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The scariest moments from the Insidious franchise

10- Soundless screams (Insidious: The Last Key [2018]) 

Insidious: The Last Key often goes unrecognised in the grand scheme of the Insidious universe despite being the franchise’s most profitable film, meaning that many of its brilliant surprises also go overlooked. One of these potent frights showcases a fear that many of us will have experienced in some of our worst night terrors – attempting to scream, but nothing comes out. The scene shows a key-clawed demon plunging its talons into its victim’s throat, trapping their breath and brutally silencing them. The harsh effects of such a moment make us squirm at the mere thought of running out of breath in a room full of air. 

9- Ultraviolet (Insidious [2010]) 

The first entry into the Insidious franchise remains one of the best out of the bunch, mainly due to its simple scares that build up slowly, leaving us in suspense as we sit and wait for a big jolt to the senses. This brutally slow tension is brilliantly captured in the picture-taking sequence as we follow paranormal investigator Tucker around the haunted home, looking through a UV lens to identify suspicious activity. As Tucker flicks through the lens settings, we see an ordinary hallway plain as day, that is, until two wide-eyed ghosts suddenly appear in the frame, grinning ear to ear with the most menacing smile possible. It’s a classic scare. One that takes minimal moves to enact, but the slow anticipation of knowing you are in for a fright provides the scene with maximum payoff. 


8- Beware of the wardrobe (Insidious: Chapter 2 [2013]) 

Tin canned walkie-talkies make a terrifying comeback in Insidious: Chapter 2 as we see the Lambert brothers trying to settle after the events of the first film. Upping the nostalgia factor is the inclusion of the tried and tested closet jumpscare. A sleepy Dalton soon realises that it’s not his brother at the other end of the line, but instead a sinister voice with bad intentions. As Dalton begins to sit up in anticipation, replicating the viewer’s goosebumps, a gangly monster leaps out from the closet and bolts to the door before turning to Dalton and unleashing an almighty scream as it glares a haunting stare from its jet-black eyes. It’s a scene to behold and an instance that brings us back to our innermost fears of monsters lurking in the dark crevices of our rooms. 


7- Baby monitor (Insidious) 

Since their mass popularisation in the mid-1980s, baby monitors have become a pinnacle prop in cinema, with films such as The Baby’s Room (2006), Nocturnal Animals (2016) and Lullaby (2022) all utilsing the radio system as a horror instigator. In Insidious, the baby monitor tactic is used continuously to elicit big scares over small instances of time, with the strange utterances heard over the transmitter multiple times. In the beginning, each baby check ends in a fake scare, one where the spookiness is almost a hoax. However, during the third case, the camera finally reveals a pale-faced, vampiric-like, suited ghost ominously staring over the child. The baby monitor scene is an exercise in deceit, ceaselessly building up until we no longer expect a reveal of any sort, until that dreaded moment where we are taken by utter surprise.


6-  Crossing the street (Insidious: Chapter 3 [2015]) 


Insidious: Chapter 3 is brimming with some truly underrated shocks and startles, with the ‘car crash’ scene being a prime example of the film’s ability to seize the reins and make an ordinary segment transform into a nightmare. Quinn Brenner is a troubled young girl haunted by her mother’s death. Hoping to regain a sense of normalcy, she pursues her dreams of entering a performing arts school. After a mediocre audition, she is left even more disheartened; despite that, her night is about to worsen. Crossing the street, she sees an eerie figure waving at her in a hospital gown, catching her attention in the middle of the road. Suddenly a screeching car comes into the frame, smashing into Quinn as she falls lifeless on the floor. It is one of Insidious’ more grounded scares, with the terror of an unfortunate real-life affair, with the zooming car and sudden collision with Quinn’s helpless body being somehow more terrifying than a world of ghosts and ghouls.


5- Sheet ghosts (Insidious: Chapter 2) 

Joining the likes of baby monitors and closet ghouls is another quintessential genre favourite, the classic sheet ghost. The blank, expressionless demeanour that the cloaked spirits withhold provides the perfect minimalistic scare where just the visual alone is enough to send shivers up your spine. In Insidious 2, we are confronted with a ghastly team of veiled feinds, sat eerily still with their clawed, decayed hands peeking out from underneath the cloth. The image alone is the definition of nightmare fuel and is utterly unforgettable.

4- Knock-knock (Insidious: Chapter 3)

The horrifying scene begins rather innocently with Quinn gleaming from hearing her ‘neighbour-meets-crush’ knocking on her bedroom wall from the otherside. Their sweet morse code leads to Quinn texting her admirer, only for him to reveal that no one is home. The sudden realisation that the knock is coming from a sinister presence makes our stomachs drop at the pertriyfing awakening.

3- The big reveal (Insidious) 

Insidious begins as a rather mundane, yet alarming, haunted house meets possession story. However, during the finale, all hell is let loose as a whole movie universe is unleashed, revealing that the paranormal happenings run further into the veins of the Lambert family than anyone could have ever imagined. Within this reveal, the Insidious franchise was birthed, with the film’s layered lore opening up within the final act. 


2- Tiptoe through the Tulips (Insidious)

Many of us will be familiar with the nerve-wracking ring of Tiny Tim’s falsetto voice singing his hit ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’, thanks to its appearance on many creepy internet videos. However, its best use has to be in the first entry into the Insidious world, with the song playing over one of the series’ scariest moments. As Renai unpacks belongings into her new, seemingly ‘unhaunted’ home, a little boy appears in the corner of the frame dancing along to the spooky chime of horror’s scariest song.


1- The Lipstick-Faced Demon (Insidious) 

It would be criminal not to include the franchise’s most iconic jumpscare in this list. While Dalton’s grandmother discusses how the demon attacking Dalton may hold a greater significance than first believed, the now-infamous ‘Lipstick-Faced Demon’ appears behind Josh with a brazen ferocity, followed by the most gut-wrenchingly loud orchestral swell. The result of the stunning score combined with the incredible graphics of the demon and the sudden hecticness of the incident makes this scene the most memorable and effective in the franchise.

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Review- The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

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James Wan changed modern horror in 2013 with the release of The Conjuring. No one was truly expecting how much of a success this out-of-nowhere film was going to gain, nor did anyone expect the lasting legacy that The Conjuring would have on the genre. Eight years down the line the Conjuring Universe is now eight films richer, with four primary branches being explored (Conjuring, Annabelle, The Nun, and The Curse of La Llorona).

The reason for the depth of films primarily relies upon The Warren’s having explored a senseless amount of paranormal cases, reportedly in the thousands. Out of these occurrences, the most opportunistic and intriguing one has to be the murder trial of Arne Cheyenne Johnson, which saw a young man who stabbed his landlord more than twenty times plead not guilty because “the devil made me do it…

Directing is Michael Chaves who is no stranger to the Conjuring Universe after the box office failure of The Curse of La Llorona, and in true Hollywood fashion, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It drifts entirely from the actual case. Not once did Ed and Lorraine Warren successfully bring a demon to court with them, instead, the judge immediately dismissed the claim of ‘default by possession’, but movie magic has to perform its spell to deliver.

So, in this fictional ‘true story’ we have at the roots a film that primarily follows Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson starring as Mr. and Mrs. Warren as they sieve through a plethora of ghastly ghouls whilst acting as actual detectives on multiple police cases. Matching this is a selective amount of dimensional characters, a heart warming love story, and a well-rounded look that thematically blossoms throughout. 

It is undeniable that The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It has its appealing features, with one of the top notes belonging to the Warren’s themselves. Most of the runtime is devoted to them as they scour to find clues as well as reminisce about how they met; in fact we are delivered quite a warming love story. 

And for me, this is what has allowed not just this entry, but the previous Conjuring films to draw fans in, we can’t help but adore a continuation, something steady to follow no matter how cliché the story gets. 

However, this is not a romance film at the basis, but instead a ‘supposed’ terrifying story of possession. But this is where the positive aspects begin to wallow. Joining the Warrens are our other leads, the harmless perpetrator Arne (Ruairi O’Connor) and his partner Debbie (Sarah Catherine Hook). As aforementioned, we see Arne become possessed and brutally murder his landlord whilst in the presence of Debbie, but she stands by his claims and is at his beck and call.

They spiritually embody a younger version of Ed and Lorraine whose bond is unbreakable, and I do have to admit that I was immersed in their theatrics and their overarching outcomes did matter to me. Chaves certainly relies on fleshing out fruitful characters to deepen backstories and strengthen the spine of the narrative. 

Clearly, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It has plenty of heart, but does it have any brains? Now comes the rapid downfall that sinks in just when we should be gripping to the edge of our seats. Unfortunately, Chaves’ bad luck from The Curse of La Llorona has followed him as the scares are certainly stretched thin. I watch a hefty amount of horror films every week so eventually, I do adapt to pre-packaged plot devices, particularly the dreaded jumpscare.

The sudden appearance of a daunting image accompanied by a swell in orchestral strings has plagued the genre for a dreadful amount of time. That is not to say that jumpscares are impossible to effectively use, with some of horror’s greatest scenes deriving from the tactic, including that terrifying scene in The Descent where the hideous humanoid appears behind a woman’s shoulder, or when the bright red demon appears out of nowhere in the infamous Insidious scene. Chaves on the other hand used them extensively to the point of being formulaic, where anyone could have seen them coming a mile off. 

Similarly, the entire film’s structure could be described as exposition, silence, jumpscare, exposition, silence, jumpscare; and so forth. What happens with this predictability is the essence of familiarity, and ultimately boredom. Sitting through a film that is 1hr and 52 minutes where you can see every single climax before it even happens is challenging, but what added to this was the constant tangent that the film drifted off to.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Johnson’s possession claim was immediately dismissed as legally there was no way to prove innocence, instead, the lawyers went down a self-defense route. Obviously, if the film would have followed reality then everything would have been solved in under an hour, but to uphold feature film requirements there needed to be plenty of filler. 

The gauzes to pad the film were dull, with unnecessary deep dives into other possession murder cases being explored by the Warrens. The overexertion dragged the film out until my attention had nearly completely broken down. 


My overall thoughts remain unbalanced, with neither a love nor hate opinion residing. Alternatively, I enjoyed the refreshing involvement of character arcs but was entirely let down by the extraneous shelling out in an attempt to deliver a ‘wide’ film. At times films with grand budgets get lost in the freedom of finance, with a favouring in exploring dozens of locations and expensive exterior shots; whereas indie films have to be good internally as there is no opportunity to fill in the gaps with pricy stills.

A keen focus to honing in is what The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It desperately needed, and more importantly the entire franchise needs to form its dedication to the genre better and take a note out of The Conjuring’s (2013) book of expertise.

This weeks article comes via Grace from Film Overload, you can check out more of her work here.