NOW IN THEATERS! It’s been 16 years since director James Wan brought us the first Insidious film, which centered around the Lambert family. After numerous sequels, Insidious: Out of the Further, from director Jacob Chase, focuses on a new family and an evolution of the film’s mythology.

Beginning with a flashback in 1999, the film opens on a young Gemma Hall (Charli Penton), who comes home to find her mother, Ingrid (Laura Gordon), passed out on the dining room table. She lets her mom sleep as she takes out the trash, cooks herself dinner, and begins her homework. She has a flashlight that she applies fun stickers to, which she received for getting good scores at school. She is awoken in the middle of the night by a loud bang, and the flashlight that was in her hands is gone. Her mother is now walking around the house with a kitchen knife and acting crazy. From the hallway, Gemma sees her mother in the bathroom, slashing away with the knife at something. Her mother bangs her head against the wall, and the door suddenly shuts on its own, so Gemma can’t get in. Ingrid dies.

Twenty years later, Gemma (Amelia Eve) is now a dentist, happily living in the same house with her own daughter, Maya (Island Austin). After being picked up from school, Maya decides that she’s too old for toys and wants to donate them. On their way home, they see an elderly trio: a man and two women. The state of the trio almost looks decrepit. Later that night, as they pack up Maya’s toys, rather than donate them, Gemma gets nostalgic and opts to put them in a storage room. The room itself is full of old boxes and stuff that belonged to Ingrid. Gemma comes across a ring that looks unfamiliar.

“From the hallway, Gemma sees her mother in the bathroom, slashing away with the knife at something.”

Over the course of the next couple of nights, Gemma begins to have terrifying nightmares involving the elderly trio. The flashlight that she once lost as a child reappears. Gemma is experiencing the Further and eventually meets Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) from the previous films, who died in the outside world but now lives there. Elise instructs Gemma to find her upon waking. Gemma is now on a quest to find Elise, who will then explain the Further to her, how she and her family are connected to that world, and what they must do to break the ties.

The first thing I have to say is, don’t watch the trailer. I’m a huge fan of the franchise, and I went in blind and was grateful I did. If you did watch it, that’s OK too. You might know a bit more about what’s going on, but director Jacob Chase does a great homage to James Wan when it comes to the scares that happen in the film. The fact that Gemma is a dentist plays into a gnarly scene. I know there are a lot of people who hate going to the dentist, and I don’t think the scene will help them, nor do I think it will help anyone who has aspirations of becoming a dentist.

I’ve been a fan of the franchise since its inception in 2010. I didn’t even see it in the theater as I should have. It was the middle of the day, and I managed to rent it from a Netflix mailer, and it scared the crap out of me. Through the years, I can’t actually recall if I watched every single film in the theater, but I know that I did skip 2023’s The Red Door. When I did finally watch it, I was underwhelmed and glad I didn’t make the effort. The franchise felt stale, and as much as I like him as an actor, I don’t think Patrick Wilson was the guy to direct it.

This slightly rebooted version of the franchise gets a standing ovation from me. For some reason, in my mind, I had revisionist history thinking most of these were rated R, but they were all PG-13. Jacob Chase makes the film feel like an “R” in terms of scares, but is able to withhold blood and gore to keep it at PG-13, which is pretty amazing.