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Insidious

year 2010decade 10sdirector James Wangenre Horrorgenre Supernatural horror

102 minutes

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Patrick Wilson Josh Lambert
Rose Byrne Renai Lambert
Ty Simpkins Dalton Lambert
Lin Shaye Elise Rainier
Barbara Hershey Lorraine Lambert
Angus Sampson Tucker
Andrew Astor Foster Lambert
Joseph Bishara Lipstick-Face Demon

Insidious | The Rewatchables

host Bill Simmonshost Sean Fennesseyhost Chris Ryan
Explore episodeClose episode

Producer credits not yet identified.

Roger Ebert's review

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:46Read transcript
  • Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, saying it depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread, is not terrifically good, but gives moviegoers what they expect.
  • The review is called lukewarm and a slight undersell; a reply calls it accurate for a satisfying, well-made low-budget horror movie that delivers a demon, the further and a crazy score on a Friday night.

Most Rewatchable Scene

Gas mask séance scene

In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:53Read transcript
  • The first listed scene is the kid falling off the ladder in the attic, which sets everything up; the attic works because of its high ceiling, trickling light and a ladder to another level, and the furnace is in the attic too.
  • A childhood attic is likened to the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse, and a family once heard running noises in their attic that the kids hoped was a ghost; an exterminator found rats that came up the ivy.
  • The Conjuring is a basement, East Coast movie while this is an attic, West Coast movie; creaky craftsman houses, also used well in Mike Flanagan's second Ouija movie, are underused in haunted house films.
  • The first evil baby monitor scene is next; a baby monitor that is always on and suddenly carries a strange voice works every time.
  • After the move, figures seen in and dancing through the new house in broad daylight, with the Tiny Tim needle drop, make the family realize the thing followed them; daylight can be scarier than 3 a.m.
  • The idea that the people, not the house, are haunted answers the usual question of why a family does not just move.
  • The revelation "it's not the house that's haunted, it's your son" is an always-great swerve.
  • The gas mask scene follows, then the face licker showing up when all hell breaks loose; her old-school analog ghost-detecting equipment, shared with Specs and Tucker, is loved.
  • The ghost figures noticed in the photographs is another listed scene, and Patrick Wilson saving his son is the last.
  • Favorite scene is the séance with the gas mask, with a shout-out to Rose Byrne uncovering the handprint on the sheets, which starts as worry that he is bleeding. — Chris Ryan
  • Two Barbara Hershey scenes matter; the kitchen-table scene brings the first demon reveal crouched behind Patrick Wilson, remembered as one of the scariest scenes seen in a theater, with a spilled Coke.
  • The whole gas mask scene with the face licker and the translating of what the spirits say is named as a favorite: "I'm going with that."

Picking Nits

Unnoticed figures in photos and drawings; Barbara Hershey's character withholding the family history; the mother's protection standards; kids going into attics; Josh staying late to grade papers

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:33:56Read transcript
  • Barbara Hershey's character sitting on the family history instead of telling her son is raised early as a nit; a parent would mention a ghost in every photo before their kids had kids.
  • How nobody notices the weird figure in the pictures, or the figure in the kid's drawings, is a red flag.
  • Rose Byrne's character is called a terrible mother whose protection standards were too low: she should refuse the new house and have everyone sleep in one room.
  • The son has brought home zero demon drawings despite watching hundreds of horror movies, and the mothering in this movie was pretty bad. — Bill Simmons
  • How Elise knows Dalton can astral travel is raised as a nit but disputed: a reply says she knew the father and went through it before, and mediums get a lot of leeway, like the Poltergeist medium.
  • Whether 600 dollars per exorcism can pay the bills is questioned; a Patreon pod is the joke answer.
  • Little kids do not go into creepy attics; a follow-up asks whether Dalton goes up because he is already called there, and heredity versus the fall is left a chicken-or-egg question.
  • Patrick Wilson's character staying to grade papers while his family is terrorized would mean the divorce papers are signed; he is a high school teacher, not working the Mueller Report.

What’s Aged the Best?

The score; the creepy house; Patrick Wilson's horror résumé; Barbara Hershey's creepiness; Rose Byrne's performance; what they did with the budget; the word Insidious

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:46Read transcript
  • The music is one answer: they crushed the score.
  • The house is rated an eight and a half as a creepy house against a 10 for the Amityville Horror house, whose lit attic windows look like eyes.
  • Patrick Wilson's horror IMDb (three Insidious films, two Conjurings, Annabelle Comes Home, The Nun, Lakeview Terrace, Young Adult) makes him an underappreciated Scream King or "horror daddy" to Jamie Lee Curtis's Scream Queen.
  • Barbara Hershey has something inherently creepy and grave about her, as in The Natural as the lady in black and even in Beaches.
  • Rose Byrne is utterly believable from the start, working on her songs, which makes you care about her.
  • What they squeezed out of such a small budget is both an aged-best and aged-worst point.
  • Insidious is a great word, added as a forgotten aged-best point.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Weaker final 40 percent; low-budget effects and stunt work

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:29Read transcript
  • The first 60 percent is better than the last 40: the setup of people gradually realizing something is wrong beats the fix-it ending, and this is agreed.
  • Very few horror movies do both setup and payoff; The Exorcist and The Shining are the examples.
  • With a 2021 budget of 10 million instead of 1.5 the effects would be better; in the séance Patrick Wilson visibly jumps backward, overselling like 80s pro wrestling.
  • One participant thinks the movie has aged pretty well and still works.

Casting What-Ifs

Ethan Hawke in the lead

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:15Read transcript
  • The film was originally going to be named The Further; Insidious is judged the better horror title.
  • Ethan Hawke turned down the lead, then made Sinister a year later, which is judged not as good as Insidious but not far off.
  • Asked whether the movie is better with Ethan Hawke, one answer is yes because all movies are better with him, and another agrees; it is also called a tough one because everyone loves Hawke.
  • Patrick Wilson being subtly off, staying at work grading papers while his wife is chased by a demon, is effective on a rewatch.

They Say the Title in the Movie

Elise saying "insidious"

The panel proposes a new category here.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:15Read transcript
  • Lin Shaye describing what is happening and using the word insidious is the Leo from Once Upon a Time pointing-at-the-screen moment.
  • A participant proposes the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing-at-the-screen moment as a Rewatchables category, loving when the title is used organically in dialogue.
  • A reply says the best one ever is Face Off ("take his face off").

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:58Read transcript
  • Lin Shay as Elise is maybe the number one That Guy of all time for one participant.
  • She was Magda in There's Something About Mary, the heavily tanned friend with the dog, and was also in Kingpin; the match to this movie was a shock.
  • She was in Nightmare on Elm Street and is the sister of New Line's founder Bob Shay.
  • She is among the most recognizable female That Guys of the last 30 years, alongside Barbara Crampton; like Margot Martindale she became a name, here through the Insidious movies.
  • Her IMDb runs on with Kroll Show and roughly seven to ten movies a year.

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Elise; the face licker

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:32Read transcript
  • The pick is Elise, who brings a lot into it; the only other option might be some of the ghosts. — Chris Ryan
  • Specs and Tucker do not really overact; one participant could not find a nominee but then names the face licker as going for it, which is called a great call.

Recasting Couch

Casting kept; the boy recast with a now-famous actor

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:14Read transcript
  • The casting is liked, but it would be fun if the little boy were someone famous now, such as Jacob Elordi or Noah Centineo.
  • Ty Simpkins went on to Iron Man 3.
  • Dalton is later called an unimpressive possessed kid who spends the movie asleep, which is why he would have been recast.

Half-Assed Internet Research

Classroom Easter eggs; old woman demon played by a man

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:40Read transcript
  • Because the movie was so cheap, James Wan filled the classroom scene with Easter eggs: his name on the chalkboard, cast names and Saw items.
  • The old woman demon was played by a man, and only in the sequel was the character decided to be a man dressed as a woman.

Apex Mountain

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:32Read transcript
  • Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne are both judged not at Apex Mountain here.
  • James Wan is first argued to be at Apex because this breaks him out of the Saw pigeonhole and opens every door; Furious 7 is raised as a challenge.
  • The Conjuring is then accepted as Wan's Apex instead: it made three times as much, cost 20 million, is a better movie and a bigger contribution, and it leads to Furious.
  • The Conjuring franchise is preferred; Insidious was abandoned around the third film, and doing Insidious before The Conjuring on the podcast would have made more sense.
  • A joke imagines Wan living somewhere bright with no creaks rather than a Victorian mansion in Echo Park.
  • Apex Mountain for astral traveling is raised, noting Behind Her Eyes, without an answer.
  • Joseph Beshara is affirmed as at Apex Mountain, as both the demon and the score, likened to Johnny Greenwood acting in There Will Be Blood.

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes; The Haunting of Hill House already approximates it

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:49Read transcript
  • Asked whether it could be a ten-episode Netflix show, the answer is yes and that it has effectively been done as The Haunting of Hill House, a blown-out version of this.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Why the wife always senses the haunting first; where Dalton ranks among possessed kids

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:49Read transcript
  • Why the wife always knows before the husband is read as overt commentary on a woman's connection to her family and home; husbands only tap in as crazy authors.
  • Where Dalton ranks in the possessed-kid power rankings: Jody from Amityville Horror ranks high, Danny from The Shining and Reagan from The Exorcist, the Zion Williamson of the group, are raised for number one, and Dalton is not that impressive.
  • The Good Son is raised and offered as a future episode.

Who Won the Movie?

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:00:58Read transcript
  • The guy who did the score and played the ghost is called pretty high up there, without being chosen.
  • Rose Byrne wins it for one participant for a really good mother-in-terror performance.
  • James Wan is another pick: he changed the course of his career and the horror genre by refusing to be pigeonholed as the Saw guy.
  • A case is made for Lynn Shay, who went from That Guy to the star of the series and a horror linchpin; the wording is hedged and not counted as a ballot.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Rose Byrne
Speaker not identified
James Wan

More from the conversation

The Insidious trailer plays as the cold open after the "Coming up next" intro.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:44Read transcript
The movie is introduced as strangely important and influential, with a Wikipedia plot sentence about a comatose son becoming a vessel for entities in an astral dimension called the further.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:41Read transcript
Three framing claims: the film planted the seeds for Blumhouse, slammed the door on the torture porn era, and ushered in the something-wrong-with-the-house era.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:06Read transcript
James Wan and Lee Winnell (ASR; Leigh Whannell), the Saw filmmakers, made a haunted movie as a departure from Saw's gore and changed the trajectory of horror for the next ten years.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:31Read transcript
By the end of the 2000s horror felt dead between torture porn and inferior remakes; the first Saw was good for its reveal, while the Friday the 13th and Rob Zombie Halloween remakes were disliked.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:57Read transcript
Critical writing tied torture porn to a country at war and inured to violence, but as viewing experiences those films were no fun to return to, unlike this one.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:50Read transcript
Genres build on and react to each other, likened to punk rock reacting to prog rock; horror returned to basics.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:15Read transcript
Genre eras come and go, compared with early-80s exploitative horror and the Porky's-style high school comedies; torture porn lasted five or six years and is now barely seen.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:42Read transcript
Torture porn is framed as the culmination of decades of grindhouse titillation (I Spit on Your Grave), followed by a low-budget reset.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:01Read transcript
This may be the cheapest movie covered on the podcast, at about 1.5 million, and James Wan is argued to be possibly the most profitable director of the century.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:52Read transcript
The 2010 I Spit on Your Grave remake and the Last House on the Left remake are called hard watches with over-the-line sexual assault scenes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:18Read transcript
Filmmakers such as Alexandra Aja (ASR) and Eli Roth were born into the era; audiences got sick of the films rather than a moral outrage ending them, although Saw and Hostel made money.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:08Read transcript
Cabin Fever versus Cabin in the Woods marks a move toward comedic, character-driven horror; caring about characters, as in The Conjuring, is a huge boost.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:58Read transcript
The Scream era and remake era preceded torture porn; remaking The Omen was unnecessary.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:49Read transcript
A something-wrong-with-the-house timeline runs from Amityville Horror, The Changeling, The Entity and Poltergeist (79-82) through The Others, The Grudge and Skeleton Key, found footage from Blair Witch to Paranormal Activity, then Insidious, Sinister and The Conjuring; the subgenre is expected never to end.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:15Read transcript
Insidious came out ten years ago, April 1st.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:06Read transcript
The genius is that something is wrong with the kid, not just the house: a fusion of The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror made cheaply with really good actors, despite handheld camera and mediocre effects.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:06Read transcript
Rose Byrne is really good and believable; she is on pace to be Rewatchables 2021 MVP with three movies before April; something is also wrong with the dad.
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:57Read transcript
Horror started casting better actors around 2010, as in the 70s with Margot Kidder and James Brolin in Amityville Horror; Saw used lesser names like Carrie Elwes (ASR); The Changeling works because of George C. Scott.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:22Read transcript
Horror is one of the few still-successful genres, so profit participation in a cheap film making about 115 million is attractive to actors like Rose Byrne and Ethan Hawke.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:39Read transcript
The score is called one of the best horror scores; a son of one host ranks it the scariest after The Shining and Amityville Horror and moved seats during a viewing.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:04Read transcript
Composer Joseph Beshara (ASR; Joseph Bishara) also plays the demon, joked as a Bo Jackson-level performance and 'we know who won the movie'; the score uses 39 violins.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:30Read transcript
The premise of Dalton astral traveling into the further is called unassailable; the Wilson-Byrne pairing and James Wan's direction are praised.
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:55Read transcript
Producer Jason Blum saw the film cost 1.5 million, make 99.5 million and shoot in three weeks; Blumhouse followed. Oren Peli is raised as a big name to mention.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:47Read transcript
Oren Peli, an Israeli producer-writer on this film who also made Paranormal Activity, brings a run-and-gun found-footage sensibility; his credits include Chernobyl Diaries and Area 51.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:47Read transcript
A joke imagines Chernobyl Diaries as a season-19 Rewatchables pick and asks whether Craig will still work here in 2041.
Approx. transcript time · 00:17:38Read transcript
The Bay, Barry Levinson's 2012 found-footage film about the Chesapeake being infected, is recommended; one participant says he does not know it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:04Read transcript
The found-footage era should not have petered out; ideas include an abandoned mental hospital being converted to condos and a Boston prison converted into a hotel.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:29Read transcript
Banter about places that feel like found-footage settings, including a dinner at Major Domo in LA and a car window smashed in that area, joked as done by a ghost.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:54Read transcript
The film was written by Lee Wannell (ASR; Leigh Whannell); Wan directed the first Saw in 2004, felt pigeonholed as the torture porn guy, and wanted to make a scary movie without it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:20Read transcript
The film can be watched as a standalone despite suggesting sequels and a franchise; one participant mentions texting with Sean about whether to watch the second film before the pod.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:37Read transcript
A Roger Ebert story from Johnny Carson reruns on Pluto: on a December 1986 show Ebert, after guest Chevy Chase, panned Three Amigos; Carson tried to steer to favorite Chevy Chase movies, Siskel (ASR Cisco) said Fletch, Ebert added Vacation, and Chase was visibly fuming. The clip could not be found on YouTube.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:04Read transcript
Modern equivalents are imagined (critics telling Ryan Reynolds Deadpool sucks; Shaq grilling Donovan Mitchell); Ebert was sometimes wrong, Three Amigos is good, but he had integrity.
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:11Read transcript
Barbara Hershey is praised for her legacy in The Entity, described as one of the most disturbing horror movies, not for children; it helped her comeback after she married David Carradine and disappeared, before an 80s run including Hoosiers.
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:05Read transcript
Early-80s nude-scene body doubles became marketing, for Angie Dickinson in Dress to Kill (ASR; Dressed to Kill) and Hershey's fake body in The Entity; Dressed to Kill is debated as a possible future pick.
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:56Read transcript
Body Double, by the director transcribed 'Brian's at home' (ASR), opens with a body-double shoot; it is floated as a possible rewatchable and called a favorite.
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:13Read transcript
Favorite horror gimmicks: the attic, the baby monitor and spotting something in a photo on second look are runners-up; the favorite is a specific trigger time, like waking at 3:15 in Amityville Horror, which haunted one participant as a child.
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:47Read transcript
A joke asks Sean for his top five bloody-handprint moments; the answer is that they all came after Jets losses.
Approx. transcript time · 00:36:29Read transcript
Wondering whether the film works without its music, and whether a temp score guided the jump scares.
Approx. transcript time · 00:37:21Read transcript
Discussion of whether the film was shot in Pasadena or the Valley, given its craftsman houses.
Approx. transcript time · 00:38:37Read transcript
Patrick Wilson's career: too handsome for character roles, good in Little Children, Fargo and Young Adult, due for a prestige TV series; a cameo in The Assistant plays against his nice-guy persona.
Approx. transcript time · 00:39:29Read transcript
'Podcast Alzheimer's': the hosts briefly cannot remember whether they covered The Shining, then confirm they did.
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:56Read transcript
The film was originally going to be titled The Further; Insidious is judged the better horror title.
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:15Read transcript
Ethan Hawke passed on this and then made Sinister a year later; Sinister is judged not as good but close.
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:06Read transcript
Lin Shaye's career: Magda in There's Something About Mary, Kingpin, A Nightmare on Elm Street; she is the sister of New Line founder Bob Shay (ASR); compared with Barbara Crampton and Margot Martindale.
Approx. transcript time · 00:46:24Read transcript
Whether the opening flashback of the father as a child is needed: it could be cut, but it front-loads a scare and the scary strings in the first minutes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:07Read transcript
A special guest, Ben Simmons, is brought in; Craig is no longer the youngest person on the pod. Ben says he never goes in the attic, saw The Omen at about seven and avoided dark places after, and would leave the house or stay at a friend's if something were wrong.
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:50Read transcript
Ben was pulled out of a Zoom class for five minutes, called a benefit of the pandemic; his takes are praised.
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:31Read transcript
Next week brings two movies: one is a Michael Mann movie (Blackhat is teased; it was watched two and a half times and needs five or six viewings; it cost about 75 million and made about 13 million), and the other may have Arnold Schwarzenegger in it (Twins is guessed).
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:57Read transcript