The Insidious franchise ranked from the prequels to The Further.
Every movie is someone’s favorite movie. If you are a fan of the Insidious franchise and see your personal favorite movie ranked at or near the bottom of this list…don’t take it personally. Every movie has value.
Spoilers for the series and individual films (except Insidious: The Red Door) are unavoidable.
5. Insidious: Chapter 3
Back in time. …and quality
Though it lands in last place in our rankings…Insidious: Chapter 3 is still a fine movie. Its downfall is in its focus on a new family and their ghostly dilemmas. Since it is a prequel, Lin Shaye’s Elise is on hand to guide us through The Further once again. The high points of the film are all related to her journey from broken hearted widow to paranormal power wielding hero.
But so much of the story focuses on new character Quinn that it’s the least you’ll find yourself attached to a film in the franchise. The tricks were wearing a bit thin…and there is far more (read: too much) physical abuse of the lead character in a series that previously excelled on implied horror.
Still, most series do a lot worse than Insidious: Chapter 3 at some point. There’s enough here to recommend…even if we’d recommend any other entry first.
Read our full review
4. Insidious: The Red Door
Legacy
The Red Door returns the story to the Lambert family after a ten-year hiatus. Like every sequel in the series…it feels unnecessary. That’s not to say that it’s bad. Presenting a story of fathers and sons and an inability to hide from the truth…Insidious: The Red Door does have something to say.
Many of our series favorite characters are relegated to cameos and glorified bit parts…giving focus to Josh and Dalton. Their quests to uncover lost memories and come to terms with familial trauma drive the return to The Further. While there is something a bit deeper here than other sequels…it can’t recapture the effective imagery of the previous films. By the fifth installment…it’s all been done.
If you are a fan of the Lambert family story from the first two films, however…you may find more value in this continuation.
Read our full review
3. Insidious: Chapter 2
Was this really necessary?
Insidious: Chapter 2 is an odd duck. It returns us to the story of the Lambert family while serving as a prequel/sequel and companion piece to the original film. Despite picking up right at the end of the first film…much of Chapter 2 doesn’t have much to do with the characters as we knew them. Renai (Rose Byrne) is largely sidelined. Josh (Patrick Wilson) is trapped in The Further…his body inhabited by The Bride in Black. Elise is dead (not that it can stop her). Even Dalton is out of his coma.
The structure of the film is at turns fun and maddening. There is a lot of fun in watching the real Josh try to return from The Further…only to discover that he is the cause of much of the strange activity that plagued his family in the first film. A little bit of The Shining mixes with some found footage with some unusual structure to create something that feels as original as it does unnecessary.
The Lamberts get their happy ending. At least for a while.
Read our full review
2. Insidious: The Last Key
Elise takes center stage
Learning from the mistakes of Chapter 3, Insidious: The Last Key centers its story firmly on Elise (Lin Shaye). Another prequel (with a lot of flashbacks on top of it) The Last Key is much more interesting than its predecessor. The story of Elise returning home to face her own demons of the past…while accepting her inevitable demon of the future. This is as much about the audience accepting Elise’s inevitable death as it is for Elise.
What begins as a story about a haunted house (Elise’s childhood home) twists itself into something else entirely. In fact, the original premise of the story wraps itself up at the halfway point of the movie. That’s when The Last Key delves even deeper into Elise’s story…past. present and future.
Everything comes full circle in The Last Key. We find ourselves on the doorstep of the original film once again. Knowing that once Elise enters…she will never leave.
Read our full review
1. Insidious
Trendsetter
James Wan has had a lot of success in horror. While Insidious may not be his most popular or successful project…it is one of his most important. Predating Wan’s The Conjuring by three years…Insidious sets the tone (and style) for what the new era of horror would look like. Coming off of the remake era of the genre…Insidious was a breath of fresh, patient, air with expert use of horror imagery and a pitch perfect cast.
The house isn’t haunted in Insidious…the Lambert’s son is. Astral projection, The Further, demons of every shape and size…and Lin Shaye feasting on the role of a lifetime. Sure, it’s basically Poltergeist. But unlike Poltergeist II, III, or the remake…it’s a really great Poltergeist. It also has as good of an ending horror had whipped up in some time. You can decide for yourself if continuing the story (and recontextualizing the original’s ending) was worth it.
The Patient Era of horror had begun.
Read our non-spoiler review
Buy the first four movie collection on Blu-Ray from Amazon
