As a certain narrative becomes popular within the horror genre, you can guarantee we as an audience will be bombarded with similar flicks until the novelty wears off and it's up to a filmmaker to break free from the mould and shake everything up.
The 1970s and 80s saw an influx of demonic possession films contributing to the Satanic Panic, a moral crisis that saw the general public terrified of their children being exposed to ‘satanic material' via popular culture. As the panic died down, horror satirised the panic itself while others went above and beyond to create more terrifying demon films, leading the genre to be oversaturated with possession films that failed to capture the audience's attention after they'd been there, done that, and brought the blood-soaked t-shirt.
By the time the aughts rolled around, many horror fans were begging for a shake-up in the supernatural genre to once again leave them shaking in their boots.
Enter: Insidious.
Released in 2010, the film tells the story of married couple Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) as they move into a new home with their children Dalton (Ty Simpkins), Foster (Andrew Astor), and Cali (Brynn and Madison Bowie). Soon after they move into the home, Dalton slips into a coma with no medical explanation shortly after he sneaks into the attic and encounters a mysterious entity. The family, while dealing with their grief, begins to experience supernatural phenomena that lead them to leave their home — but it isn't the house that is haunted, it is them as the malevolent demon latches onto their shared trauma through Dalton. It transpires that Dalton is a vessel for a variety of demonic entities in an astral plane known as The Further and that both he and his father are able to traverse this plane through astral projection.
The modest supernatural horror ended up being the most profitable film of 2011, spawning an entire franchise exploring the history of the characters and the mythology of The Further. After redefining the world of gore with 2004's Saw, James Wan wanted to create a film that could show those hesitant to work with him — after seeing the grit and gore of Saw — that he could make a film that wasn't as gratuitously violent.
And Insidious did just that, changing the face of horror as we know it and leading to a renaissance within the genre, giving way to the creation of The Conjuring franchise and a host of supernatural films with a psychological edge.
Horror fans will know all too well how much of a diverse genre it is, exploring a litany of topics with budgets ranging from a shoestring to the full boot. And while we know this, the mainstream hasn't always embraced its warts (and tentacles, and fur, and wisps) and all.
The genre has often been stereotyped as infantile, filled with cheesy slasher movies and ghostly villains waiting to be signed up to a six-film franchise and a slightly offputting crossover film. But Insidious changed that, elevating the mainstream horror movie into something much more that catered to a wide audience while also scaring the crap out of us all.
While it offered scares aplenty, it also focused on a family dynamic that gave something for the audience to relate to, appealing to both a young and more mature audience.
For new fans of the horror genre, it brings scares aplenty through cleverly-timed jump scares that, while many may roll their eyes at the prospect, really do work within the narrative to create some of the most iconic scares in the genre. The use of negative space, obscuring the audience's view of the scene with dark lighting and clever angles, and long, lingering shots create a tense atmosphere that drives home the horror, culminating in the film's terrifying final act.
For long-term fans of the genre, Insidious also subverts and innovates many tropes within horror that create a fresh supernatural spectre to be scared by.
The film reignited interest in the haunted house genre, taking it from the cobweb-filled labyrinthian homes of the 1930s and breathing new life into its worn frames. First of all, Insidious addresses the age-old question many horror films have – if a house was haunted, why don't people leave? That is exactly what the Lamberts do – only they soon find out that it is, in fact, not their home that is haunted, it is the family. More specifically, Dalton, who becomes the host of the terrifying Lipstick-Face Demon (Joseph Bishara).
Unlike many supernatural and haunted house films, Insidious does not pin down the exact nature or capabilities of the demons, leaving them open to be anything the audience's mind conjures. We are not shown which ghosts are behind each scare, slowly drip-feeding us information about each entity and developing their individual characteristics and lore, bringing the undead to life while allowing the viewer's mind to fill in the gaps.
While many of its predecessors in the aughts contained lashings of gore, Insidious trades it in to show audiences that while graphic imagery can be scary, what leads up to it can be even more haunting. Moreso than this, very few people die within Insidious, for the act of death is not the most terrifying thing the characters are faced with — it's what comes before and after that the franchise explores.
In a world filled with distrust and despair, Insidious is a film that deals with an entire generation's inherited trauma for viewers that have been faced with the messes of past generations through the post-recession climate, the Iraq War, and post-9/11. Through the Lamberts, we see how the trauma Josh faced through astral projection as a child has been inherited by Dalton, and how the family must process this trauma rather than suppressing it to save themselves. Part of the horror in Insidious comes from watching Dalton deal with problems caused by his parents not dealing with this trauma head on, and instead letting it fester until it came back to haunt him – quite literally.
The Lamberts fight demons both physically and psychologically creating a rounded narrative that burrows under your skin, compounded by the fact much of the horror is directed towards children. Ultimately, Insidious reminded us that there's nothing like leaving a cinema with your knees knocking in fear, and it challenged the genre to outdo itself in terms of terror.
The film is scary, there is no doubt about that, but Insidious does not sacrifice beauty as it is beautifully shot, framed, and composed — all elements key to its overall tone. We have since enjoyed some of the most beautiful horror films to grace our screens, such as The Witch, Raw, Pearl, and more that allow viewers to step outside of the frights and marble and just how fantastic the picture looks.
On its release, Insidious opened with $13.3 million at the US box office, placing it at number three overall during its opening weekend behind Hop and Source Code., Made on a budget of just $1.5 million, it has made a total of $100.1 million worldwide and spawned a further four films – Chapter 2, Chapter 3, The Last Key, and The Red Door set to be released on July 7. The success of Insidious led to Wan creating The Conjuring, which has become the highest-grossing horror franchise to date, garnering a combined $2.1 billion against a combined budget of $178 million.
The film set the stage for multiple other horror-verses, each creating its own rich lores and convoluted backstories for fans to become fully engrossed.
Insidious transformed the haunted house genre, and shifted the focus from groaning apparitions, slasher villains, and a screaming heroine to a brooding, psychological thrill ride focusing on generational trauma and the implications of keeping it hidden. It ushered in a whole new generation of horror films that elevated their approach to the genre, focusing on giving fans a package complete with fully fleshed-out narratives and effective scares wrapped up in a beautiful package that has helped challenge misconceptions that the genre is cheap, low-brow, easy entertainment.
And with another instalment in the franchise on the horizon, horror fans are sure to be taken on a thrill ride back to The Further they won't soon forget.
