How to Watch Insidious Movies in Chronological Order For Story to Make Sense
The release order of the movies is a bit misleading.
In 2010, the world was shocked when James Wan unveiled his latest collaborative project with writer Leigh Whannell, with whom he co-created Saw in the early 2000s. The new collaboration between the two horror giants came to be known as Insidious, and this title has managed to revive the whole scary movie genre thanks to its emphasis on jump scares, fast cuts, and over-the-top storylines.
Insidious quickly became a franchise, but because Wan and stars Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne were busy with their other projects, they were not connected to some of the later movies, which made it difficult to watch the film series in the proper chronological order.
While the first two Insidious movies were long considered chronologically first, that notion was changed with the release of Insidious: Chapter 3, which was actually a prequel to the previous installments, even though the title suggested otherwise. Chapter 3 focused on Elise Rainier as the main heroine and recounted her life before the events of the first movie.
You can already see that the chronology is starting to sound a bit confusing, but the release of Insidious: The Last Key made it even worse. The movie once again focused on Elise and was a sequel to Chapter 3, while still being a prequel to the first two films. Yes, the Insidious timeline is as complicated as they come.
1. Insidious: Chapter 3
2. Insidious: The Last Key
3. Insidious
4. Insidious: Chapter 2
5. Insidious: The Red Door
Fortunately, the latest Insidious movie, Patrick Wilson's The Red Door, is the last one chronologically, which at least makes sense to the audience. Fans still can't understand why Wan and the producers decided to call the first prequel movie Chapter 3, because people obviously do not care about researching a project before seeing the films, which makes it absolutely impossible to watch the franchise in the right order.
In any case, the Insidious franchise has no intention of stopping anytime soon, which means more chronological mumbo-jumbo may be added to this list in the future.