Insidious: Out of the Further

Insidious: Out of the Further
Starring Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Lin Shaye
Directed by Jacob Chase

The "Insidious" franchise was something that was never meant to be. The first movie was an astonishing hit, earning over $99 million worldwide on a $1.5 million budget, making it one of the most financially successful horror movies. It was expertly done, with well-timed jump scares (including one that's still listed as one of the best in all of horror) and had a great story behind it, with impeccable performances by Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins and Lin Shaye. The ending did leave it open, but it seemed that it was still contained as a one-and-done, but as we all know, money talks. The future installments stretched the story so thin it became a caricature of itself, even though it did keep earning money hand to foot. So now it's the fifth installment, "Insidious: Out of the Further," which doesn't have a lot to do with any of the other films apart from Lin Shaye's involvement, where she now serves as a guide and offering odd quips that are supposed to be deep but just ends up being groan-worthy, much like the entirety of this film.

Twenty years after a young Gemma witnesses her deranged mother's suicide, now-adult Gemma (Amelia Eve) is a successful dental hygienist and lives in peace with her young daughter Maya (Island Austin) before she starts experiencing strange dreams involving a different world filled with demons and evil spirits. She realizes she astral projects, and one time she is hounded by a series of spirits before she's saved by Ellie Rainier (Lyn Shaye), who tells her to find her on the other side. She goes to a tattoo parlor where tattooist/medium Claire (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) astral projects and Ellie takes over her body, telling Gemma that she, like her mother, has a power that the souls in the Further want - she can bring them to the real world. She starts acting like her mother which terrifies her daughter much like she was terrified as a young girl, and with the help of Claire and her boyfriend Nick (Brandon Perea) she enters the Further to find the leader Cyrus Lam (Sam Spurell) and stop him before they can achieve their goal and return to the real world.

You can clearly tell this franchise has run out of ideas, with this completely preposterous storyline, but again it's earning money because of the namesake so I'll be awaiting "Insidious 666: Ellie Saves the Universe." It's quizzifying (using a "Wicked" term here) how this franchise has done so well movie after movie with how many people cry that they're tired of sequels, yet they still put their butts in the seats for a mediocre continuation of this need-to-be long dead franchise. The jump scares aren't jumpy, the performances are wooden and bland, and the plot is both nonsensical and under-developed, with an ending so stupid I rolled my eyes and expected to see the words "Gemma will return in 'Avengers: Doomsday.'"

Leaving the Lambert family again (the third and fourth did as well, with the fifth bringing the family back for a yawn-inducing coda) we're now introduced to a single mother and her young daughter with severe family issues, but that theme isn't explored in any meaningful way. Gemma saw her mother go psycho near the end of her life but, as a child, doesn't understand why (and it doesn't come as a shock when the "shocking" twist comes later as to why her mother was this way), and as an adult she doesn't want to have the same issues - she even lives in the same house, because she's not a one-hitter quitter. More concerned with jump scares rather than a developed plot or character development, the underlying familial trauma is left outside to fend for itself.

Admittedly, there were some unnerving scenes, but those were mostly in the trailers whenever Gemma is doing dental work (or maybe it's because I'm scared of the dentist myself), when the camera shoots up from the person's mouth and the sound effects of scraping teeth made me shudder. Apart from that, there wasn't a jump to be done, except once because I nodded off and I heard violin strings pluck. For a short movie it felt like twice as long, especially the overly-long ending sequence that dragged on and on. There was one cool camera trick during that time, but then it repeated itself about three more times and it took away all its luster. 

The one defining through-character in all these movies is Lin Shaye's Ellie, a powerful medium who (I guess spoiler alert?) died in the first movie. Yet through every film she's the only character in each one, now serving as a docent for anyone who enters the Further, being their guide through the horrors that await. Although I do have to admit she has some keen fashion sense on the other side with that catchy fleece scarf she wears. She accompanies Gemma on the other side to stop the cult leader Cyrus (who looks more like Maralyn Manson than anything) who has an array of Acolytes in the real world who does his bidding - the more you try to explain it the more convoluted it becomes. To sum it up as simply as the movie does: Gemma bring Further baddies to real world, Gemma and Ellie most stop them. 

The Further is further explored but feels like much of the same, with blue lights illuminating everything and a fog machine that someone picked up from a party store overshadowing anything exciting going on, with the all-star cast of Further spirits returning in hopes of coming to the real world and wreaking havoc (or something like that). Filled with jump scares that will have your butts solidly in their seats, "Into the Further" again serves as the exception to the rule with how they manage to keep people coming to a franchise that itself deserves to be in the darkest part of the Further.

The Score: D+