Insidious: Beyond the Further (2026). When the franchise forgets how to scare

Gemma grew up in a house where her mother acted strangely, even very strangely. She screamed, banged her head against the tiles, and one day those screams stopped for good. I think there is no need to explain what happened. Twenty years later Gemma comes back to that same house with her own daughter, this time in the role of a mother. She wants to create happy memories where there were only frightening ones. But the past will not let go.

Gemma discovers she can travel to the Further. It is a grey world between life and death where lost souls wander. You would think that is a unique gift. There is a catch, though — Gemma can not only go in, she can also pull things out of it back into the real world. That is, to put it mildly, a bad idea.

Director Jacob Chase, known for his 2020 horror Come Play, wrote the screenplay himself this time. And that is probably the film’s biggest problem.

What works

Amelia Eve. The British actress many remember from Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Bly Manor plays Gemma. She carries the whole film on her shoulders. Her character does not just scream in terror, she fights her own demons from the past, the fear of becoming the same mother her own mother was. Eve sells it convincingly.

Lin Shaye. Elise Rainier returns — the only character to appear in all five previous parts, even though her character died in the very first film. Lin Shaye is well past sixty, yet she still elevates every scene she is in. Her Elise tells Gemma about her gift.

Atmosphere. Cinematographer Dave Garbett knows how to make a house feel murderous. Corridors, shadows, sudden sounds. Everything in place.

What does not work

The screenplay. Here is the problem. CBC News wrote that the film stumbles, wobbles and falls the longer it runs. And that is exactly right. The second half loses all tension. The plot becomes predictable. The characters do stupid things. And the final battle looks like a fairground ride.

The New York Times compared the demons to costume actors at Halloween. One of the monsters, in the paper’s description, looks like cosplay of Ozzy Osbourne. That is not a compliment, by the way.

Fear. It is a horror film. But it does not scare. CBC News writes plainly about the deliberate absence of real fear. There are jump scares, but they only work on anyone who has never seen a horror film. The LA Times notes that the new chapter borrows everything we have already seen and adds little of its own.

Characters. Gemma, her boyfriend cop Nick, daughter Maya, three old people walking down the street. The Los Angeles Times writes that most viewers are unlikely to sympathise with them, and that is true. The film tries to tell a story about childhood trauma but does it superficially. The screenplay seems embarrassed to be a horror film and tries to be a drama. The result is neither.

What the critics say

The reviews are split: on Rotten Tomatoes the film holds about 57 percent from critics. But the popcorn meter shows 70 percent from audiences. Metacritic gives it 46 out of 100. IMDb holds 6.3 out of 10. CinemaScore gave it a C+. Letterboxd rates it 2.8 out of 5.

Exclaim wrote that this is unquestionably the worst chapter of the franchise. It is a laughable imitation of the better films. The New York Times called the Further a cheap attraction. But there are those who found positives. Joblo writes that the film finds a new direction for the franchise and offers a few genuinely creepy moments. The problem is that there are far too few of them.

My verdict

I wanted this film to be better. The Insidious franchise used to be an event — James Wan’s first film broke the rules and scared millions of people. But with every new chapter the magic faded. Chase tried to bring it back with new characters and a new story. But he forgot the most important thing. Horror has to scare. Not teach us to live with trauma. The atmosphere of the first half is first rate. But the screenplay tears it all down, and on top of that the film looks cheap — not in budget, but in ideas. It takes themes that were already in the Further and simply retells them in different words.