Halloween 2026: September 25th

Insidious: Out of the Further (2026)

Maybe it’s simply the long Covid talking but “Insidious” feels like a horror series from another time. It has been about fifteen years since the original one came out and the world has changed so much since then. Horror films about ghosts or demons with vague, one-word, descriptive titles feel like a relic of The Before Times. In spite of that, the series remains a very serious on-going concern for Blumhouse Productions. The fifth installment made enough money that a spin-off film and a live theatrical experience were both announced. Well, that spin-off movie still hasn’t materialized and the live show was canceled after a few performances. However, this summer still saw the release of a new main entry in the “Insidious” series. Subtitled “Out of the Further,” it was written and directed by Jacob Chase, director of the second or third saddest thing Gillian Jacobs has been in since “Community” got canceled. 

As a child, Gemma Hall lived with her mother as she slowly went insane before witnessing her commit suicide via repeated facial trauma to a wall. As an adult, she has tried to put this behind her. She’s a successful dental hygienist, has a steady boyfriend, and is very close to her daughter, Maya. The two currently live in the same home Gemma grew up in. Three strange residents move into the house across the street, after which Gemma begins to have strange visions. She is attacked by ghostly spectres in a misty netherworld. Yes, Gemma is actually astral projecting into the Further, a fact confirmed by the spirit of medium Elise Rainer. Elise informs Gemma that she has the ability to transport objects and souls from the Further into the physical world. That this skill has made her the target of a cult based in the Further, whose leader promises to resurrect the undead spirits and who are supported by living acolytes in the waking world.

When I watched all the “Insidious” movies as part of my James Wan retrospective a while back, I repeatedly called the franchise’s mythos silly and/or stupid. Save for a supporting role for Lin Shaye’s dead-but-still-kickin’ character, “Out of the Further” is a stand-alone story built entirely upon the series’ established lore. Which is to say it is extremely silly and stupid. There's one or two interesting ideas here. The concept of living people accessing the Further via sedatives had potential. Elise communicating with the living world through a medium, a punky tattoo artist played by Maisie Richardson-Sellers, isn't the worst way to keep that character in the story. However, the more "Out of the Further" reveals about its story, the more convoluted it starts to feel. The idea of a cult made up of ghosts, residing on this astral plain, or being able to manifest things from the spiritual to physical realms strike me as desperate and somewhat confusing attempts to add more novelty to this universe. "Insidious" has always been somewhat vague concerning the rules governing its ghostly realm and these new additions only muddy the waters further. Of course, the last act focuses largely on these narrative devices, dispelling any spiritual connotations in favor entirely of brute force, comic book-style plotting. 

While I've always found "Insidious'" New Age spiritualism influenced backstory to be incredibly doofy, that's not the main reason "Out of the Further" is a tedious viewing experience. Past entries mixed in a little body horror with lots of jump scares and more atmospheric elements. The sixth installment focuses almost entirely on gross-out tactics. In particular, the film seems especially appalled by the bodies of the aging. The half-living Acolytes have deep eye sockets, patchy hair, yellowish skin, and hollow, soulless stares. If the viewer didn't get that we are meant to find the mere sight of old people gross, the sequel includes a mouthful of slimy, rotten teeth and a pile of used diapers. Desperate attempts at gross-out are all throughout the film. One of the reoccurring ghouls wears a permanent mouth depresser and is always leaking green slime. Another, laughably silly sequence features a whole horde of sickly, twitchy spirits. Including guys whose sole purpose is to lick dirty dishes or eat rats. "Out of the Further" has plenty of the series' trademark loud shrieks. They are usually paired with this juvenile ickiness or goofy touches. Such as a second pair of teeth exploding through an old man's rotten maulers or a chase scene through a tunnel of couch cushions. 

It all suggests that the creative forces behind the "Insidious" series have exhausted all other avenues of getting squeals out of audiences. The film sticks most of the franchise's star ghouls into brief cameos and instead brings back minor spookies for larger roles. I suppose giving the Doll Girl and other returning ghosts expanded presences was an attempt to get hoots out of hardcore "Insidious" fans. Assuming such a thing exists. Speaking for myself, I had forgotten about most of these guys. The new additions to the franchise's litany of horrors are deeply uninspired. The sequel bets big on "Carnival of Souls" style pasty faced ghouls, who sometimes burst through walls like zombies in a Romero film. Ghost Dentist or Little Girl with a Box Full of Teeth seem unlikely to become Halloween costumes or action figures to me. The main villain here is that ghostly cult leader. He is played by Sam Spruell in a bathrobe, face bandages, and a pointy finger accessory presumably purchased from Hot Topic. The greasy long hair and Mall Goth aesthetic once again strike me as lame holdovers from the era when people thought Marilyn Manson was actually scary. While Spruell has occasionally been compelling in his various bad guy roles, his work here is forgettable. 

Aside from miscalculated spectral villains and an insistence that the Further is a cool name for a ghostly realm, the main thing uniting the "Insidious" films has been a focus on generational trauma and parental anxieties. "Out of the Further" does carry on this thematic thread. Gemma was thoroughly traumatized by her mother's lunacy and suicide. As her own haunting grows more severe, she finds herself repeating a lot of the same mistakes with her own daughter, like sleeping in too late or lashing out at the kid. The threat of turning into our abusive or neglectful parents, no matter how hard we try to do better, is a potent one. However, "Out of the Further" mostly sidelines it for the goofier ghost shenanigans. The idea that some curses are hereditary crops up again before the end but solely as a plot device, not as a meaningful statement. Amelia Eve isn't a bad lead. She has a certain wide-eyed vulnerability and a can-do spunkiness. I like the rapport she has with Island Austin as the daughter. The script simply doesn't give her much else to dig into. 

As someone always more tolerant than appreciative of the "Insidious" series, I suppose it's unsurprising that "Out of the Further" left me feeling bored and slightly irritated. I don't know if fans of these movies liked this one or not but the impression I got is that this shit is seriously played out. "Out of the Further" is too enamored with the superpowers and mystical layers of its universe and too devoid of effective or interesting scares. I feel like the sequel came and went from theaters without making any impact but has still grossed 169 million dollars so far, against a 18 million dollar budget. Which presumably means Blumhouse will go further into the Further in the near future. Part six is lame enough that I'm probably done with these movies, unless Jason Blum finally gets off his ass and makes that promised crossover with "Sinister." Those movies suck too but the pulpy allure of mashing two unrelated fright flicks together is sadly irresistible to me. [3/10]

The Island (1980)

Before “Jaws” redefined what a cinematic blockbuster was, it was a best-selling book. This must have been tricky for its author, former journalist and Johnson administration speech writer Peter Benchley. He spent the rest of his career in the shadow of “Jaws.” He felt so much guilt over contributing to the perception of sharks as ultra-dangerous killing machines that he became an active conservationist for the animal. Also, he wrote several other maritime themed thrillers, with simple titles that would look good embossed on a hardback cover. None of which proved as successful as his debut novel. Hollywood still tried to turn Benchley into a successful brand name. “The Deep,” mostly based on the strengths of Jacqueline Bisset in a wet t-shirt, was also a hit. This convinced the “Jaws” producers to buy the movie rights to Benchley’s third novel, “The Island,” before it was published. The movie made from that book was such a box office flop, that all future Benchley adaptations went straight-to-TV. Michael Caine, who was happy to joke about his other Benchley-adjacent oceanic floater, was so ashamed of the movie that he refused to discuss it. Despite that reputation, the film has a small cult following. “The Island” was also largely shot on the island of Antigua. Considering the Caribbean nation it forms with neighboring Barbuda has few cinematic offerings of its own, that’s close enough for me to count it for 2026’s Horror Around the World journey.

Journalist Blair Maynard wants to investigate the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. He convinces his editor to pay for a trip to Florida. His gun-obsessed pre-teen son tags along out of necessity. After their plane into the Caribbean crashes, father and son are stranded on an obscure island. They go for a fishing trip to pass the time, during which the two are abducted by pirates. These buccaneers are descendants of 17th century privateers. They’ve lived in their own bizarre island society for three hundred years, being responsible for a number of the disappearances in the area. Recently, they’ve begun stealing the children off the boats they pillage, to grow their culture. Justin is their next adoptee into the pirate lifestyle. Blair is kept alive because the sole woman on the island chooses him as her mate. Now, he must escape the plunderers and stop his son from being indoctrinated into their violent ways.

Probably owning to their status as a common Halloween costume, my brain has always sorted pirates alongside other classic horror tropes. I don’t know if anyone else does that but nomadic sea bandits were a common feature in classic gothic literature. Either way, “The Island” does make a decent case for the corsair as a movie monster. The film introduces its villains by having them gorily killing a tourist with an axe. Their next appearance features a flaming head-dress, the sort of thing Blackbeard supposedly did. Certainly a striking and shocking thing to see at any place besides an Arthur Brown concert or Burning Man. All of the following raids are equally violent, with lots of slashed throats. Most pirate movies focus more on high adventure on the high seas. This is weirdly the tone taken by Ennio Morricone’s nostalgic score. However, being attacked while at sea by blood-thirsty bandits would be pretty scary, which is what “The Island” emphasizes to decent effect. 

Unlike vampires and Frankensteins, pirates were and are real things. You probably aren’t going to see too many Captain Hooks or Long John Silvers in international waters, today or circa 1980. To get around that, Benchley’s novel and screenplay introduces the improbable plot device of an isolated colony of Napoleonic freebooters hiding in the Bermuda Triangle in the late 20th century. The story only passingly acknowledges that inbreeding would become a major problem for such a small, concentrated population. The pirates also still mostly use swords, cannon balls, and blunderbuss, despite the film making it clear that they would encounter modern technology on their raids. Despite the silliness of all this, there is a fun idea here. The pirates speak in their own pidgin English, with clipped sentences and weird slang of their own invention. Their culture is replete with strange customs, ruled by obscure and insular rules. If you kill a man, you must take care of his wife. For an abducted child to fully become part of the tribe, he must kill his own dad. There are fleeting references to sea-faring lore, which adds a neat depth to the whole thing. When combined with some above-average costume design, it convincingly creates its own reality. Being an outsider in this world is interesting and some of its features – such as a punishment in which a jellyfish’s tendrils are dragged along an exposed body – are quite memorable.  

This means “The Island” has some cool ideas and decently assembled sequences, despite the obvious gaps in logic. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t entirely work. The pacing is sluggish, especially during the long middle section once the characters arrive at the titular location. The film also takes far too many additional paths on its way to its central point. Did we need that stop-over on another isolated island before the pirates grab Blair and his kid? In general, “The Island” does not have the most likable main character. Michael Caine plays Blair as a prickly and stand-off-ish guy that isn’t easily liked. The focus on his relationship with the woman that adopts him and his repeated escape attempts never quite take off. Caine is an appealing performer, his established screen persona already straddling the line between egg-headed intellectual and British gangster. He can’t make the former likable with such a thin script. 

This is part of an intended theme about masculinity. Justin clearly does not respect his dad, constantly belittling him with smart-ass comments. When the two visit a gun shop, the kid is very excited and knowledgeable about the fire arms. His father, despite being a Korean War vet, does not seem to be a fan. Obviously, the idea is that Blair is a stuffy intellectual, disconnected from real manhood. This is ostensibly why the boy ends up seemingly embracing the pirate life style, as the bloody bandits are more traditionally masculine. David Warner plays the leader of the buccaneers, his presence recalling “Straw Dogs.” “The Island” has a similarly regressive message about masculinity, the boy accepting his actual father figure only after he embraces violence. Ostensibly, I guess the message is that Blair proves his bravery and that is what impresses the boy. In effect, it looks like Michael Caine gets behind a machine gun like Stallone in the climax of “Rambo IV,” and the kid’s feeling about his dad immediately changes. Now, I’m a fan of a hyper-violent, shoot-em-up ending and eighties movies with questionable stances on what constitutes a “real man.” The film still does not earn the sentimentality of that ending.

If “The Island” had focused solely on the weirdo pirate culture and those bloody scenes of stalking and murder, I would be able to get behind it as an overlooked gem of eighties horror. Instead, a shaky screenplay and some sluggish pacing sinks this one. Director Michael Ritchie was mostly known for sports movies, serious and comedic, before this. He would have more success in the eighties with personality-driven action/comedies, further suggesting that this project was an odd fit for him. You do see lots of the beautiful Caribbean islands and seas though. I also don’t know why Michael Caine is so embarrassed by this one, which definitely isn’t worst than “Jaws: The Revenge,” if maybe not as funny. [6/10]

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985): The Specialty of the House

Since most of the eighties "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episodes are remakes, what truly attracts me to an installment is the cast. Oh, John Saxon as a bitchy food critic? I'll roll the dice on that. Garth December is the prestigious restaurant reviewer at a high-profile publication, known for his biting words and brutal critiques. He visits Hart of the South, a fancy dining establishment run by a Southern belle named Betty Jo, where the menu of every evening is chosen by the chef. Garth is served a delicious but mysterious dish named lamb fritters. December is complying a book of trademark recipes from different restaurants and asks for how these lamb fritters are prepared. Betty Jo refuses to reveal the secret family recipes. Offers of cash do not sway her and Garth cannot replicate the meal at home. He then goes into vindictive mode, writing highly negative reviews of the establishment, hiring actors to feign sickness outside of the building, and doing what he can to sink Betty Jo's career. That's until she personally invites him into her kitchen...

Here's another episode of an anthology show where the twist ending is made far more predictable by the expectations of a twist. Any time there's a secret ingredient to a recipe that the cook emphatically refuses to disclose, it's easy to presume the morbid reveal. Having said that, "Specialty of the House" is indeed worth watching for John Saxon at his campiest. Wearing a succession of hideous pinstripe suits, he cuts down every one around him with brutal observations. This adds a light-hearted but critical tone to this one. Clearly, this is a story of a fabulously cunty jerk going about his obnoxious paths, on the way to a suitably ironic punishment. Of course, watching John Saxon being an asshole is highly entertaining and makes this a breezy half-hour.

There's a definite layer of class conflict here. The snooty, upper-crust douchebaggery of Garth December is obviously representative of a snobbish ruling class. Betty Jo's lower class roots are evident from her heavy southern accent. Operating a restaurant is one of the few ways poorer or blue collar folks can make the leap into a higher tax bracket. Betty Jo has successfully reached this level but stuffy gatekeepers like December still refuse to accept her unless she plays by their rules. That makes the gruesome ending, which thoroughly pushes this story into the realm of horror, all more meaningful. In other words: Eat the rich. This one is based on a short story by Stanley Ellin, also adopted as an episode of Vincent Price's radio show. I'll have to listen to that too. [7/10]

Friday the 13th: The Series: Tattoo

As evident by the specific chiming quality of the background music and the presence of special guest star Keye Luke, "Tattoo" is "Friday the 13th: The Series'" token Mysteries of the Orient episode. Naturally, that means it's set in that corner of every major city in North America known as "Chinatown." Tommy Chen longs to be a hot-shot gambler but his luck is rotten. This means he owes a lot of money to intimidating crime boss-type Frankie Wong. His sordid lifestyle is considered shameful by his grandfather but his cousin, Linda, is a little more sympathetic. Tommy's luck starts to change after he stumbles upon this week's Cursed Artifact: Magical tattoo needles that fatally brings to life the design etched on to someone's skin, bringing the tattooer unbeatable luck. (And also passable tattooing artistry, I guess.) Mr. Chen reaches out to Jack, Micki, and Ryan who quickly set off to grab the needles before Tommy's avarice leads him to kill again. 

Orientalist stereotypes have been especially tricky to dispel in pop culture. "Tattoo" certainly makes no attempt to do so. Grandpa Chen runs an Herbal Medicine shop. He speaks frequently of honor and how Tommy's pursuit of money brings shame on the family. Dragon sculptures appear in passing. One of the random tough guys Ryan encounters knows martial arts. Among Tommy's victims is a nameless woman in a Qipao and smoking an opium pipe. The climatic bet Tommy takes is a game of Russian Roulette, fixated in pop culture as a Vietnamese thing after "The Deer Hunter." While tattoos are now a common sight anywhere, that focus too has a tinge of exoticism to it. Chinatown is depicted as an urban area infested with organized crime, violence, drugs, and back alley businesses. Three of the endangered people in this episode are also women in bondage, a ubiquitous trope that nevertheless takes on a salacious quality in this setting. The show never says the women are sex workers but it kind of feels implied, ya know? 

We have to acknowledge such stereotypes as harmful and regressive. To not do so makes them seem acceptable, when they are not. Much like I did when reviewing "Mask of Fu Manchu" earlier in the season, I must also confess that "Tattoo" is a pretty good episode otherwise. It's tighter paced than most "Friday the 13th: The Series" installments. It feels like Jack, Ryan, and Micki are on the move the entire time in this one. Perhaps it's the inherent tension in any sort of gambling that gives Tommy's killing spree and all related activities a bit more suspense. The climax ramps up nicely as it cuts between that game of Russian Roulette and Jack's attempts to save Linda Chen from a deadly snake. (Or a "deadly" snake, as the zoology nerd in me immediately checked if red-touched-yellow or red-touched-black on the reptile's skin and guess which one it was?) This is not the first time I've seen deadly tattoo art on a show like this but it's a cool gimmick. My favorite example is probably the tat of a monstrous hand that then sprouts from the guy's chest and strangles him to death. 

As questionable as the role's racial connotations are, the guest cast is very good here. Especially after the very unsympathetic portrayal of the previous episode's antagonist, I like how we at least understand where Tommy is coming from. His cousin Linda's drive to try and protect him adds a little more drama to the plot, most notably to the inevitable moment where Tommy tattoos her. That also dovetails with Micki and Ryan's status as family, which is played up over their usual flirtatious dynamic. There's no doubt that Keye Luke was gifted at bringing actual gravitas to parts like this. I like the interaction he has with Jack at the end, the two men treating each other as equal masters of eccentric arts. Once again, I must concede that this is "solid entertainment if you ignore the racism." Also, this is another episode with an annoying-to-Google name. The keywords "friday the 13th tattoo" mostly returns articles about the associated lore between the activity of ink under skin and the day or images of Jason tats. [7/10]