How To Watch The INSIDIOUS Movies In Chronological Order

To watch the Insidious films in chronological order, you need to jump straight to the third installment to get to the start of the timeline. Set in 2007, Insidious: Chapter Three serves as a prequel to the first two Insidious films, released in 2010 and 2013, and marks the start of the entire saga.

The third film in the franchise introduces us to Shaye’s iconic character, Elise Rainier, as she comes out of retirement as a psychic to help a troubled teenage girl. Set a few years before the haunting of the Lambert family, actress Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) seeks out the help of Elise to contact her recently deceased mother.

Elise refuses to conduct the séance due to warnings from a sinister spirit known as The Bride in Black, and warns Quinn not to contact her mother. Quinn, of course, does not listen, and is attacked by an entity, The Man Who Can’t Breathe, who terrorizes her relentlessly and attempts to pull her into The Further, forcing Quinn to ask Elise for help once more.

The events of 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key take place immediately after Chapter Three, but the film also includes a flashback to 1953 and Elise’s childhood, where she inadvertently opens the red door to The Further and unleashes Keyface.​

Taking place in 2010, Elise receives a call from Ted Garza (Kirk Acevedo), who is living in her childhood home and being haunted by a paranormal entity. Alongside her assistants, Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson), Elisa travels back to New Mexico to confront the spirit as well as the deeply repressed trauma revolving around her abusive father, Gerald, who regularly beat her to suppress her psychic abilities.

The film ends with Elise receiving a desperate plea from the Lambert family, taking us straight to the next movie you need to watch.

The film that started a gargantuan horror phenomenon sits smack bang in the middle of the timeline (for now, at least). The bulk of the Insidious franchise takes place in 2010, the year the first film was released, introducing us to the Lambert family, who appear in four installments so far.​

Insidious begins with the Lambert family – Josh (Patrick Wilson), Renai (Rose Byrne), and their three children, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), Foster (Andrew Astor), and Kali (Brynn and Madison Bowie) – relocating to a new home, only for Dalton to inexplicably slip into a coma.

After several strange occurrences, Josh’s mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), contacts Elise, who reveals that Dalton is not in a medical coma but is instead astral projecting. He's become stuck in The Further, leaving his body vulnerable to malicious spirits who can use it to inhabit the world of the living.

Insidious: Chapter Two picks up right where the original Insidious ends, concluding the initial haunting that the Lambert family experiences before we travel back to the start of the timeline in Insidious: Chapter Three.​

Insidious ends with Elise realizing that Josh has been possessed by The Bride in Black, despite managing to rescue Dalton. Chapter Two follows the Lambert family as they attempt to piece their lives back together, while unbeknownst to them, Josh’s actual consciousness is trapped in The Further.

The family soon realizes their nightmare is far from over, and once again turn to Elise and her assistants to uncover the connection between Josh’s childhood and the spirit world to reclaim his soul.

The most recent installment in the franchise, Insidious: The Red Door, jumps forward 10 years after Chapter Two as an older Dalton is heading off to college.​

Now in 2019, both Josh and Dalton’s memories of their experience in The Further have been hypnotically repressed. Josh and Renai have divorced, and Lorraine has recently died. Josh’s relationship with Dalton is strained, so to attempt to build bridges, he drops him off at college and helps move things into his dorm.

The trip ends in a fight, and while separated, both Josh and Dalton begin experiencing strange phenomena when their repressed demons begin to resurface.