By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
The Insidious franchise has followed psychic heroine Elise (played by horror and comedy classic Lin Shaye) as she helps other psychics learn to cope with or even suppress their powers, as she did for the Lambert family through much of the series. For many of the people she helped, the problem was that they could visit a world she calls The Further, a place of demons and ghosts. The most recent Insidious movie, The Red Door, shows Elise, who was trapped in The Further in the previous movie, observing a college-aged Dalton Lambert as he escapes from the other dimension.
Insidious: Out of the Further introduces a new family in the form of single mom Gemma (Amelia Eve) and her daughter Maya (Island Austin), who live together on what looks like a quiet little block in a neat suburban neighborhood. Gemma works in dentistry, and lives a happy, peaceful life with Maya until horrific nightmares begin invading her sleep and causing her to see what she thinks are hallucinations. Somehow, she is led to a psychic (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) who, after a brutal preparation process, channels Elise from The Further.
Elise explains, as viewers are treated to a montage of warped, otherworldly human-looking demons that seem to be stalking Gemma, that Gemma’s psychic abilities not only consist of the typical ability to cross into The Further, but also the potential to bring things back with her. This makes her a huge target for the malevolent demons that lurk beyond the Red Door.
The trailer’s highlights are its numerous jump scares and a cringy moment involving a Novocain needle, but director Jacob Chase seems heavily guided by the producer and the original film’s director, James Wan. Wan’s signature is all over the eerie faces and shadowy places that lurk around Gemma, Maya, and their home. Chase also co-wrote the script, indicating that his vision was already aligning well with the franchise’s premise; the other writers are Davis Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Leigh Whannell.
It also expresses some interesting potential for lore geeks who have followed the series. Elise has been the expert on The Further all along, aiding families who’ve had brushes with it at great risk to her material and mental health. Her character is the thread that has tied the rest of the movies together, even after she herself was lost. The hint from The Red Door that she has been sneaking around The Further all along, keeping an eye on things from the other side and aiding the escape of anyone unfortunate enough to find their way there, has been confirmed with this trailer.
The obvious question is, if the demons can get through from The Further, will Elise be able to come through, too? Or will she decide she should stay behind and continue to defend humanity by guiding lost souls back home? In the delicate interaction between The Further and our world, this is even more central of a question than whether or not the demons make it through. Whatever side Elise stays on will have an impact on how much damage the demons can do to our world. This glaring question almost overtakes the premise and becomes more important than whether anything else passes through.
How powerful will Elise be from beyond The Further? What will happen if humanity is overrun by demonic entities? Have Gemma’s gifts been inherited by her innocent pre-teen daughter? Insidious: Out of the Further releases the demons in theaters sometime in August.
Each movie in the Insidious storyline has seemed more like a chapter from a book as they have added to the lore behind Elise. She even started the series almost like a rock star, with two paranormal investigators flanking her and filming her adventures with the beyond. While The Red Door did follow the Lambert family whose tribulations started the series, I know I for one was looking for Elise’s more competent experience with The Further. And now, she has been residing there for an indeterminate amount of time and have probed even more of its secrets.
