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Insidious Movie Series: Here’s a Full Story Recap and Timeline
Very few modern horror series have made their mark as noticeable as director James Wan’s Insidious series.
Defined by a rich mythos, memorable characters, and great scares, the Insidious films have always had a strong following of fans.
Despite only sporting three – soon to be four – films, the Insidious series has a rather complex timeline.
It also doesn’t help that the third and fourth film take place before the original two, yet feature some of the same characters through all of the movies.
Keep in mind we are not going into extreme detail for each film and will pass by some of the moments that don’t have a larger impact on the story.
Here’s a complete recap of the last three Insidious films and where The Last Key fits into the overall timeline.
There is also a TL;DR section at the bottom for those who don’t want a more in-depth look at the story.
Insidious.
Insidious follows the story of the Lambert family who are haunted by a collection of malevolent entities and a powerful demon.
The family consists of school teacher Josh, musician Renai, their oldest son Dalton, his younger brother Foster, and baby Cali.
Our story opens with the Lambert family moving into a new home and Renai explaining to Dalton that Josh doesn’t like having his photo taken because he’s shy.
Later, Dalton investigates some eerie sounds coming from the attic.
However, the ladder going up breaks and causes Dalton to fall to the floor. Dalton’s family rushes to his aid, but everything appears to be fine with the boy.
The next day Josh goes to wake up his son, only to discover that he is alive but in a comatose state. Insidious‘ story then jumps three months into the future and the Lambert family has set up a medical room to monitor Dalton.
Eventually, Renai experiences supernatural events such as a being screamed at through a baby monitor, a bloody handprint on Dalton’s sheet, and a black-haired spirit stalking her. All of this eventually becomes too much for Renai and she demands that the family moves to a new house.
Josh agrees and the movie jumps an undisclosed amount of time where we see the Lamberts unpacking in their new home.
The viewers are also introduced to Josh’s mother Lorraine, who is seen helping the family get settled.
However, the hauntings continue once again with Renai spotting an unknown young boy dancing and running around her home.
Lorraine then sits down with the family and tells the Lamberts that she had a dream about a red-faced demon that explained it wants Dalton. Realizing that this isn’t going to stop, Lorraine suggests bringing in an expert, Elise Reiner, that she trusts to handle this issue.
This woman arrives after her assistants – Specs and Tucker – survey the house to determine if the Lamberts have been telling the truth.
Elise heads into Dalton’s room where she describes the red-faced demon to Specs who is drawing her vision.
She then explains to the family that Dalton is capable of astral projection, which means he can leave his body and explore another realm of existence called “The Further.” While Dalton has visited this place many times before, he was led astray by the demon and became lost.
Now, with his body unoccupied both the demon and malevolent spirits seek to take control of his physical shell.
A seance is conducted that ends with the spirits attacking and the demon briefly caught on tape by Tucker.
The family and Elise go back downstairs and reveal that Josh can actually astral-project like Dalton. It turns out that Josh was haunted by a vicious spirit that took the form of an old woman in a black bridal gown when he was a child.
The ghost would appear closer in photographs taken of Josh, which explains why he is uncomfortable being in pictures as an adult.
Elise was able to temporarily banish the spirit and wiped Josh’s memory so he couldn’t astral project.
Because this ability is still within Josh, he decides to meditate and venture out into The Further in search of Dalton.
After some time Josh finds his son locked in a room with the demon and frees him from his shackles.
The demon chases Josh and Dalton back to The Further version of their home, guided by the voice of Renai pleading for the duo to come back.
Right before they escape, Josh is confronted by the spirit of the old woman and tells her that he’s no longer afraid of her.
She laughs and vanishes just both Josh and Dalton wake up from their sleep.
The family is reunited and Dalton is finally safe from the red-faced demon.
However, Elise feels that something is wrong with Josh and takes his photo which sends him into a rage.
Josh chokes and kills Elise while everyone is distracted, leaving no evidence that he was the one to *** her.
Renai discovers the body and photo where it’s revealed to the audience that the old woman was captured in the photo where Josh was standing.
This means that Josh didn’t vanquish his own spirit and she took possession of his body.
The movie ends with “Josh” standing behind Renai and her gasping.
Insidious: Chapter II.
Insidious: Chapter II takes place all across the timeline for the Insidious series so it can be a bit tricky to follow right away.
The film opens in 1986 when a young Elise arrives at the Lambert home to help a young Josh deal with the spirit of an old woman that is haunting him.
She is successful, but we do see Josh talking to what appears to be no-one on camera.
Jumping forward in time, Renai explains to the police how Elise died.
No one believes that it was the work of a ghost and leave the case open since there is no evidence that pins Josh as the perpetrator.
While Renai heavily suspects that Josh is possessed by the spirit of the old woman, she has no proof outside of the photo found at the end of the first Insidious.
The next day Renai is attacked by the spirit of a woman in a white dress, who knocks her unconscious on the floor.
Meanwhile, Lorraine visits Specs and Tucker to discuss what happened to Elise which leads to them watching a tape of younger Josh’s seance.
It’s then revealed that when the contrast of the footage is raised, younger Josh was actually speaking to our present-day version of Josh.
Another paranormal expert, Carl, is called in and they attempt to contact the spirit of Elise.
They succeed and she tells them to go to the “Our Lady of Angels” hospital which is where Lorraine used to work.
Naturally, the group goes to the hospital and encounter a plethora of different supernatural occurrences.
Before they leave, the trio finds out that the old woman was actually a mentally deranged man called Parker Crane.
He would take the form of a bride in a black wedding outfit and murdered 15 different people when he was alive.
They also discover that the spirit they were communicating with was not actually Elise, but Parker’s mother.
Renai eventually awakens and speaks with Lorraine who explains the theory that Parker Crane has taken possession of Josh’s body.
Tucker, Specs, and Carl attempt to drug Josh but the plan fails and Josh renders everyone unconscious.
Here’s where things get a bit more complicated.
We cut to The Further and learn that the real Josh has been trapped there ever since the end of the first Insidious.
Carl – who assumes he is dead – meets up with Josh and the two go looking for Elise.