I took my ‘Horror Movie Support Pillow’ from The Range to see Insidious: Out of the Further. See, I have been embracing my love of films so much that I’ve somehow side-stepped into the horror genre. Now, quite honestly, I think I got scarred as a kid. It was the 80s/90s and somehow this five-year-old saw Critters. At that age you just can’t logically comprehend what is real and what isn’t, so it’s safe to say horror got firmly boxed off after that.

BUT, thrillers became my go-to and very much still are. So the interest was sort of there, I just never made the leap… until now.

Past trauma aside, I’d spotted that the new film from this epic series was launching. I’d never seen any of the Insidious films, so like any true movie fan, I binge-watched the entire lot. It is also safe to say my dreams after doing so have been the scariest I’ve had in a while. So clearly, they did their job!!

The new film is out and I’m officially up to Insidious speed…

Is Insidious: Out of the Further connected to the other films?

I could tell from the get-go that Insidious: Out of the Further was almost a standalone film for the series. We weren’t directly connecting with the original family; instead we’ve got a new family and a new story, with The Further tying it into the Insidious world we already know.

And, of course, our true hero Elise is back. Who, might I add — babe being stuck in The Further is so so mean. She’s such a legend.

Okay, basic overview. We have mum Gemma and her daughter Maya, who live in the same house where Gemma grew up with her own mum, Ingrid. We get a detailed flashback at the beginning of the film and it’s clearly the 90s, with some fabulous classic memorabilia dotted around Gemma’s room. But things aren’t good.

Ingrid is clearly struggling, Gemma is pretty much looking after herself and there’s something incredibly unnerving about being in that dark house with them. The scene is classic horror — dark, unknown, shadows everywhere and you’re constantly readjusting your eyes. I felt like shouting, bloody well switch the light on, kid, but I suppose that would ruin the atmosphere!

Something traumatic happens during Gemma’s childhood and we fast-forward to the present, where she’s now living in that very same house with Maya. Which, in horror-film logic, already feels like an absolutely terrible life decision.

Maya starts asking questions about the grandmother she never knew after discovering boxes of Ingrid’s belongings in the garage. Gemma has seemingly held onto everything, despite clearly wanting that part of her life packed firmly away.

And then things start to feel… off.

Three very old and seriously spooky-looking people start shuffling down the road watching them, accompanied by some appropriately disturbing music, and from here the film really moves up a notch. Gemma starts experiencing increasingly strange things, particularly when she sleeps, and you know we’re heading somewhere that Insidious fans are going to recognise.

I’m not telling you where that goes because this is definitely where you need to experience it yourself.

Did Insidious: Out of the Further actually scare me?

There is one bit where Gemma gets stuck inside her daughter’s pillow fort and IT NEVER ENDS. She can’t get out of something that should be super easy to burst from, things are lurking in there too and suddenly this completely innocent little pillow fort feels horribly claustrophobic.

The uncomfortable classic horror moments really start emerging here, along with the oh-so-missed jump scares. You cannot beat a good jump scare and I feel like they got lost a bit along the way in horror. Alongside my Insidious binge, I’ve watched many, many more, including some classics.

I won’t go into the full story because I genuinely don’t want to spoil it, but Insidious: Out of the Further had such a fantastic classic horror feeling that I felt super stoked I’d gone to see it.

Between those squirmy moments of claustrophobia, hiding behind my Horror Movie Support Pillow when it looked like something gross was about to happen, and THE TEETH — argh, the noises in the dentist scenes — it was basically ASMR but on the bad end of the scale. Then you’ve got the lurking, the darkness and those classic jump scares. It was great.

Seeing Lin Shaye as Elise appear was so much fun. I kinda wanted to clap because she has genuinely become the Insidious superhero at this point.

I thought it was an excellent storyline too. Does knowing Insidious help? Absolutely. But do you need full knowledge of every single film before seeing Insidious: Out of the Further? Nope, I really don’t think you do.

For me, binge-watching the whole Insidious series beforehand made it even more exciting when those familiar elements appeared. I was officially IN on it. Although judging by the dreams I’d been having after my Insidious marathon, there may have been some questionable decision-making involved. Literally ridiculously spooked afterwards!

Would I recommend Insidious: Out of the Further? Absolutely. Especially if, like me, you’ve been hovering around the edge of horror via thrillers and fancy finally making the leap. It has that classic horror atmosphere, a decent storyline, great character development, properly uncomfortable moments and, importantly, jump scares that actually made me jump.

My Horror Movie Support Pillow earned its place.

And finally, for anyone else who investigates this VERY important piece of information before watching a horror film…I have to spoil one thing.

Radar the dog does not die.

PHEW.

*Images from Sony Pictures