Insidious: Out of the Further Review

The Insidious series has returned for a sixth entry. Insidious: Out of the Further moves on from the Lambert family and focuses on a new set of characters.

Gemma Hall (Amelia Eve) is a dental hygienist and single mum to Maya (Island Austin). She had a traumatic childhood due to her mother’s erratic behaviour. Gemma ends up experiencing unsettling dreams when three strange old people arrive in her neighbourhood, and it could be linked to her childhood.

2026 has been an excellent year for horror. Obsession and Backrooms were critical and commercial hits, and I enjoyed two other horror franchise entries: 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Evil Dead Burn. Insidious: Out of the Further had stiff competition, but easily avoided being the worst horror film of 2026 since Ice Cream Man is the leading contender.

The Insidious series has been a spotty one. They have all been commercially successful, but critically they have been mixed. I was negative toward the previous entry. Out of the Further was a big improvement, and the consensus has been it’s the best film in the series since the first one.

Out of the Further was a soft reboot since it focused on a new family. The only returning character was Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). The previous films were mentioned, but Elise said their story was over. It’s a good jumping-on point for newcomers. The Insidious series has generally been about characters needing to confront the past because they have suppressed an encounter with the Further. Out of the Further used this idea to show generational trauma. Out of the Further ended up having some similarities to Backrooms because both films opened with young characters in the shadow of a mother with mental health issues, and both characters went into strange alternative worlds.

Gemma had to care for herself when she was a child, and she didn’t want her daughter to have the same experience. However, as Gemma experienced the horrors of The Further, she ended up displaying the behaviours, causing Maya to fear her mum. It felt a bit like The Babadook when the mother was changing and their child experiencing fear because of it. Out of the Further had multiple throughlines like Gemma’s resentment towards her mother, Gemma’s boyfriend, Nick (Brandon Perea), questioning why she stayed in her childhood home, and setting up Gemma’s unique powers. There was something for audiences to invest in.

Out of the Further had an eye on expanding the franchise. Gemma wasn’t only able to visit The Further; she could bring items back from the other realm. This made Gemma valuable to the malicious entities in The Further. The three elderly people haunting Gemma were members of a cult and used a gas that allowed them to visit The Further. The gas tanks had Cyrillic script on them, which implied a connection to Eastern Europe. Within The Further, a figure called Cyrus (Sam Spruell) amassed followers in both worlds and promised he could bring spirits from The Further into the real world. This was done because Blumhouse wants to make more sequels and spin-offs; a spin-off called Thread is in pre-production, but it did make Out of the Further feel a bit more substantive, and it upped the stakes.

Out of the Further will challenge Lee Cronin’s The Mummy and Savage House for the grossest film of 2026. This was done through the three elderly people stalking Gemma. When Gemma had to clean the old man’s teeth, it was particularly unpleasant because of the rotting state of his mouth. It looked so convincing that I had to look away from the screen. Don’t want it if you have an oral phobia. When Gemma entered the elderly people’s house, she discovered some used items in a scene that felt like a couple of scenes from The Visit.

Insidious: Out of the Further was an improvement for the series, making it a decent franchise horror film.