Sony PicturesAt certain points in Insidious: Out of the Further, a thought presents itself: Wait, where have I seen this ghoul before? Regardless, six films in, the Insidious series has amassed a collection of characters — both alive and dead — that’s substantial enough for cameos from, say, the “Bride in Black” from the first two movies or the “Key Demon” from part four. These are accompanied by an army of spirits, many of whom seem familiar, but that might just be because they all have the same freshly dug-up look. The overlap is less significant for the living. Save for series star Lin Shaye — whose role in Out of the Further adds up, generously, to about five minutes of screen time — this is a brand-new cast of characters, with brand-new, albeit recognizable, problems. When we first meet Gemma, she’s a young girl trying her best to cope amid her mother’s mounting mental-health issues. A couple of scenes later, Gemma — now played by The Haunting of Bly Manor’s Amelia Eve — is all grown up, and raising a daughter of her own in the same house where her mom (spoiler alert for this film’s prologue) committed suicide all those years earlier. Gemma is still trying very hard to live a normal life: She has a steady job as a dental hygienist, maintains a consistent routine for her daughter Maya (Island Austin), and avoids letting her cop boyfriend Nick (Brandon Perea) get too close, lest he upset the balance between her and her daughter. But the past has a way of coming back, particularly when all of your trauma is stacked up in the garage in the form of your deceased mom’s unsorted belongings. Maya asks questions about her grandmother, but Gemma doesn’t want to answer them; nevertheless, she insists that she’s fine, and doesn’t need to talk to a professional about what happened. Then Gemma’s recurring nightmares start to get a little too intense. To her credit, she recognizes that she’s going down a path similar to her mother’s, and seeks help — supernatural help, but still. As it turns out, the women in her family have a rare psychic ability that allows them to not only travel to the misty black purgatorial void known as the “Further,” but to bring objects back with them. (Thus, Out of the Further.) This makes them a target for Lester (Joseph Lopez) the long-haired creepy leader of an undead hippie cult who sees Gemma as a vehicle he and his followers can use to hitchhike out of the Further and into our world. As with previous installments, Insidious: Out of the Further is structured around Gemma’s descent into the Further, culminating in a final confrontation that brings the mostly absent Shaye back into the narrative. This journey is dotted with horror set pieces, some of which — to the credit of writer-director Jacob Chase, who made his feature debut in 2020 with Come Play — are actually quite unnerving. It doesn’t all work: The jump scares are underwhelming, as are the feints towards trauma horror. Chase is much more successful in evoking disgust, particularly in a scene that turns Gemma’s aggressively ordinary profession into a squirming site for grotesque body horror. If tooth stuff freaks you out, this is not the movie for you. (Or maybe it is? Maybe you like squealing and covering your eyes.)Have we seen these ghouls before? | Sony PicturesOut of the Further’s relationship with aging is more ambiguous. While Chase resists the common trope of displaying a naked old person for shock value, the antagonists are depicted as shriveled and decaying, particularly Lester’s trio of freakish “Acolytes.” On the other hand, the heroic Elise — who now exists entirely in the Further after dying at the end of the original Insidious — is an elder as well, as is the actress who plays her. Shaye, who’s been appearing in these things since 2010, is now 82 years old, which makes her limited role in this latest film more understandable.The character the film uses to make up for her absence, meanwhile, is completely underserved. Legends of Tomorrow actress Maisie Richardson-Sellers co-stars as Clare, a tattoo artist whose ability to channel Elise, and therefore deliver all the expository dialogue Shaye would have handled in a previous film, is only partially explained. Her motivations for helping Gemma are similarly hand-waved away, resulting in a thankless part for a woman of color who exists only to support the white protagonists. But while it’s not a particularly thoughtful film, Insidious: Out of the Further does have a few good scares. A sequence that turns a pillow fort into a Backrooms-esque series of infinite tunnels — complete with skittering, fiendish entities hiding in the cushions — delivers giggly, claustrophobic thrills. It’s like walking through a haunted house with your friends during Halloween season: Nothing unexpected, but fun enough in the moment. And six movies into a horror franchise like this one, maybe good enough is, in fact, good enough. Insidious: Out of the Further opens in theaters on August 21.