Are the Insidious Movies Based on True Stories?

The Big Picture

• Insidious is not based on a true story, so you don't have to worry about real-life hauntings like in The Conjuring series.
• The inspiration for Insidious came from Wan and Whannell's desire to make a horror film about astral projection.
• James Wan wanted to make Insidious as a departure from ultra-gory horror films, focusing on psychological scares and perfecting jump scares.

Tip-toeing through the tulips hasn't been the same since the iconic horror film Insidious hit the scene in 2010. Quickly becoming a cult favorite in the horror community, Insidious features some of the best and most effective jump scares in any horror franchise. It became so successful that it spawned an entire franchise, with the most recent sequel, Insidious: The Red Door hitting theaters earlier this year (and held the title of highest-grossing horror movie of 2023 until Five Nights at Freddy's came along). There's very little that could make them more terrifying... unless, of course, they're based on a true story. Was the Lambert family plagued by something made up in James Wan and Leigh Whannell's minds, or was this terrifying story inspired by true events? Let's venture into The Further to find out.

Insidious

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

Are Any of the Insidious Movies Based on True Stories?

Luckily for us, they aren't, so you don't have to worry about the Lipstick Demon trying to drag you into his funhouse of hell any time soon. Directors James Wan and Leigh Whannell did draw inspiration from some real-life ghost stories, but Insidious is far from being based on a true story. Maybe we assume Insidious could be based on a true story because James Wan also directed The Conjuring series and those are based on real events the Warrens experienced, but that just isn't the truth. However, there are some elements in the film that the two directors used as creative inspiration. James Wan explained on a featurette for the film's Blu-Ray (Via CinemaBlend) that a friend of theirs experienced a ghost that resembled the Long-Haired Fiend in Insidious. We see that demon most prolifically in the scene where Renai (Rose Byrne) goes to grab baby Cali from the crib and sees a ghoulish man standing menacingly in the corner. He is also seen again in Rose's room when he walks by the outer glass and suddenly appears right in Rose's face. The Long-Haired Fiend is played by J. LaRose, and he has slicked-back, jet-black hair and wears a long leather coat. Wan and Whannell's friend confided that he woke up one night and saw a man dressed in a trenchcoat pacing outside his room.

What Was the Actual Inspiration For 'Insidious'?

According to an interview with Den Of Geek, Whannell and Wan were having a conversation about movies (what I would give to be a fly on the wall for one of those conversations!) and they came to the conclusion that no one had really made a horror film about astral projection. In the interview, the two discuss how Insidious has been compared to Poltergeist, but they don't really see the similarities when looking at the core stories of both films. Insidious, in the most basic terms, is about someone going to sleep and their soul leaving their body. However, when someone like Elise (Lin Shaye) is brought in to save a young child, you can definitely start to see the connections to Poltergeist, and the character of Tangina (Zelda Rubinstein). Whannell and Wan did hit the nail on the head though: Having a child whose soul is trapped in another dimension is pretty terrifying and isn't a played-out trope in the genre yet.

Why Did James Wan Want To Make ‘Insidious’?

James Wan had just come off his success in the Saw franchise and was becoming synonymous with the splatter horror genre. During this time in horror, there was a boom in ultra-gory, bloody violence in films and Wan wanted to do something different. In an interview with The Film Stage, Wan admits that he is mainly responsible for the splatter movie making a popular comeback, but he wanted audiences to remember that real scares lie within the psychological aspect. He reminisces on the first Saw installment not being overly gory and felt that he could reinforce that idea with Insidious. He said that he wanted to make a movie that was scary without blood and guts, and Insidious was the product of that idea. Instead of relying on buckets of blood, Wan and Whannell perfected the jump scare and used the score of the film to reiterate the scary moments.

Were Any Of The Filming Locations Haunted?

During an interview with The Cinema Space, Rose Byrne felt like the house they filmed in had a super creepy vibe to it, and she's a skeptic! The film was shot in two different houses instead of relying on a studio for the production. It has been rumored that Insidious was shot on a cursed set, which is basically just a filming location that has a reputation for bad things occurring when filming. Far Out noted that many of the cast members felt really strange in the two houses. It was also reported that a lot of them heard a loud buzzing sound in some of the rooms. They also felt sudden queasiness and heard bells ringing that didn't exist. That creepy sort of vibe also followed onto the set of Insidious: Chapter 2, when Wan chose to shoot the film in Linda Vista, California at an abandoned hospital.

Linda Vista actually was a place that Whannell visited to do research for the first Insidious film because of its paranormal history. Whannell spoke to Bloody Disgusting about him and his wife visiting the abandoned hospital and what the two almost experienced could've been a real-life haunt. Whannell said that the two sat in what was reported as the most haunted room in the hospital. His wife practically begged and pleaded for a ghost to show itself or possess her if necessary. Nothing happened to the two at the time, but a few weeks later, his wife went to a psychic. That psychic ended up asking her if she had been to the hospital and said that she was so close to bringing something back with her. That same psychic told her to never visit that place again. After the first two Insidious films, Wan and Whannell got away from the supposed curse and haunted locations — much to the delight of their cast and crew, I'm sure.

There are five installments of the ethereal, spooky Insidious films for you to dive into, and each one is more unique than the last. You can rest assured that they aren't based on a true story, but that doesn't make them any less terrifying.

Insidious is available to stream in the U.S. on Max.

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