KV: Do you hate going to the dentist, or are you a dental worker who is secretly disgusted by your clients and their horrible mouths? If so, Insidious: Out of the Further may not be the movie for you. Blumhouse’s Insidious franchise returns with its sixth instalment, and your reviewers were immediately biased in its favour by learning that this iteration was filmed in Melbourne (does this make us somehow famous by association? We’ll let you be the judge). Out of the Further, written and directed by Jacob Chase, deals quite movingly with themes of mental illness, intergenerational trauma, and grief, while still delivering some very effective scares with the assistance of a lot of goofy make-up and (I’m assuming) most of the smoke machines in Victoria. Zoe, could you set the scene for us?

ZA: This is a fresh Insidious story, with a new astral projecting family, Gemma (Amelia Eve) and Maya (Island Austin), and as it follows, a new cast of ghouls hatching devious plans for them. As one red door closes, another one opens, ahem. After witnessing the apparent breakdown and definite suicide of her mother as a child, Gemma is now raising Maya in the very same childhood home/trauma site. Working as a dental hygienist and dating police officer Mendoza (Brandon Perea) (cue McBain screaming “Mendoza”), Gemma and Maya seem to be thriving, that is, until The Further comes knocking.

Heralded by the recurring appearance of three creepy grinning old people on the (Melbourne) street (in Melbourne), Gemma is increasingly thrust into the spooky smoke-filled year 7 disco of The Further. As the immense toll of her encounters with Further and its inhabitants impacts her life and relationship with Maya, she learns about her past and astral skills and current threats, but most importantly she meets the GOAT and true protagonist of the Insidious franchise, Elise (Lin Shaye). From there, we get a grapefruit tattooing medium (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) and a battle with the Further, but on what turf? Katie, what are your thoughts?

KV: I am a bit torn with this one – on the one hand, the film achieved some truly scary and unsettling moments, mainly thanks to the elderly trio of stalkers pursuing Gemma. On the other, I felt that the main antagonist of the story was a little too present to maintain a satisfying level of tension and spookiness. The main baddie, accompanied by his menagerie of dusty weirdos, spent a bit too much time yapping and generally ghouling about on screen in my view to be truly scary, and at times descended into Team Rocket levels of goofy incompetence.

While I understand that this kind of silliness is a beloved feature of the Insidious franchise, I felt that having the antagonists deliver this element took some of the punch out of the narrative for me. The wackiness stood in stark contrast to the familial and interpersonal aspects of the story, which I felt that the story did quite well, considering the seriousness of the subject matter. How did you feel the film handled the mother/daughter relationships at the heart of the narrative?

ZA: I mean, ham-fisted explorations of grief/trauma/mental illness are a firm fixture of modern horror, so I do think the complexity and empathy it achieves is commendable. Amelia Eve goes through the gears and delivers a believable (given the context) performance, supported by some pretty decent child acting by both Island Austin and Charli Penton. 

I think as a whole, Insidious: Out of the Further draws on a lot of trends in modern horror, and does them well, while still being a distinctly good Insidious movie – and we certainly can’t say that for all of the franchise. There are gross-out scares, liminal space sequences, creepy smiles and more, a lot of which had me squirming in my seat. I like that they still crack out the facepaint and costume box for about half the inhabitants of the Further and get silly with it. I do agree that the central antagonist just was not scary enough. If you’re going to put him front and centre, your character design should be popping, not aged goth Iggy Pop.

KV: Yeah I agree, overall in spite of my reservations I certainly enjoyed this movie. Eve’s performance was really moving, and I think in spite of navigating some tricky territory about mental illness and parenthood, the abiding message was one of sincere and unpatronising empathy. I also liked that the story seemed to be developing into a gaslighty “no one believes the lady who says she’s experiencing weird stuff” narrative, which I personally find unbearable, but this was cut short by the abrupt appearance of a bisected ghoulie in the waking world, which meant that Gemma had some comrades in her fight against Iggy Pop. And the couch fort scene may have put me off retrieving things dropped between the couch cushions for life.

ZA: As for me, the depiction of the most disgusting dental examination ever has scared me into a better oral hygiene routine. Truly a life changing experience for us both. 

As you can probably tell, I did really enjoy this film, if you liked Insidious 1, and have been hanging out for a good Insidious movie again, this one is for you. Run, don’t astral project, to a cinema near you.

 

Insidious: Out of the Further is currently playing in Australian cinemas.