In the world of high-sheen, surface-level studio horror franchises, Insidious is relatively solid. It follows the expected pattern. The first, released in 2010, now ranks as something of a modern classic. With each passing installment, the concept gives a little less mileage. Then comes 2023’s The Red Door, a true dud.

In comparison, Insidious: Out of the Further hits like a return to form. The best Insidious movies feel like a big-budget theme park attraction. There’s just enough story to explain where you’re going and why you’re strapped in, but it still plays second fiddle to the thrills. This installment delivers that balance exactly. And yet, it still has signs of sequelitis. Lore bogs down the franchise’s once promising premise. Worse, it falls victim to one of the late-2010s/2020s most overused tropes: a hamfisted trauma angle.

Leaving behind Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and his family, the focus of three previous installments, we meet a brand-new family. Single mom Gemma (Amelia Eve) and her young daughter Maya (Island Austin) live a relatively normal life in the house where Gemma grew up with her mentally unstable mother (Laura Gordon). Eager to put her traumatic past aside and yet unable to leave it behind, Gemma has settled into a life built around the very place she’s trying to escape. That’s when another door to the Further, the astral realm of the dead, opens. Not only can Gemma access this place, but she can bring entities from it back into the world of the living. This power is particularly attractive to a demonic ghoul named Cyrus who hopes to use it to free himself and other evil entities.

As Gemma, Eve could easily fool you into thinking you were looking at a 2002-era Naomi Watts. Similarly doe-eyed, she—and the character—are at their best, showing the audience why she’s making the choices she is. Horror-movie logic is full of people running upstairs when they should run out or opening a door they should keep locked, but Out of the Further gives us a handful of small moments where we can see Gemma acting real instead of like a trope.

In one of the film’s most gloriously refreshing sequences, she crawls into her daughter’s pillow fort only to discover a never-ending maze of couch cushions, the way back disappeared behind her. When she realizes there’s something else in this nightmarish fort with her, she flings herself against the cushions, kicking with her feet and pounding with her fists to try and break the walls apart. It’s such a small moment, but one that sells the entire scene. Without it, it’s just another dumb blonde making another dumb choice that gives the ghouls a chance to get her.

Writer/director Jacob Chase is new to the franchise, but clearly maintained a fresh perspective. The pillow fort scene feels modern in a way that’s lacking from previous installments. The film’s other bit of freshness comes from what might be Chase’s own personal bent against dentists. Hardened horror fans know that teeth and eyeballs are some of the last bastions of scares that can actually turn a stomach or cause you to shield your eyes. By making Gemma a dental hygienist, Chase leans hard into that truism. It reaches its apex with a stomach-churning teeth-cleaning sequence soundtracked by a cacophony of mouth sounds so wetly disgusting the foley artists deserve a bonus.

As enjoyable and as fresh as these moments are, there’s still something leaden and wooden about the story’s construction. Instead of fueling exciting reveals, the lore bogs everything down. Characters are only painted in the absolute broadest of strokes. We get it, but we don’t really care about it. That said, from my perspective, this has long been a feature of the franchise. Even when Rose Byrne and scream king Wilson helmed the series, their charm came mostly from their own star power, not the plot itself.

Still, I had hopes that Insidious: Out of the Further would prove a solid entry in a mostly solid series, one focused on scares without worrying too much about the rest. As much as I’d love to be surprised by a wildly strong script and a flick that takes it all to a whole new level, I merely prayed for something fun, first and foremost. That’s absolutely what it delivered.

Insidious: Out of the Further is astral projecting in theatres everywhere now.

Insidious: Out of the Further Trailer: