Insidious: Out Of The Further (2026)

There are times when I will happily remind people that I can be a very mainstream guy. I don't mind watching something slick and polished. I don't even mind watching something that's tame enough to offer some mild chills to a potentially much larger audience demographic. I really enjoyed Insidious, and even, to a lesser extent, some of the sequels. This is a series that should have ended about a decade ago though, but that opinion seems to put me at odds with those who very much appreciate the mainstream thrills and chills that it provides.

This tiresome tale concerns Gemma Hall (Amelia Eve, looking for all the world like 2000s Naomi Watts) and her young daughter, Maya (Island Austin). Gemma appears to sometimes be seeing dead people. Worse, dead people sometimes appear to be seeing Gemma. That's why she ends up being helped by Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), who can often talk through the physical body of Clare (Maisie Richardson-Sellers). All working together, and with the help of Gemma's boyfriend (Nick, played by Brandon Perea), the group hope to stop Cyrus Lam (Sam Spruell) from finding his way back from The Further into our plane of existence.

I am genuinely depressed at the thought of writing a full review for this. It feels like writer-director Jacob Chase had a couple of good scares in mind, and then figured out a laughably weak plot that would allow him to deliver those infrequent treats. The longer this movie series has endured, the more it all boils down to people simply warning others about going into The Further, stopping entities from coming out of The Further, or just spending a bit of time wandering about The Further. Now that The Further is such a familiar environment, despite how it can be manipulated and played around with, it's not an interesting setting for scares, which is proven here when the best moments all take place in what is supposed to be our own world. You'll have seen one of those moments if you saw the trailer, but if you have somehow avoided that so far then keep avoiding it until/if you give this a watch.

Richardson-Seller is the one person here who feels as if she could carry a movie, and her scenes help a lot when things aren't being moved between the various cheap frights. Shaye remains a welcome constant, but her character was reduced to the "kindly guide" archetype many movies ago, which is all she gets to do here. Eve, Austin, and Perea are all fine, but I didn't ever truly care about their fates (possibly due to this being a very "safe" movie series nowadays). Spruell is helped by some great makeup, but the best of the creepy interlopers is an old man, Lester, played by Joseph Lopez, who also benefits from one hell of a makeover.

I would say, charitably, that there were three good moments in this. Three good moments adding up to about one whole minute of the runtime. Sadly, that leaves you with another 105 minutes to endure. And that's not a good time. Yet this has somehow done well enough at the cinema to make another instalment almost inevitable. And I'm sure I'll see it. I won't be getting to it until it hits home viewing markets though. Perhaps I'll buy a cinema ticket for something a bit less mainstream that weekend. 

4/10

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Come Play (2020)

It has been over a decade since writer-director Jacob Chase served up a movie for viewing audiences, and I don’t think you will find many people who were waiting with bated breath after watching The Four-Faced Liar back in 2010 (no comment on the movie, which I haven’t seen, simply a comment on the fact that it didn’t seem to make any impact). Regardless, Chase has built up a fairly decent selection of short films, and Come Play is adapted from one of those, a 2017 short titled Larry.

The plot is very simple, and also very predictable. Gillian Jacobs plays Sarah, a mother who struggles with her autistic child, Oliver (Azhy Robertson). She has to battle through many difficult episodes while Oliver’s father (Marty, played by John Gallagher Jr.) does that typically annoying thing of just being the fun parent. As Oliver becomes more lonely, with his main company being a phone or tablet, he is approached by an entity named Larry. Larry can be seen through various screens, but he wants to break into our world. And he wants to be good friends with Oliver.

Very slick and familiar, Come Play is also, thankfully, very well-crafted when it comes to the scares. Although some imagery appears suddenly in the frame, it doesn’t feel like a film reliant on jump scares. This is a horror movie that at least tries to be creepy, and there is excellent use of technology to show Larry appearing to people (either directly or, for example, being shown up by an app/filter). Chase doesn’t bring anything truly new to the genre, nor does he mess things up. This is enjoyable, entertaining, stuff.

Young Robertson is the lead here, basically, and does good in a role that is mostly communicating in a non-verbal way. He has the big eyes and the nerves, but also has an interesting obliviousness to certain moments that have other characters more afraid of things around them. Jacobs and Gallagher Jr. are both good enough in their roles, although the former is playing someone who has to be set up as a bit selfish and misguided, even compared to the less responsible male parent.

I am sure that many people will dismiss this, it certainly doesn’t need to be high on any prioritised viewing list, but there’s a lot to appreciate. From the performances to the creature design, and the audio work throughout is also excellent, this maintains a standard of quality that you don’t always get in mainstream horror (certainly not from anything that doesn’t feature those pesky Warrens). For the kind of film this is, you could do a lot worse.

7/10

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