A Definitive Guide To The "Insidious" Trilogy

If ya don't know, now ya know. Catch up in time for Insidious: Chapter 3, now playing.

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Welcome to the Lambert residence!

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Josh and Renai Lambert have great jobs, three adorable kids, and they just moved into this beautiful new house. Things are looking pretty good for them, and nothing could possibly mess up their picturesque life. There's just one little catch...

They have an itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny demon problem.

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OK, actually, it's a HUGE demon problem. From the moment they move into the house, Renai begins seeing ghosts. Books are knocked off of shelves, terrifying voices are heard in the baby monitor, and their youngest infant child is constantly being tormented by evil spirits.

Some of the demons in the Lambert house are harmless, but others prove to be quite...insidious.

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One particular red-faced demon has grown quite fond of the Lamberts' oldest son, Dalton. When he falls into an inexplicable coma (that no doctor can explain), the demon activity ramps up, and some really creepy things start happening.

One of these demons really wants to possess their son.

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Deciding that they've had enough of this demon business, the Lamberts decide to move into a new, non-haunted home. Unfortunately, they're still plagued by demons. At her wit's end, Renai decides to call in a psychic medium for some ghost-busting help.

This is Elise, the psychic hero of the Insidious trilogy:

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Elise is a gifted psychic medium with a history of battling nefarious demons, and she explains exactly what's happening:

A demon is holding the Lambert's son hostage.

Alliance Films/Focus Features

Dalton thinks he's just dreaming every night, but he's actually transporting his consciousness into another dimension called "The Further," and a demon has him chained up there.

Luckily, Josh has the skills necessary to save his son!

Alliance Films/Focus Features

It turns out that Dalton inherited his inter-dimensional traveling abilities from his dad, who had the same problem as a kid. Elise wants to use Josh's abilities to send him into "The Further" to rescue his son.

Josh goes into "The Further," which is a weird ghost dimension.

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After stumbling through some really weird ghost scenes, he manages to find Dalton.

Before Josh can save Dalton, he has to fight this creepy red-faced demon:

Alliance Films/Focus Features

Luckily, Josh's life force (from being, y'know, actually alive) makes him more powerful than most of the demons in "The Further," and he's able to rescue his son. But not before an encounter with this creepy demon:

Meet the Bride in Black.

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This is the demon who tormented Josh as a child and appeared in the background of all of his photos. While he's escaping from "The Further" with his son, Josh encounters the Bride in Black, and they have a creepy staring contest. Josh and Dalton both wake up, and everything seems fine and dandy, until...

Josh murders Elise, because he's possessed by the Bride in Black!

Alliance Films/Focus Features

While Dalton is eating way too much spaghetti in the kitchen, Elise realizes that Josh's body is being inhabited by the Bride in Black, who hitched a ride over from "The Further." Renai finds her body in the living room a few minutes later, just as Josh sneaks up behind her.

FilmDistrict/Focus Features

Insidious: Chapter 2 begins with a flashback to the '80s, when Josh was dealing with his own demon problems.

FilmDistrict/Focus Featuress

Elise (the psychic hero from the first film) decided to hypnotize young Josh to block his ability to travel to "The Further," thereby rendering him inaccessible to the evil demons that were trying to possess him.

Back in the present, the Lamberts think that their #GhostProblems are finally behind them...but they're totally not.

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Ghosts and demons are still gunning for little Dalton, who's just trying to get a good night's sleep. Meanwhile, the real Josh is still trapped in "The Further" because the Bride in Black demon has possessed his body in the real world.

Renai is still having ghostly encounters, and they're getting more and more dangerous.

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This crazy ghost lady really wants Renai's youngest child, and she's wandering around the house and beating up Renai on a regular basis. All in all, it's not a good situation for Renai, whose husband is also possessed by an evil demon.

It seems that all is lost, but then Elise shows up in "The Further" to help Josh!

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Now that she's officially dead, Elise is more powerful than ever before. She can't cross over to the living world, but she's a dominating force for good in the spirit realm.

A team of paranormal investigators arrives with a new psychic, Carl, to lend a hand.

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Tucker and Specs helped Elise in the Lamberts' last ghostly predicament, and Carl is a close, personal friend of Elise, who contacts him from "The Further" to guide them to a solution.

Following Elise's clues, the team discovers the home of the Bride in Black.

FilmDistrict/Focus Features

First of all: The Bride in Black is a man. Secondly, he was a notorious serial killer when he was alive. The investigators discover a tomb of murder victims in a hidden wall of his home and decide to poke around some corpses for a while.

Meanwhile, Elise learns that the Bride's mother (or, rather, her ghost) is the source of his power.

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If they can destroy this crazy ghost mom, then they can stop the Bride in Black demon and save Josh from his imprisonment in "The Further" once and for all. She's tough, though. Really tough.

After an epic ghost battle, Josh and Elise manage to defeat The Bride's mother in "The Further."

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Josh returns to his own body in the real world and everything is finally back to normal. Elise continues ghost busting and, at the end of the second film, encounters the most insidious demon yet!

The next installment, Insidious: Chapter 3, is a prequel.

Automatik Entertainment/Focus Features

Automatik Entertainment/Focus Features

Chapter 3 (the most terrifying chapter to date) will explain how Elise got her start as a psychic medium while battling an incredibly powerful and unbelievably creepy demon, who looks something like this:

Automatik Entertainment/Focus Features

A young Elise must use her psychic gifts to rescue a Stefanie, a teenaged girl who's become the target of a formidable supernatural entity.

Can Elise rescue Stefanie before it's too late? Find out in Insidious: Chapter 3, now playing.

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