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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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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
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James Wan