Love Jump Scares? This Horror Franchise Has You More Than Covered

The Big Picture

• Insidious movies are known for their exceptional jump scares, which catch audiences off guard and evoke fear.
• Impeccable timing and unexpected moments make the jump scares in Insidious stand out from other horror movies.
• The franchise has continued to deliver on its jump scare expectations, with Insidious: The Red Door providing terrifying moments for viewers.

The Insidious franchise's latest film was released last July, and fans geared up for another movie full of ethereal worlds and terrifying demons. Insidious: The Red Door essentially passes the repressed demon baton from father to son as Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) travels to drop his son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), off at college. Dalton's college experience is a little more traumatic than gaining the Freshman 15 as demons from his past are resurfacing to haunt the father and son duo. What is it about Insidious movies that make them stand out among other horror franchises? The answer to this is undoubtedly their knack for jump scares.

Across the franchise, Insidious tells the story of a family plagued by evil no matter where they live. Demons from a fictional world known as "The Further" infiltrate the home of the Lamberts and force them to fight for their lives. With the help of Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) and her paranormal team, each family member has to protect themselves from being possessed. Insidious is unique in so many different ways. James Wan took a hard turn from the torture porn horror he was making with his Saw movies and transitioned into supernatural gothic horror, and Insidious was born. Wan and writer Leigh Whannell loved ghost stories and wanted to become more creative in horror instead of relying on gore. On James Wan's Facebook page, he said they dove into the world of astral projection to turn up the creep factor and send it over the moon. It's Insidious movies' exceptional jump scares that the franchise does better than any other horror movie franchise.

The concept of astral projection possession is already a WTF kind of fear, but the type of jump scares in the franchise have been frightening audiences since 2010. So much so that Insidious has been declared as having the scariest jump scare by BroadbandChoices since 2021. Insidious won because it had the highest spike in heart rate among other horror films. In addition, the first Insidious movie has a whopping 24 jump scares. There are many reasons to feel these movies are some of the scariest, from the plausible storyline of out-of-body experiences to the from-start-to-finish terror, but it's the jump scares that really set this franchise apart.

Insidious

A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.

What Makes the Insidious Movies' Jump Scares So Effective?

Impeccable timing sets Insidious' jump scares apart from the rest. Insidious' jump scares catch the audience in the moments when they least expect them. Any time you watch a horror movie, you can expect the killer to stand behind the protagonist as they close the bathroom mirror. You can even expect to walk around the corner and be greeted by a slasher or demon. That's the standard for jump scares. Insidious is patient and waits its turn to provide those jump scares. When we think the moment has passed, James Wan throws something at us that jolts us from our seats and almost makes us spill our popcorn.

One of the most iconic uses of that type of scare is the red-faced demon. During the scene, Josh, Renai (Rose Byrne), and his mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), are seated around the dinner table discussing a dream Lorraine had about their house and a demon. It's a very simple moment in which you're not expecting anything to scare you, but as the scene flashes from Lorraine to Josh, we see the red-faced demon standing torturously close to Josh. He's only on-screen for mere seconds, and it is the defining jump scare of the film. There is nothing that leads the audience to think this scare will happen. It's daylight outside, they're having a normal conversation, and there is no musical giveaway to prepare yourself for it. It is unsettling in all the best ways and will likely make you keep your eyes down the next time you're seated at the dinner table.

How Does Music Play into 'Insidious' Jump Scares?

Another terrifying scene also happens in the first Insidious when you least expect it, thanks to a creepy song. When Renai is cleaning up around the house, she walks by her laundry room and completely walks by the ghost of a little boy without noticing. She walks outside, and suddenly, her music changes to 'Tiptoe Through The Tulips' by Tiny Tim. This song is enough to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. We can see that Renai is starting to realize something is off as she returns to the house. When she does, the young boy's ghost jumps out of a cabinet when you think nothing will happen. This jump scare checked all the boxes. Being scared when we least expect it, check. Creepy, high-pitched music accompaniment, check and check. Another jump scare in broad daylight when they typically don't happen, triple-check.

The Woman in White's 'Insidious: Chapter 2' Jump Scare Stands Out

And finally, another epochal jump scare is from Insidious: Chapter 2. That's right, the Woman in White has to be added to this already spine-chilling compilation of scares. The scene when Renai is, again, doing household chores (she could really use these examples to never clean again) and comes face to face with something horrifying. The cinematography in this scene adds to the scare, sweeping back and forth and moving in ways that make you unsettled watching it. It touts around and tries to make you guess when the jump scare will happen, and when you think it might be over and are getting faked out, The Woman in White lunges out of the shadows. Even though it's Renai's face that she's screaming in, the way Wan and crew captured her yelling "Don't you dare" makes you feel like she has come out of the screen and is screaming in your face. Again, all the boxes being checked create the perfectly unexpected and palpable jump scare.

'Insidious: The Red Door' Continues To Carry The Franchise's Jump Scare Expectations

When a franchise sets a bar of expectation, fans will be keen to ensure each installment lives up to the hype. Insidious: The Red Door kept the jump-scare love alive and gave audiences plenty of terrifying moments. One part stands out above the others: the cat scan scare. Josh decides to go on a medical journey to figure out what is making his mind so foggy and uncertain when recalling events from the past. He decides to get a CAT scan, and from the moment we see the device on screen, it's clear something is about to go terribly wrong. Josh gets in the machine, the lights go out, and suddenly, he's filled with fear.

He hears a voice that isn't the doctor's and starts to feel like there is someone, or something, behind him. He turns his head to see nothing, but when he turns back, a demonic-looking person comes crawling up the machine towards him. This scene perfected the jump scare by building tension. From the moment we see Josh enter the room, the lighting and mood of the whole scene tell us that something scary will happen. Also, instead of immediately showing the demonic creature as soon as the light is out, Wan waits to reveal it until you think Josh is safe. As the franchise is now seemingly complete, fans can rest uneasily knowing that every installment will make them jump in their seats.

Insidious: The Red Door is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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