With five successful movies and another one in production, Insidious, created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell, has changed the world of horror for good. First seen in 2010, this film series follows the stories of various families haunted by ghosts and spirits from the astral plane.
Seeing a child be haunted by something that’s there at one moment and gone in the other was the cleverest plot for a horror movie that focuses on psychological aspects. What made Insidious stand out was its slow horror, great pacing, and perfect actors.
The first Insidious film revolved around a couple who believed their son was in a coma, only to later find out that he’d been stranded in an astral plane with demons haunting him. This was only the start of the Insidious Saga, as the series gets more scarier with each film.
If a horror movie happens to be inspired by real-life events, that’s where things start to get much creepier. With Insidious having a realistic form of horror, it’s easy to understand why viewers would start to assume that it’s based on a true story.
Whannell and Wan would say otherwise, as despite having a familiar form of horror like the usual cupboards closing on their own, a bedsheet forming a silhouette and whatnot, Insidious might not be inspired by any real-life events.
Is Insidious Based On A True Story?
Rest assured, something as bone-chilling as the Insidious isn’t real. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a pure work of imagination. Creators Leigh Whannell and James Wan did use a haunting experience their friend had as inspiration for a demon, but it would be wrong to believe that it’s entirely based on that.
This friend in question had supposedly heard footsteps in his house at night and ended up catching a glimpse of a man with dark hair and loose clothes pacing in his house. This gave Leigh and James a new kind of horror to work on, one that didn’t have any gore or chaotic blood-spilling scenes.
Demons of Insidious like Marilyn, the Lipstick-Face demon, and Michelle Crane all seem to be works of fiction. The Long-Haired Fiend is based on a true story, the one mentioned earlier involving Whannell and Wan’s friend.
After the success of the Saw films, Leigh Whannell wanted to try out a new concept. Leigh was kind of responsible for bringing gore back to the modern times with the Saw series, but the concept soon blew up, and every other horror film was either a slasher or a thriller film.
That’s when Leigh decided to shift his focus to a new plot that would be much more believable and creepier. When James and Leigh met up, it was the perfect match. They talked for hours about coming up with a new kind of horror film, and that’s basically how Insidious was born.
The astral projection side of the Insidious films also comes from Whannell and Wan’s dream of scaring people differently. Not many movies back in the 2010s were using astral projection as a form of horror, giving Insidious its own spotlight.
The Conjuring, one of James Wan’s creations, is, however, very much real. The Warrens were real people who moved into a new house only to find out that it was the worst decision of their lives. Along with Insidious, The Conjuring will remain an iconic horror staple for years to come.
The producers of Insidious did their research before writing the scripts for every film. They would reportedly visit haunted places all over the town in search of something that would inspire their film.
The houses and the hospitals featured in the Insidious films are believed to be haunted, as Whannell’s wife ended up almost bringing an evil spirit back with her. Both of them visited a well-known local haunted hospital and stayed in a room, demanding any entities to talk to them or possess them.
While nothing horrible like that happened, the wife did come close to catching an evil spirit’s attention. This certainly adds a level of horror, knowing that the places where the movies are filmed have an eerie vibe to them.
Insidious may not be real, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t scary. The plot and the intriguing entities make it much creepier than any other movie that could be inspired by real-life events.
