How To Watch The Insidious Movies In Order

"Insidious" comes from the minds behind the "Saw" and "The Conjuring" universes, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and introduces horror fans to the Further. Rather than simply feature different demons that go after a family across multiple movies, the franchise follows as members of the Lambert family go into a purgatory realm that houses spirits of all sorts. Some are more friendly than others, and those with a more malicious nature will do anything to be free of the red door.

Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) are trying to protect their children from strange paranormal occurrences, but that can only happen with the help of psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye). Over the five films of the series so far, the Lamberts and Elise face some of the scariest demons in the genre today. While "Insidious" might not be based on a true story like others claim it to be, it doesn't change how terrifying it is to watch Josh and Elise go into the Further and have several near-misses while helping others — or their past selves — in the time-bending space.

If you aren't sure where to start watching the "Insidious" franchise, don't worry. Grab a lantern and beware of any red doors that might come up as we detail why you should watch the movies in chronological order:

• "Insidious: Chapter 3"
• "Insidious: The Last Key"
• "Insidious"
• "Insidious: Chapter 2"
• "Insidious: The Red Door"

While the release order of the "Insidious" series doesn't match the chronological order, it is easy to rearrange the movies to watch everything starting with Elise's original journey. This lets audiences see how she's connected to the Lambert family before continuing on to their experiences with the Further. There are essentially two different stories going on within the film: Elise's and then Dalton and Josh's. watching them in chronological order ensures you follow each one in the order that works best for the narrative.

By watching the "Insidious" franchise in this order, the backstory of Elise and her importance to the overall franchise is set up before you move into the Lambert family's story — since their supernatural experiences build on those she experiences before working with them. It also helps fans better understand the nature of the Further and the spirits within it, so when the Red Face Demon appears behind Josh, you know who he's actually after. There are important connections between Elise and the Lamberts that aren't obvious at first, but by seeing the psychic's history before Dalton's (Ty Simpkins) coma, it makes more sense why Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) knew who to call.

Set three years before the events of the first movie, "Insidious: Chapter 3" shows Elise helping a teen girl communicate with a dead parent. Quinn (Stefanie Scott) just wants to talk to her mother who died a year before, but Elise detects something more malignant in the process. She tells Quinn to stop reaching out to the spirit world for her own safety. However, the teen starts seeing a figure around her, even when she's out of her house, and it might not actually be her mother. What ensues next is Elise going into the Further to save Quinn after her possession by the Man Who Can't Breathe. While she helps the girl, Elise also encounters a spirit pretending to be her late husband.

"Insidious: Chapter 3" takes fans back to the beginning of the "Insidious" timeline, giving a great look at some of Elise's earlier adventures in the Further, providing context to just how familiar with the liminal space she is. It presents that she knows the Bride in Black is after her and shows just how long the Red Face Demon has been around her. By understanding how the psychic has interacted with some of these demons before, it reinforces the decisions she makes when helping the Lambert family in "Insidious."

Elise continues to help those experiencing strange supernatural activity in "Insidious: The Last Key." Starting after the events of "Chapter 3," Elise and her team are now focused on helping a man experiencing a haunting in what turns out to be the home she grew up in. This movie dives further into Elise's personal life, presenting the difficult dynamic she had with her brother Christian (Bruce Davison) and revealing that she ran away because of her father's abuse. A flashback also shows her first experience with the spirit world when she accidentally releases a spirit from behind the red door. The prequel takes a bit of a dark turn when she realizes the man now living in the home, Ted (Kirk Acevedo), and her father have so much in common because of the activity in the house.

The fourth installment of the series continues Elise's story and shows that her connections to the Further go back farther than even she realizes. If you were to watch this one before "Chapter 3," parts of it won't make sense. Without the information from the third film of the franchise, much of the meaning of "The Last Key" is lost. The movie is also about Elise confronting and understanding her inner demons, and that's only best when it comes after "Chapter 3." And, the ending of "The Last Key" presents her initial connection to the Lamberts, creating the perfect lead up to watch "Insidious" next.

"Insidious" is where everything started for audiences. After moving to a new home, things for the Lambert family quickly go south when their son Dalton falls into a coma after a fall. When he comes home from the hospital — with still no signs of waking up — the family begins to experience paranormal activity. From the standard scares of alarms going off and seemingly seeing apparitions, the movie takes things to a different level when Dalton's brother Foster (Andrew Astor) thinks he sees his comatose brother walking around in the middle of the night. When a second move doesn't help the matter, parents Renai and Josh reach out to Elise to help them understand what's going on and how they can help their son. While their efforts seem to make a difference for Dalton, who does wake up, the patriarch might've brought something from the Further back into the real world. 

Though the first film in the franchise, it's better to watch "Insidious" third. Knowing more about Elise and her previous work allows for a better understanding of how she approaches the Lamberts' case, and how Josh unknowingly brings a spirit back with him. With more of a connection built between the audience and Elise, it makes the ending of "Insidious" much more tragic and bittersweet.

"Insidious: Chapter 2" picks up where the first left off. The Lamberts are questioned by police about Elise's death all while the paranormal activity is continuing, even though Dalton is awake and well. With the help of Elise's colleagues Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Leigh Whannell) and a tape from when Elise helped Josh as a child, they come to understand there are more sinister things at play. Now, instead of Josh entering the Further to help Dalton, the son enters the spiritual realm to save his father and family. Elise and the Lamberts are connected more than they know, and Dalton's condition isn't unique, since it comes to light Josh had a similar experience as a child, but the memories were purposefully suppressed.

By watching "Chapter 2" fourth, you have all the information you need to understand why the Lamberts are still experiencing supernatural events related to spirits from the Further. With the introduction of Carl (Steve Coulter), another individual in the field, and his abilities to suppress memories, it suddenly makes sense why Josh didn't remember the experiences from his childhood. This nugget of information also helps audiences understand that, no matter what Josh and Dalton experience in the Further, those memories won't actively plague them but could still haunt them, which comes into play in the next installment of the franchise.

"Insidious: The Red Door" takes place nine years after "Chapter 2" as Dalton heads off to college. In the years since their trips into the Further, the Lambert family has fallen apart. Josh and Renai are divorced, Lorraine has died, and Josh doesn't have a strong relationship with his children, particularly Dalton. While college should be the start of a new chapter, Dalton begins to see spirits from the Further and draw the liminal space's red door entrance in class. He is pulled back into the Further repeatedly, sometimes able to control it and other times not. At the same time, Josh is seeing a spirit who resembles his father, who he was led to believe abandoned him as a child. It all culminates in the patriarch going back into the Further to help his son again. 

Without Elise or her colleagues to help, the Lambert family is piecing together things themselves this time. However, "The Red Door" won't make sense if you haven't watched the movies before it. You have to know what Elise and the Lamberts went through to understand why they know what to do now and what Dalton's drawings mean, and how they know what to do to help Josh and protect each other. The ending of "The Red Door" implies that, despite Dalton's effort to seal the door, the Further is still there and the spirits within it are merely waiting for their next opportunity to break out.

There are three other ways you can watch the "Insidious" movies. The first is in release order, starting with "Insidious" from 2010 and finishing with 2023's "Insidious: The Red Door." While it provides a gap in between the Lambert family's story to present more information on Elise's backstory, it is how the films came out, and there's merit to watching them in release order. It doubles back between "Chapter 2" and "The Red Door" to give dive deeper into Elise and her past work with "Chapter 3" and "The Last Key." In this order, her story ends with her life's work rather than her death.

For fans of the Lamberts, you can watch "Insidious," "Insidious: Chapter 2," and then jump straight to "The Red Door" for a Lambert-focused trilogy. This isolates their story while still presenting their entire experience with the Further from start to finish, as it stands so far. "Chapter 2" provides the necessary information about Josh's previous connection to Elise to fill in any knowledge gaps without going too deep into the life of the psychic.

A few Redditors agree that the perfect way to watch the series is watching the Lambert trilogy, and then continuing on to "Chapter 3" and "The Last Key." While this may seem like an unconventional way to watch the franchise, u/EyeThinkEyeCan posits that it is watching the movies in "somewhat of a circular order." The logic is that by watching all the Lambert family's story, and then watching Elise's, you end with Lorraine calling the psychic to help Dalton. It essentially creates a loop in the storytelling and makes for a satisfying marathon.