Insidious Movies in Order
Six films, two of them prequels, and a series that has now run for sixteen years. Here is the release order, the story order, and what the ratings say about each one.
WhatScares · August 2026 · Runtimes, directors and IMDb scores from IMDb's published datasets
There are six released Insidious films, from James Wan’s 2010 original to Out of the Further in 2026. They run from 97 to 107 minutes each, so the whole series is a little over ten hours.
Every film, in release order
-
01
Insidious 2010
Wan and writer Leigh Whannell, after Saw, made a haunted-house film about astral projection. Still the highest-rated entry — and rated a full point higher on Douban than on IMDb.
-
02
Insidious: Chapter 2 2013
Picks up where the first film ends and follows the Lamberts straight on.
Not in our catalog yet — we have not scored this one. -
03
Insidious: Chapter 3 2015
A prequel with a new family, set before the Lambert haunting, and Whannell’s directing debut. Elise Rainier moves to the centre of the series here.
Not in our catalog yet — we have not scored this one. -
04
Insidious: The Last Key 2018
A second prequel, about Elise’s own childhood home. Sits between Chapter 3 and the original in story order.
Not in our catalog yet — we have not scored this one. -
05
Insidious: The Red Door 2023
Back to the Lamberts a decade on, directed by their own Patrick Wilson. The lowest-rated film in the series.
Not in our catalog yet — we have not scored this one. -
06
Insidious: Out of the Further 2026
The newest entry, in cinemas now. Rated above the two before it on IMDb so far, on a vote count that is still small.
Story order
Release order works — the first two films are one continuous story, and the two prequels were made to be seen after them. The chronology, for what it is worth:
- Insidious: Chapter 3 — Elise, years before the Lamberts
- Insidious: The Last Key — Elise’s childhood home; ends as the first film begins
- Insidious — the 2010 original
- Insidious: Chapter 2 — carries straight on from the first film
- Insidious: The Red Door — the Lamberts, ten years later
Out of the Further is the newest film. We list it last by release and have not verified where its story sits relative to The Red Door, so it is not placed in the chronology above.
Questions people actually ask
- How many Insidious movies are there?
- Six have been released, from 2010 to 2026: Insidious, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, The Last Key, The Red Door and Out of the Further.
- Which Insidious movie is the scariest?
- We have scored two of them, and they came out identical: the 2010 original and Out of the Further both rate 4 out of 5 for jump scares, 1 for gore and 3 for dread. The rest are not in our catalog yet, so we will not rank films we have not put a scorecard to. On IMDb the original leads at 6.8 and The Red Door is lowest at 5.5.
- What order should I watch the Insidious movies in?
- Release order. Chapter 3 and The Last Key are prequels built for an audience that already knows Elise from the first two films, and they land better that way.
- Do I need to watch all of them?
- No. The first two films are one story and stand on their own. Chapter 3 follows a different family and works as a standalone.
- Is Insidious based on a true story?
- No. It is an original screenplay by Leigh Whannell; the astral-projection premise and the Further are invented.
Every film we rate gets three scores, not one. Jump scares, gore and dread are different things, and a film can be brutal on one and harmless on the other two. That is the whole idea behind WhatScares.
Search 323 films by what scares you The scariest movies, by the numbers →