My relationship with the Insidious franchise has always been a bit of a love-hate affair. I absolutely adore the first film, while its follow-up, Insidious: Chapter 2, was a worthy continuation. But somewhere along the way, the franchise lost a little of its spark. Insidious: The Last Key and Insidious: The Red Door, in particular, had promising premises but ultimately left me feeling more underwhelmed than unnerved.
So I went into Insidious: Out Of The Further with some trepidation… and, more importantly, considerably lowered expectations.
Which is why I was genuinely surprised to find myself having an absolute blast.
If “fun” is an odd word to describe a horror movie, Out Of The Further somehow manages to make it work. It is easily one of the most entertaining horror experiences I’ve had in the cinema this year, and quite possibly in a long time.
That’s not to say the film isn’t scary. Far from it.
The tension starts almost immediately and rarely lets up. There are sequences where the suspense becomes so palpable that you can practically feel the entire cinema holding its breath together, before collectively exhaling and often breaking into nervous laughter when the inevitable jump scare finally arrives.
One particularly memorable sequence involves a child’s couch fort in a living room. What sounds like an innocent little hideout becomes the setting for one of the film’s most claustrophobic and nerve-racking moments. It is a great example of the film understanding that sometimes, what you don’t see is far more frightening than what you do.
And yes, there are plenty of jump scares. Some are genuinely unexpected, while others follow the familiar horror playbook: eerie silence, ominous movement, prolonged stare… and BOOM. Congratulations, your soul has briefly left your body.
If you’ve read the standfirst of this review and wondered what on earth a dentist has to do with a supernatural horror film, you’ll have to watch the movie to find out.
But trust me: the dental sequence is gnarly. Super gnarly.
I don’t have a particular fear of going to the dentist. I don’t exactly look forward to it either, but I’ve always regarded a routine dental appointment as a relatively harmless experience involving a chair, some small instruments and someone asking me to “open wider”.
After Out Of The Further, I may never look at that chair the same way again.
The entire sequence had me squirming in my seat, and judging by the collective reactions around me, I wasn’t the only one. It is uncomfortable, gruesome and brilliantly effective – the kind of scene that makes you instinctively want to close your eyes yet you are still tempted to continue watching the horrors unfolding on-screen.
Consider this your official warning: book your next dental appointment before watching this film.
One of the biggest constants across the Insidious franchise is, of course, scream queen Lin Shaye, who returns once again as the wonderfully eccentric psychic Elise Rainier.
Shaye brings something particularly important to the franchise: heart.
Even amid all the demons, jump scares and increasingly terrifying trips into The Further, Elise remains a warm and grounding presence. Shaye clearly knows this character inside out by now, and her performance adds an emotional dimension that keeps the film from becoming nothing more than a parade of supernatural scares.
Whenever Elise appears, there is a reassuring feeling that, somehow, everything might just be okay.
Well… until the next demon shows up.
What makes Out Of The Further particularly enjoyable is the sheer momentum of the film. It takes you on a wild rollercoaster ride, with plenty of twists, turns, scares and the occasional moment where you’re left wondering exactly what fresh nightmare is waiting around the corner.
Later in the film, the story becomes increasingly inventive with its back-and-forth movement between our world and The Further, that creepy netherworld where demons, spirits and various things that absolutely should not be roaming around at night reside.
The transitions between the two worlds give the film an energetic quality and make the experience feel almost like watching a supernatural game of cat and mouse. It’s exhilarating, occasionally chaotic, and surprisingly entertaining.
And perhaps that is the biggest compliment I can give it: Out Of The Further remembers that horror is not just about scares but can have an element of fun as well.
I walked into Insidious: Out Of The Further expecting to tolerate it. Instead, I walked out grinning, slightly traumatised and seriously reconsidering whether I actually need my next dental appointment.
It may not reinvent the horror genre, and it certainly isn’t without its bumps and familiar franchise conventions. But as a big-screen horror experience, it delivers exactly what I want from a film like this: suspense, jump scares, creepy imagery, a few genuinely inventive sequences and enough ridiculous fun to make me forget I was sitting in the dark waiting to be psychologically attacked.
By the end, I felt like I had just stepped off a particularly violent rollercoaster, heart pounding, slightly dizzy, laughing at the experience and wondering why I voluntarily put myself through it.
And honestly? I’d happily queue up for another ride… just maybe not straight after a dentist appointment.
Insidious: Out Of The Further opens in Shaw Theatres and cinemas islandwide on 20 August 2026. Click here to book your tickets.
READ MORE: New On Screen: August 2026 | SAFRA
