Spoiler Warning: Insidious: The Red DoorIn 2004 the movie world was introduced to a new star director when James Wan burst onto the horror scene with the now legendary first Saw film. That franchise has since gone on to reach epic levels and has become a full-fledged franchise with nine films to date and a tenth due later this year. Wan was an instant hit and, in the years since, has cemented himself as one of the most revered filmmakers around. Since Saw, he's continued to treat horror fanatics to some of the genre's most bone-chilling films of modern times and has become a legend for it. While his Saw films continued the gory terror they were known for, by 2007, Wan began branching out and showing his versatility as he moved into the supernatural horror space with Dead Silence.
However, it wouldn't be until 2010 that he truly began conquering this subgenre when he directed a film that is now legendary for how frightening it was. Insidious was the first film that sparked an entire franchise which now encompasses four films, and an eagerly anticipated fifth due to be released soon. Three years before James Wan began The Conjuring universe, he was already terrifying audiences with Insidious. The films that came after, combined with the massive success of the Saw and Conjuring universes has since cemented Wan as a true icon of horror. As the world gears up to be horrified again with the new Insidious: The Red Door, here's a look back at the scariest moments from the Insidious franchise.
10 Tin Phones (Insidious: Chapter 2)
When young Foster wants to play with a tin can phone with strings, his brother, Dalton, isn't into it. Later that night, Dalton hears a voice coming from his can. Thinking it's Foster, he's terrified to see Foster sound asleep, and he tugs on the string only to find that the other end leads into the back of his dark closet.
Related: Insidious: The Red Door Ending, Explained
If that's not terrifying enough, the other end of the string gets pulled taut, indicating that someone's in there holding it. The tension and music only add to the chilling suspense, as he sees a ghostly girl standing in the darkness. We soon get a massive jump scare when she rushes at him. The scene ends with Dalton's horrifying realization that he's asleep and has projected out of his body, now being able to see that his room is full of ghosts all staring at him and trying to touch him.
9 Tiptoe Through the Tulips (Insidious)
In the first film from the franchise, Insidious, Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) is terrified out of her own home when she and her family begin to experience a haunting. Moving into the new home doesn't help since it was never the house that was haunted. In a terrifying scene, Renai is cleaning the house when a ghostly apparition of a young boy appears.
Not noticing him at first, Renai's first realizes the trouble when the music she was playing changes to Tiptoe Through the Tulips. A haunting game of hide and seek ensues that culminates in a huge scare when the child she isn't even sure she actually saw leaps out of a cabinet, and she realizes that the ghosts have followed the family into their new home. See
8 Baby Monitor Scene (Insidious)
As far as terrifying scenarios go in a horror film, there's always something a little extra creepy about scenes that involve infants. In Insidious, Renai already has enough to contend with as a mom who has one son who mysteriously slipped into a coma.
Her life isn't made any easier by the fact that she has to still see to get other kids, one of whom is still a baby. Renai begins to hear weird sounds and a menacing voice on her infant daughter's baby monitor. The horrible voice builds until it culminates in a loud, vicious yell which is quickly followed by her baby's intense cries — a properly bone-chilling thing for a parent to hear. The scene ends with a heart-stopping moment as Renai enters the baby's room and sees someone or something standing next to her crib.
7 Dalton's Yellow Eyes (Insidious: The Red Door)
The latest installment in the franchise, Insidious: The Red Door has so far been met with better fan approval than critical acclaim. Nevertheless, the film has been well received by audiences since the franchise has a large fan following and did well to pay homage to the original storyline with its mix of throwbacks, completion of the original story, and a touching plot. Though it wasn't necessarily as scary as most fans hoped for, the film didn't fare too badly on that front either.
In one of its scariest scenes, what made this a great scene was that its chilling nature meant there was no need for jump scares or other theatrics for it to be frightening. In it, we see an older Dalton Lambert now, whose father has done all he can to protect his son from the traumatic memories of his childhood. Despite this, there's an extremely unsettling scene where Dalton's back is to another character and as he slowly turns, we see that his eyes are yellow, proving that he still fell prey to possession no matter how much his father has sacrificed to keep him from having to ever experience this again.
6 Quinn Hit By Car (Insidious: Chapter 3)
Insidious: Chapter 3 was the first film in the franchise to depart from the storyline of the first two. As a prequel, it delved back in time to another client of Elise's. This time, three years before the events at the Lambert's house, Elise decides to help a teenage girl named Quinn, who is trying to make contact with her dead mother. Feeling sorry for her and also not wanting her to blindly mess around with the spirits of the dead, she reluctantly agrees to help her. When she tries to contact her mother for her, Elise experiences a malevolent force and warns Quinn not to try contacting her mom again. Of course, it's too late, and we later learn that Quinn is being hunted by a demonic spirit known as the Bride in Black.
What follows is one scary film as we see chilling demons and are assaulted by some massive jump scares. The Insidious films have built a reputation for having some of the most jarring jump scares around since they often occur when you least expect them or when the rest of the scene seems entirely innocuous. In the scariest one of the film, Quinn is talking to her friend and all seems fine when she's suddenly and brutally hit by a car. If that's not bad enough, the rest of the film sees her laid up in a caste in her creepy apartment building where she's constantly terrified and haunted by spirits.
5 The Bunk Beds (Insidious: The Last Key)
If Insidious: Chapter 3 was a prequel, Insidious: The Last Key was more accurately described as an origin story. Over the years and the success of the franchise, Lin Shaye, and her enduring character, Elise Rainier from the films, have become a staple of them. Shaye has earned herself a great reputation among horror lovers as a scream queen since she's now acted in quite a few great films from the genre.
The Last Key finally took notice of this popularity and became the first film in the franchise to revolve around Elise herself and how she became a demon hunter. In the opening scenes, viewers are given some great insights into her childhood and the terrifying events that set her down the path she later embraced. Showing that she had a brother, in a haunting scene, the siblings are in the room and seemingly asleep in bunk beds when Elise hears the sounds of a whistle given to the kids by their mother.
When she tries to follow the sounds and steps out of bed, there's a haunting realization that her brother Christian isn't the source of the sound. This is followed by a huge jump scare as she follows the source of the sounds to a dark cupboard. This was a great intro scare in the film that sadly failed to deliver much more beyond it after getting off to such a great start.
4 Josh's Father Jump Scare (Insidious: The Red Door)
There was a palpable air of excitement among horror fans when it was announced that a fifth Insidious film was being released in 2023. The film has thus far received tepid responses from critics but is doing a lot better with audiences who admired its restrained nature that placed a well-worked redemption story above scares alone. However, that isn't to say there were no scares at all in the film. One of the scariest moments of it came via an electric jump scare moment.
The scene in question occurred when a ghostly figure of Josh Lambert's father suddenly bursts through a window and tries to attack him. The sheer shock and violence of the scene bursting out in that manner made this one very uneasy moment for audiences around the world.
3 Face Behind the Cop (Insidious: The Last Key)
While Insidious: The Last Key may not have been the scariest film in the franchise by any means, it did deliver some great moments that kept viewers on edge. In fact, one of the best jump scares in the entire franchise came from this film. It takes place when Elise is giving her statement to a detective in an interrogation room.
Related: Insidious: The Red Door Cast and Character Guide
The scene occurs after the scary stuff seemed to have ended for a while and viewers are lulled into a false sense of safety since they're in a police station. That is until a hideous demonic face suddenly pops up behind the detective's head as he's talking, scaring the daylights out of her, and the audience too.
2 Return of the Lip Stick Face Demon (Insidious: The Red Door)
The infamous demon from the franchise plays an almost nostalgic role in Insidious: The Red Door. Since the film is predominantly a redemption story, it completes the story arcs of Josh Lambert and his son Dalton Lambert, again played by Ty Simpkins, whose now as grown up as his character is in the film. The film had plenty of eerie moments, jump scares, and a familiar atmosphere of tension but relied more on the convoluted relationship between father and son, and the redemption of Josh Lambert after the second film in the series turned him into the antagonist to stay enthralling.
In this film, after Dalton is again lost in the further, Josh follows his son again to save him, despite Dalton being far less receptive to him as an older child now. In the end, just behind the door, we see the infamous character, the Lip Stick Face Demon, clamoring to reach Josh again. It was both a scary moment and one that acted as a kind of throwback to what made the franchise so successful in its early days. As another great touch, the film was directed by Patrick Wilson himself, who also sang a brilliant cover of Shakespeare Sister's, Stay With Me, during the film's ending credits. This proved to be a brilliant touch that underscored all the poignancy of the film, even if it wasn't the scariest in the franchise.
1 The Lip Stick Demon First Jump Scare (Insidious)
Back when the first Insidious film came out, viewers didn't know back then just what a piece of horror film history it would go on to become. This lack of expectation worked well since no one really knew whether it was even going to be scary at all. However, it wasn't long before the creepy atmosphere and its original story began sinking in. These traits gave the film a tense and unnerving energy that all seems to culminate in one scene that is now legendary for how much it scares a first-time viewer.
In the scene, while Josh's mother, Lorraine, is talking to him and trying to explain a figure she's seen in a nightmare, the set-up is chilling enough since we've already seen glimpses of it. In her dream, or lurking in the shadows of Dalton's room, the Lip Stick Face Demon first appears to be nothing but a shadowy figure that will be used to creep out viewers without us ever getting to see him up close. That is until he makes a glorious, and now legendary appearance, as he suddenly appears behind Josh's head in a scare that still remains the quintessential moment from any of the Insidious films all these years later.
