And so we have entered a new phase of the INSIDIOUS franchise. We have dispensed with the Lamberts and their beleaguered patriarch Josh (Patrick Wilson) with a brief flashback, and we can only hope that they have found the closure that will prevent them ever again dealing with The Further and subjecting us to a return to that aspect of the mythos that petered out so badly.
In INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER, we are introduced to Gemma (Amelia Eve), a plucky single mother with a hideous past and a cockeyed optimism about the future. Hence, she remains in the house where her mother slowly descended into madness and suicide, all in front of young Gemma’s eyes. Her plans to make the home her mother couldn’t for 8-year-old Maya (Island Austin) have so far been working out, but, alas, Gemma begins having nightmares that seem too real to be merely a hypnogogic state. If there is any doubt about that, that is quickly dispelled when Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) turns up in one of those dreams with a lantern and the assurance that helping is what she does. We know that Elise is dead, but Gemma won’t find that out until, on Elise’s directive via a cryptic artifact from dreamland, she seeks out Clare (Maisie Richardson-Sellers), a tattoo artist with a sideline in mediumship. Not just any mediumship, one that involves a straight-jacket and a timer. One thing the INSIDIOUS franchise has always delivered is novel approaches to communing with the dead, and this installment is no exception. There’s also a talking popcorn bucket, and one can only hope that it becomes a merchandise item available to the masses at some point.
But I digress.
As a creep-fest, this flick delivers, not so much in the supernatural realm as in Gemma’s job as a dental hygienist. Truly, the painful and protracted close-ups of the results of poor dental hygiene will cause one to re-think one’s entire brushing and flossing regimen. One could not be blamed for seeking out a life-time supply of dental floss as the closing credits roll, and an array of anti-microbial mouthwashes in all colors, strengths, and specifics.
But I digress again.
The supernatural aspects are here are suitably creepy from a rather mundane billow of mist crossing Gemma’s living room to a ghastly pillow fort that becomes a maze of otherworldly dimensions, not to mention increasingly claustrophobia. There is not much else that is new, but it is executed with verve as the narrative pays homage to CARNIVAL OF SOULS (the new neighbors who look like death warmed over with weird smiles) and the original HALLOWEEN (hiding in a closet with shutters for doors), among others. The mood of tense unreality plays nicely, though, as a convoluted plot is explained to us with those ci-mentioned flashbacks, impromptu models, and illustrated grapefruits.
Gemma, we learn, has special powers to not just visit The Further (afterlife to you and me), but she can also bring things back and forth, a talent that has targeted her for the special attentions of a particularly nasty cult leader (it’s always a cult leader), Cyrus Lam (Sam Spruell) with a razor of a nail-guard and a flamboyant sartorial style. By the end, she has embroiled Clare and her sweetheart of a cop boyfriend Nick Mendoza (Brandon Perea) in an exuberant showdown that, while done with great energy, does last like the eternity that Gemma is attempting to avoid.
What comes close to saving this misfire is Eve, who engages from her first moment on screen with a troubled warmth as complicated as the plot in which she is trapped. She is the kind of actress who glows without the necessity of a key light and doesn’t need to overplay an emotion to make it indelible. Equally good is Austin as her daughter, a kid who avoids the precious in favor of the sort of confusion any kid (or adult) would have while watching her mother change in unfathomable ways. Shout out to Perea as the perfect boyfriend with a bug phobia and gung-ho attitude whether it’s easing Gemma’s fears with the concern of a good guy watching his girlfriend crack up, to taking on the supernatural without pausing to reflect.
INSIDIOUS: OUT OF THE FURTHER gives the requisite number of jump scares to keep the action moving along, but despite what it has going for it, never rises above a middling effort. There are worse times at a horror show, but there are also too many better ones to spend time with the Halls.
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