INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Jacob Chase
Stars: Amelia Eve, Island Austin, Lin Shaye, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Brandon Perea, Sam Spruell, Charli Penton, Joseph Lopez, Laura Gordon, Andy McPhee, Julie Nihill, Joseph Bishara.
Insidious: Out Of The Further is the sixth film in the successful scary movie franchise created in 2010 by Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannell, better known for their Saw torture porn franchise and The Conjuring series. The franchise has grossed over $740 million. According to the producers, the further is described as a dark void between this world and the next, a world populated by the undead, but the rules that govern it seem somewhat fluid.
The first five film followed the Lambert family and their tribulations in dealing with the further and supernatural forces, but here incoming director Jacob Chase (Come Play, etc) and co-writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (Aquaman and its sequel, etc) have decided to take the franchise in a slightly different direction. The film deals with themes of childhood trauma, mental illness, family, the supernatural, and the impact of the past on the present. However, the red door that featured so prominently in the previous instalment plays a prominent role here.
We meet dentist Gemma Hall (played by Amelia Eve, from the Netflix series The Haunting Of Bly Manor, etc), a single mother who is raising her nine-year-old daughter Maya (Island Austin). She still lives in the house that she used to share with her own mother, a house that contains memories of her mother’s troubled mental struggles and her suicide. It seems her mother was being haunted by a blindfolded demon known as Cyrus (played by Sam Spruell, from H Is For Hawk,etc). Gemma is now plagued by some troubling dreams and events that unsettle her.
To try and understand what is happening she visits tattoo artist Claire (Maisie Richardson-Sellers, from the tv series Legends Of Tomorrow, etc), who is able to channel the dead psychic Elise Rainer (Lin Shaye, a mainstay of the series who has appeared in the previous five films) who tries to explain what is happening. It seems that Gemma is a “courier” who may have inherited her mother’s ability to travel into the strange realm known as the further and bring the beings that dwell there back into the real world.
With the help of Elise Gemma navigates this dangerous world to try and thwart the evil Cyrus who is planning to use here to unleash the inhabitants of the further into the real world. Gemma’s boyfriend Nick (Brandon Perea, from Nope, etc), a policeman, does his best to try and help her and protect Maya from Cyrus’s evil intentions.
Gemma also feels uneasy at the sight of the three strange looking, elderly and creepy acolytes who suddenly appear on her street. They have apparently been sent by Cyrus to wear Gemma down and weaken her resistance, and their weird silent appearance adds to the film’s mood. Cinematographer David Garbett (Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, etc) uses closeups to good effect to create a claustrophobic mood. There are some great prosthetic and make-up effects, and the use of smoke and fog machines, to further add to the unsettling mood. Regular series composer Joseph Bishara provides the evocative score (as well as playing one of the many spooky demons from the further).
But Insidious: Out Of The Further is silly and nonsensical rather than scary. Chase incorporates a couple of effective jump scares. The two standout sequences include a claustrophobic scene in which gemma finds herself frantically trapped inside a maze within a pillow fort (which may remind audiences of the recent horror film Backrooms), and a scary and disturbing scene set in Gemma’s own dentist clinic which may put you off going for your next checkup.
Performances are generally perfunctory and the game cast deliver what is expected of them. The veteran Shaye brings an emotional element to the material.
The film was shot on location in Melbourne, at the Docklands studios, with some additional location work in the nearby suburbs which double for Pittsburgh.
While a little formulaic and not the best of this long running franchise, Insidious: Out Of The Further is still, arguably, the strongest entry in the series since Insidious 3. Mainly one for the fans.
★★★
