With the release of the latest movie in the franchise, Insidious The Red Door, we thought it was time to check out the chronological order of the Insidious movies that are different from how you may expect to watch them in their release order.
So first of all let’s take a quick look at the release order of the movies which is probably how most of us have seen the Insidious series.
- Insidious (2010)
- Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
- Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
- Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
- Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
Now let’s delve a little deeper into the supernatural and sometimes terrifying franchise and see the order to watch the movies in their chronological order.
Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
Although the movie is the third in the franchise, the movie is the prequel of them all and takes us back to before the first movie and the haunting of the Lambert family as we see Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) reluctantly agreeing to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.
For me this was one of the weaker of the movies in the series, yes it was great to see Lin Shaye back as Elise, but the movie just lacked that feeling that the original movie brought us.
Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
After the encounter in Chapter 3, Parapsychologist Elise Rainier and her team travel to Five Keys, NM, to investigate a man’s claim of a haunting. Terror soon strikes when Rainier realizes that the house he lives in was her family’s old home.
The movie is shot nicely, the lighting inside the house is used to great effect in many of the scenes that have you wondering what is just off camera or lurking in the background and the use of the sound is used to its advantage of the surround sound speakers moving around the audience, such as a child’s voice and other creepy stuff.
Insidious (2010)
Now we come up to the first film that was released and our first introduction to the Lambert family who discover that dark spirits have invaded their home after their son inexplicably falls into an endless sleep. When they reach out to a professional for help, they learn things are a lot more personal than they thought.
For me this has been the scariest of the series, maybe this was down to watching it at the cinema when it first came out and enjoying the scare techniques which now seem to be everywhere, it’s also the movie that tweaked my interest in James Wan’s work.
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
After a somewhat shocking ending in the previous movie, we return back to the Lambert family where everything is still not how it should be. The haunted Lambert family seeks to uncover the mysterious childhood secret that has left them dangerously connected to the spirit world, but this time it’s Josh (Patrick Wilson) that has to fight his demon.
An enjoyable horror, but it never seem to have the same jumps that the 2010 movie had, still it was great that the movie continued where the last one finished.
Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
It’s been a while since we last saw the Lambert Family and now they have returned to the big screen for what has been mentioned as the last movie and is directed by Patrick Wilson. To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh Lambert (Wilson) and a college-aged Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins) must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family’s dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.
Will the family succeed and finally be done with the demons and The Further, we shall see.
If you enjoyed reading this list, then check out our list The Conjuring Universe in Chronological Order.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
