‘Insidious: Out of the Further’ Writer-Director Jacob Chase Knows the Audience Is Asking, ‘Why Are We Still Making These Movies?’ So He Was Determined to Make a ‘Fresh Start’

Jacob Chase, writer-director of "Insidious: Out of the Further," set out to make the sixth entry in the horror franchise feel like a fresh start rather than a rehash, aware that audiences might question the need for another instalment. The film centres on Gemma (Amelia Eve), who can astral project like previous characters but is uniquely able to bring demons back from "The Further" into the real world, while also grappling with inherited trauma from her mother (Laura Gordon) and protecting her own daughter (Island Austin).

Chase, whose previous horror credit was 2020's "Come Play," draws on an unusual background: he spent two years running a hand-built, 1,800-foot charitable haunted attraction in Northridge, California, from 2012 to 2014, with proceeds funding cystic fibrosis research. He credits that experience with teaching him how to engineer suspense and jump scares that carry genuine narrative stakes, aiming to ensure each scare in the new film marks a meaningful turning point in Gemma's unravelling story rather than a cheap jolt.