With four films that earned a combined total of over $250 million at the box office, the Insidious franchise is a force to be reckoned with. And that force is only getting stronger with the release of the franchise's fifth film, Insidious: The Red Door, which is out in theaters now. The first film was another collaboration between James Wan and Leigh Whannell after their previous films, Saw and Dead Silence. It follows the Lambert family, Josh (Patrick Wilson), Renai (Rose Byrne), and their young children, who move into a new home. After their son (Ty Simpkins) mysteriously falls into a coma, the Lamberts find themselves battling a malicious paranormal presence that threatens to tear their family apart. Though the franchise continued its creative world-building with each installment, the latter films left the Lambert family behind in favor of focusing on the backstory and investigations of psychic Elise Rainier, turning the franchise into a starring vehicle for horror legend Lin Shaye.

Here are all five films in the franchise to date, ranked.

RELATED: Where Did We Leave Off With the Insidious Characters Before ‘The Red Door’?

5. Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)

Leigh Whannell, Lin Shaye, and Angus Sampson in Insidious Chapter 3
Image via FilmDistrict

With the book closed on the Lambert family (for now), Insidious: Chapter 3 went back in time and took the prequel route. Taking place before the Lamberts' haunting, it focuses on Lin Shaye's Elise who, with this film, becomes the undisputed star of the franchise. Elise is one of the franchise's most interesting characters, so it's a smart decision to put her front and center. It focuses on her journey after she is pulled out of retirement from her paranormal investigations to help a young girl, Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott), who is being plagued by malevolent forces. Elise is the heart and soul of the film, and her story arc is a solid one. Not only is she grieving the loss of her husband, giving her journey a solid emotional throughline, but she is torn between whether or not to help Quinn since she knows of the tremendous risks another trip into "The Further" pose to her.

While Chapter 3 boasts a fantastic performance from Shaye and added character depth for Elise, the intrigue of the Further isn't as fresh as it was in the two preceding films. The film is also light on the solid scare sequences and uncomfortable dread that made the first Insidious such a genre standout. It's capably directed by Leigh Whannell in his directorial debut, and the way that it connects to the first two films with a scattering of Easter eggs, as well as returning characters, is admirable, but it's not as new and original. The plot beats — a young victim of paranormal activity, the introduction of a new demon, entering the Further, and eventual climactic battle — begin to feel a little too familiar.

4. Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

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Image via Universal Pictures

The Last Key is the second prequel following Elise's adventures and investigations. This time around, Adam Robitel is in the director's chair with a script written by Whannell. The film begins with a flashback to Elise's childhood with her brother, Christian (Bruce Davison), and their abusive father in 1950s New Mexico. In fact, the entire film hinges upon both this sequence and Elise's past. We end up learning a good deal about her troubled childhood and how it affects her in the present. This brings an unexpected but welcome sense of poignancy and character depth to the horror proceedings. We're also introduced to Elise's nieces, Melissa (Spencer Locke) and Imogen (Caitlin Gerard), who enhance the family-centered story and give us a solid quartet of characters to become invested in and root for. The dual stories with Elise and Christian, and Elise and her nieces, gives the film a strong emotional core, especially when it illustrates the fact that people can be just as monstrous as the beings that populate the Further.

In terms of scares, the film's trips into the Further are suitably eerie, along with the new "Key Face" demon serving as a unique and genuinely frightening addition that offers some cool visuals and solid suspense. Overall, The Last Key is the film in the franchise that truly understands what a solid, relatable and interesting character Elise is, and smartly focuses the entire film around her, her family and her past.

3. Insidious: The Red Door

Ty Simpkins as Dalton
Image via Sony

The fifth installment in the Insidious franchise opts to go forward in time, bringing back the original cast members Patrick Wilson, Ty Simpkins, and Rose Byrne, to tell the story of the haunted Lambert family, nine years after Josh and Dalton had their memories of the Further wiped from their minds. Josh and Renai have since gotten a divorce with the former becoming estranged from their kids. Dalton is getting ready to begin his freshman year at college, having landed a spot in a prestigious art program. After a death in the family, Josh and Dalton begin having visions of a demonic force, causing them to start to remember the events that transpired nearly a decade ago. Insidious: The Red Door may not be the scariest entry in the franchise, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie whatsoever. Wilson makes his directorial debut with the film, and gives it a much different feel than the previous installments, operating almost as much as a family drama as it does a horror film. The film primarily works because it brings back the old cast to give them a proper epilogue of sorts. Not all of it works, there are several subplots that feel completely unnecessary, including Dalton’s feud with the obnoxious frat bro Nick, but everything involving Josh’s endeavors to learn more about his past works perfectly, providing fans answers to questions posed from the previous installments. - Nate Richard

2. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Danielle Bisutti as Michelle Crane, or the Woman in White, in Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Image via FilmDistrict.

Insidious: Chapter 2 is impressive for seamlessly picking up where the first film left off. The final reveal of Insidious, that Josh was possessed by the demon presence plaguing his son, is not ignored or retconned in order to reset the story and give the audience a re-trod of familiar ground and story beats. The film directly deals with the implications of Josh's possession, utilizing flashbacks and videotapes to return to Josh's childhood in order to determine the origin of his hauntings and tethering to the Further. Josh's struggle — and the family's determination and desperation to unravel the horrors that they can't quite shake offers deepening layers to the Lambert family as well as with more screen time for crucial supporting roles like Elise as well as Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey).

The realm of the Further is still spooky and makes for a captivating setting, but the scares aren't as unique and unsettling this time around. The film does take an interesting turn when Josh becomes possessed and begins to hunt down his family Jack Torrance-style, blending human horrors with the supernatural. Ultimately, Insidious: Chapter 2 wasn't a needed sequel but it's enough of a solid continuation of the first film to satiate fans' questions about what happened to the Lambert family after the shock ending of the first film.

1. Insidious (2010)

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Image Via FilmDistrict

Like most franchises, the first film is usually the best. The same goes for 2011's Insidious. The film that kicked off the franchise is an interesting twist on a haunted family in critical ways. For one, it flips the very concept around by revolving the haunting around a person rather than a house. The familiar genre elements are there —horrors lurking in the dark, creepy houses, malicious paranormal entities — but it's new and different enough to set itself apart from other haunting films that came before it. Not to mention that the Lambert family is an easy one to fall in love with and root for, especially because they're smart characters. When they realize that something paranormal is plaguing them, they break with horror movie conventions by actually leaving the house. Of course, the paranormal presence follows them, leading to them to contact Elise who delivers the chilling line, "It's not the house that's haunted. It's your son."

Insidious also does something unique by bringing the concept of astral projection to the forefront, taking a traditional sci-fi element and meshing it with horror to make for some truly innovative world-building and scare sequences. It makes for a unique world with a distinctive color palette. Vibrant reds, muted blues, and swirling, low-hanging white fog turn the Further into a world that's as visually intriguing as it is immersive. The villains are memorable and deeply unsettling (the demon's lair is still burned into my mind ten years later), and the film's climax is one that ratchets up the tension to extreme levels. It's an impressive exercise in suspense without relying on gore or tired horror tropes, rounded out by an immersive, in-your-face score. Not to mention ensuring that we will never listen to Tiny Tim's "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" the same way again.