What actually happens
A coma with a very busy attic
Josh and Renai Lambert have just moved into a new house, along with their baby daughter Kali and two sons, Dalton and Foster. Dalton climbs into the attic one evening, falls off a rickety ladder, hits his head, and runs into a mysterious entity. By the next day he is in a coma. Three months later the doctors have no improvement to report, so the Lamberts bring him home. That is when the house gets loud. The security alarm goes off by itself, Foster says he has seen Dalton walking around, and a bloody handprint turns up on Dalton's bed for Renai to find. She then starts seeing a long-haired apparition that goes for her. She concludes the house is haunted and the family moves out.
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The new house has a ghost too
The haunting follows them. In the new house Renai sees a young child in period clothing, and Josh's mother Lorraine arrives with news of her own: she dreamed about a red-faced demon standing in Dalton's bedroom, and then she sees it standing behind Josh. Dalton's room gets ransacked by nothing visible. Lorraine calls in a psychic named Elise Rainier, who brings her assistants Specs and Tucker. Elise has a vision of the same demon in the bedroom and gives the family a diagnosis nobody asked for. Dalton is not in a coma. He can astral project, he has been doing it in his sleep without knowing, and this time he has gone too far and is stuck in a realm called The Further, which is full of restless dead. Josh calls her a scam artist and throws her out, then finds Dalton's drawings and quietly reconsiders.
Josh has done this before
Josh brings Elise and her team back. A séance goes badly, and afterward Elise admits she has been friends with Lorraine for decades and already helped Josh once, back when he was a child. Josh can astral project too. As a kid he was being hunted by the spirit of an evil old woman who wanted his body, and Elise helped him beat her and then helped him forget the whole thing. That means the only person who can go into The Further and bring Dalton out is the one who spent years not remembering it. So Josh is the one who has to go.
A guided tour of the afterlife, with a demon in it
This is the scene the whole movie builds toward, and it comes near the end. Elise hypnotizes Josh, and his consciousness leaves his body for The Further. He makes his way past several dangerous ghosts, finds Dalton, and frees him. Then the red-faced demon chases them both, and back in the real house the spirits from The Further come through to terrorize Renai, Elise and the others. Josh also has to face the old woman who hounded him as a kid. He tries to overcome his fear and she seems to back off. Josh and Dalton wake up, and the invading spirits vanish.
The ending, explained
The family celebrates, convinced the haunting is over, but Elise senses something is wrong with Josh. She takes his photo, and Josh attacks her in a rage and strangles her. Renai finds Elise's body and looks at the photo, which shows that the old woman's spirit moved into Josh while he was facing her down in The Further, so the person who came back is not Josh. Josh then appears behind Renai, and she gasps. That is where the movie stops. Dalton is safe, Elise is dead, and Renai is standing in the house with her husband and whatever is wearing him.
The post-credits ruling
Yes, there is a scene after the credits in Insidious. Stay in your seat if you want to see it.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Insidious scary?
Yes, Insidious is a 6 out of 10. The dread is medium, and most of the fear comes from frequent jump scares and a red-faced demon who keeps turning up in the house.
How does Insidious end?
Josh rescues Dalton from The Further, but the old woman's spirit enters Josh's body. He strangles Elise Rainier when she photographs him, and the movie ends with Renai realizing her husband is possessed.
Does the dog die in Insidious?
No dog dies in Insidious. No animals are harmed in the movie either.
Is there a post-credits scene in Insidious?
Yes, there is a scene after the credits in Insidious. Stay in your seat if you want to see it.
What is The Further in Insidious?
The Further is a realm where the tortured spirits of the dead live. Dalton ends up there while astral projecting in his sleep, and the spirits want his body so they can return to the physical world.
