Vail Daily reviews The Dog Stars and Insidious

Aspen —Ridley Scott, the man who gave us Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator, has handed the Western Slope a two-hour movie where the action scenes last thirty minutes. That is not a bug; it is the entire point, and the trailers sold you on the wrong product.

The Vail Daily’s movie guru, writing under the headline “‘The Dog Stars’ not what you expect,” makes a blunt case: never trust the trailer. For this film, that advice is critical. The marketing materials frame it as a post-apocalyptic action vehicle, but in practice, it is a melancholic, contemplative character study. The violence is gory and occasionally jarring, but it serves purely as a vehicle for emotional beats. The film follows Jacob Elordi, who plays a pilot grieving his dead wife in the wake of an unnamed virus. He oscillates between wanting to kill himself and flying off to find civilization. If you drive into the theater expecting a shoot-out, you will be disappointed. If you are ready to sit with grief, the movie works. It earns a three-star rating out of four for being well-acted and interesting, even if the tone shifts feel awkward.

Then there is Insidious: Out of the Further. This is where the math stops working.

The sixth installment in the franchise is a soft reboot, but it relies on ingredients that have been remixed so often they are now stale. The Vail Daily notes that the series has been slipping with each new entry since the chilling original. The plot introduces Gemma, a single mother played by Amelia Eve, who is raising her daughter in the very house where her trauma occurred. She has the power to travel into "the Further" and accidentally bring back ghosts, a setup that is complicated by the involvement of a dead cult leader.

On paper, this sounds like a fresh start. In practice, it is familiar to the point of tedium. The Vail Daily points out that while there are a few genuinely scary sequences — specifically warning those with dentist phobias to stay away — the momentum fizzles out quickly. Audiences have seen these tropes before, and usually done better elsewhere. Lin Shaye returns as the franchise regular Elise, but she has barely any screen time, meaning her presence doesn’t jolt the rest of the film. The result is a movie that offers a few well-done sequences surrounded by reheated material.

Let’s do the math on your evening. You are paying for two hours of your time and a ticket price that reflects the inflation in local entertainment costs. For The Dog Stars, you are buying a quiet, brooding drama that requires patience but rewards it with emotional depth. For Insidious, you are buying a horror movie that recycles its own formula until the scares lose their teeth. The Vail Daily makes it clear: the charm is gone from the sixth Insidious, and the trailers for this Ridley Scott picture are lying to you. Choose your evening accordingly.