becoming a case of the film constantly winking at the audience. Ironically though, this is also connected to my biggest criticism, as the middle act takes a pretty big dip. I wasn’t bored, but there is a lot of exposition, and it feels almost like a soft reboot in places, as though the film is stopping to explain the franchise mythology to someone who has never watched an Insidious movie before. I understand why. It’s been 15 years since the original Insidious, and there’s obviously going to be an entire generation of viewers discovering this franchise for the first time, so you need to make sure they know what’s going on. But for someone like me, who has spent years following this mythology, I didn’t really need to be drowned in exposition.
Thankfully, the film recovers from that middle-act dip and goes all out for a frantic and genuinely scary finale. There’s a particular table scene that I thought was executed incredibly well, and once again it highlights the director’s eye for creating tension. The camera work and longer shots allow the scenes to breathe rather than cutting away constantly, and that makes the tension feel much more organic. It’s one of those things I really appreciated throughout the movie, because Jacob Chase clearly understands that sometimes the best thing you can do with a scare is simply let the camera sit there and allow the audience to become uncomfortable.
The score is another big positive. Joseph Bishara delivers exactly what you’d expect from him at this point, and given his long-standing collaborations with James Wan and Leigh Whannell, there’s a certain expectation that he’s going to deliver the goods, and thankfully he does. Aside from that absolutely insane, guttural opening violin wail, the score does a fantastic job of building the tension and adding to the atmosphere without constantly screaming at you that you’re supposed to be scared.
The cast are also really good, with Amelia Eve fantastic as Gemma and carrying the movie really well. Her chemistry with her on-screen daughter, Island Austin, feels authentic, and you genuinely buy into the bond between them, while Brandon Perea and Maisie Richardson-Sellers are also great in their supporting roles and add plenty to the story. And then there’s Lin Shaye, who honestly just makes this movie. Every time she’s on screen, she’s an absolute powerhouse. There’s a presence she brings to this franchise that very few performers could replicate, and even when she’s working with relatively little, she manages to completely command the scene. It’s one of those performances where you find yourself waiting for her to come back on screen because you know she’s going to bring something to it. Lin Shaye is Insidious, it’s as simple as that.
Ultimately, Insidious: Out of the Further isn’t going to reinvent horror, and I don’t think it needs to. It knows exactly what it wants to be, delivering some genuinely effective scares, great camera work, a fantastic score and enough nods to the wider franchise to keep long-time fans happy. The middle act could definitely have done with less exposition, but once the film gets going again, it delivers a finale that reminded me why I love this franchise in the first place. If you’re looking for a groundbreaking horror movie, this probably isn’t it, but if you’re an Insidious fan looking for another creepy and atmospheric addition to the franchise, there’s plenty here to enjoy. It might not be the scariest film I’ve seen this year, but it’s another solid entry into a franchise that continues to work its particular brand of supernatural horror on me.
Great camera work, strong tension and some genuinely creepy moments make Insidious: Out of the Further another solid entry in the franchise. The middle act stumbles a little under the weight of its exposition, but thankfully the film finds its rhythm again and builds towards a frantic and genuinely satisfying finale. And, as always, Lin Shaye is an absolute powerhouse who continues to bring so much to the franchise.
