Insidious

Insidious is a 2011 thriller/horror film from the creators of Saw.

Josh and Renai Lambert have three children, the oldest being ten-year-old Dalton. As they begin to settle into a new home, they experience strange noises and other unexplained phenomena. Soon, Dalton is rushed to the hospital in a coma, suffering a severe head injury after falling in the attic. Months slip by, and the doctors still have no explanation for his continuing coma. When the boy is returned home under his mother's care, more frightening events occur in the home. The mother is so horrified that she moves the family to another new home in hopes of leaving the fearful memories behind them.

The family quickly discovers that the haunting has nothing to do with their home. The supernatural outpouring is coming from their comatose son. Several scientific experts, headed by psychic and demonologist Elise Rainier, observe the son, the family and their home. They determine that Dalton is trapped on the other side in a dark world they call The Further. The parents team with the scientists to try to bring their boy back from The Further and save him from the clutches of a dark entity that hopes to claim him as his own.

The film's success inspired three more movies: Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), which continues the tribulations of the Lambert family; Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015), a prequel exploring Elise's past; and Insidious: The Last Key (2018), where we see Elise handle another case. A fifth film, Insidious: Fear the Dark, which tentatively would conclude the Lamberts story, is scheduled to be premiered in 2023.


 * Alien Geometries: Accessible only through astral projection, way too big to be mapped and it takes minutes to travel miles.
 * Alternate Character Interpretation:
 * That's probably more of a WMG than this trope.
 * Astral Projection:
 * Badass Beard: Tucker, the tall paranormal team member, has one.
 * Creepy Good: Elise is a creepy old lady with Psychic Powers who talks about Things Man Was Not Meant to Know as if she's discussing the weather... but she's legitimately trying to help the protagonists save their kid from evil spirits.
 * Demonic Possession: With Dalton's mind elsewhere, it leaves his body open to this.
 * Genre Savvy: To paraphrase Something Awful, "this is one of the few haunted house movies where the protagonists try moving."
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Hello, Barbara Hershey.
 * Haunted House: Subverted. The Lamberts only think they have this problem.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Nite Owl is Josh.
 * The Further Is A Scary Place: It's full of the souls of the dead forced to relive their deaths.
 * In the Blood:
 * Jump Scare: This film is filthy with them.
 * On the DVD special features, in a short documentary called "Horror 101", the creators say they were specifically trying to avoid the conventional "jump scare" which comes out of nowhere, carries no suspense whatsoever, and has no real meaning or effect on the plot; all the jump scares in Insidious are quite carefully built up to, and all of them serve to further the story.
 * New House, New Problems:
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Seriously,
 * Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book
 * Not Afraid of You Anymore
 * Nothing Is Scarier: And how!
 * Offscreen Teleportation: Done by the Smiling Family.
 * Our Demons Are Different
 * Scare Chord: Plenty of them.
 * Composed by the same guy who played the red-faced demon.
 * Shout-Out: In a scene where we see Josh behind his teacher's desk in the classroom, the face drawn in chalk on the blackboard is the puppet from Saw.
 * In the scene where Elise tries to make contact with a dreaming Dalton, the gas mask she puts on looks exactly like the one used by Dream of the Endless.
 * Slasher Smile: A few of the spirits have them, most notably the Doll Girls.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: "Tiptoe to the window, by the window, that is where I'll be, come tiptoe through the tulips with me..."
 * Spooky Photographs
 * Spooky Seance: Elise convinces the family to try this so she can
 * Supernatural-Proof Father:
 * Title Drop
 * Too Dumb to Live: Josh... twice in a row. Before entering  he was very clearly told that he must act stealthy. Of course, once inside he questioned every being he met. So much for being stealthy. Then once back in his house, before , he met  . With not much time left, he chose to yell at her (while she wasn't in any position to do something harmful against him or someone he cares) instead of continuing his way. In the end, the few seconds he lost.
 * Trailers Always Spoil:
 * Wolverine Claws: The Big Bad has them.
 * X Meets Y: Poltergeist meets A Nightmare on Elm Street.
 * Trailers Always Spoil:
 * Wolverine Claws: The Big Bad has them.
 * X Meets Y: Poltergeist meets A Nightmare on Elm Street.