The Insidious horror franchise is one of the longest-running and most successful in the entire genre. Originally beginning in 2010, six total Insidious movies have been released, with the franchise grossing over $740 million total on a combined budget of just $60.5 million.
The franchise’s latest entry, Insidious: Out of the Further, is in theaters now. The new movie follows the story of Gemma, a young woman who is able to interact with things inside of the “Further” physically. The new movie stars Amelia Eve, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Lin Shaye, and more.
In celebration of the new movie being out, we’re taking a look at the Insidious franchise as a whole, and ranking all six movies. This includes the new Out of the Further, as well as the previous five films.
Best Insidious movies ranked
6) Insidious: The Last Key
Originally released in 2018, Insidious: The Last Key is the fourth entry in the horror franchise. It also might just be the worst to date. Chronologically, this is the second film running through the franchise, and follows the story of Lin Shaye’s Elise, and jumps around from past to present as it explores how one of the stars of the Insidious franchise got to where she is.
While it’s not necessarily a bad movie, it does try to explain a lot of stuff that never really needed explaining. A lot of the charm in Insidious’ scares are in the mystery, and The Last Key continues to unravel that thread, leading us down a road that would eventually try to explain way too much out of this universe.
5) Insidious: The Red Door
Insidious: The Red Door is also the first movie that Patrick Wilson directed, and it was a nice touch that he got to direct what will likely be his final time in the franchise. The Red Door, despite being the fifth Insidious movie, actually serves as a direct sequel to Chapter 2, and follows a now-grown Dalton Lambert and his relationship with his father.
The Red Door is a surprisingly emotional take on the franchise, and aims to try and dig deep into the pair’s repressed past from the first two movies. Much like The Last Key, though, the movie often feels too “franchise-y” in how it deals with a lot of things, and treats the Insidious franchise as a cinematic universe more than a horror movie.
4) Insidious: Chapter 3
Insidious: Chapter 3 jumps us way back in time, and is a prequel to the series, following a younger Elise as she investigates a haunting taking place involving a girl, Quinn, who finds herself thrust into the world of demons. The Elise we see in this movie is still trying to keep her powers suppressed, and is much less about the scares than it is giving Elise more of a backstory.
While this is probably the least scary of all the Insidious movies, it does give franchise icon Lin Shaye some time to shine. For that reason alone, it’s one of the better ones.
3) Insidious: Out of the Further
The latest entry in the Insidious franchise, Out of the Further fully separates itself from the Lamberts and anything involving the original films. Instead, we follow Gemma, a woman who has the ability to travel into and out of the Further and actually bring things back with her. Unsurprisingly, this is of great value to the beings in the Further, who are looking to use Gemma to usher in a zombified world.
While Out of the Further leans even heavier on the “cinematic universe” aspects of the Insidious franchise, it does at least get the franchise back on track in a new direction. Lin Shaye returns, of course, as do several other demons from the past films. However, the film ups the ante on scares, and sets up the future of the Insidious franchise nicely enough.
2) Insidious
The original Insidious was an absolute game-changer when it first premiered in 2011. Although the film was met with a mixed response when it premiered, it’s hard to doubt Insidious’ influence on the horror genre all these years later. The movie follows the story of Dalton Lambert, a young boy who randomly enters a coma-like state, and is revealed to be a vessel for beings in the “Further.”
A huge appeal of Insidious was in how much the movie leaned into the unknown of it all. The movie waits a fair bit before revealing that Dalton is being used by demons. Likewise, the movie doesn’t lean on a ton of horror tropes, and instead utilizes the quiet of the Lambert house as the perfect set-up for some jumpscares. It’s a formula that would become overdone throughout the years, but when Insidious was doing it, it worked perfectly.
1) Insidious: Chapter 2
All these years later, and Insidious: Chapter 2 remains the best of the franchise. The movie picks up right after the events of the first movie, and follows Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) as they try to figure out how they’re connected to the spirit world. What follows is probably the best narrative any Insidious movie has had yet, complete with some wild character introductions in the form of the The Bride in Black, The Woman in White, and more.
The movie also does a great job expanding on the lore established in Insidious without ever really explaining too much. While future films would go out of their way to make everything feel connected, the second Insidious feels much more grounded in the Lambert’s issues, and diving further into Josh’s childhood to explain why they were involved was an awesome way to tie everything together.
