Insidious
I know it might not be perfect but this is a special movie to me because it scared me shitless at the cinema with well crafted scares (how the feck James Wan got that much squeeze out of a "exposition around a dinner table" scene was awesome) as well as characters that I really enjoyed watching and a concept that felt fresh at the time. It basically confirmed to me that making horror films will always be my passion. Love this movie 10/10
Insidious 2
Enjoyed it more on the first watch but felt it was a bit messy on the second. Still, not half bad and some good scares and great tension throughout. Really shows the difference a good horror director makes. The script is pretty basic but James Wan really milks it for all its worth and you see the drop-off in quality once he leaves the director's chair for the rest of the franchise 7/10
Insidious 3
Another one that I preferred on the first watch. Still, it has some good ideas and decently directed by Leigh Whannell, who wrote all three but this was his directorial debut. The monsters were effective enough and some pretty cool scare moments that stuck with me 6/10
Insidious: The Last Key
First one not to be directed by Wan or Whannell (they got in Adam Robitel of The Taking Of Deborah Logan fame). I really didn't like this the first time round but appreciated it more on a second watch. Whilst there were some scares that really didn't work, it did try be different rather than just emulate Wan's stuff from the previous movies. The story was pretty interesting, exploring the past of Lin Shaye's character, who is pretty much the franchise's protagonist at this point 6/10
Insidious: The Red Door
So watched all the above to get ready for this, the final entry for the franchise. In this installment, the series focuses back on the Lambert family, who took centre stage for the first two films and this is a direct sequel to the second film. They used all the original actors, which was nice to see and I was genuinely interested in where they would go in terms of narrative. But alas, I didn't really enjoy this and nearly fell asleep a few times.
Directed by Patrick Wilson (who also is the lead in this and the first two films), it felt very generic and played it safe. There were a few moments where it appeared a nice jump scare was on the horizon (I don't mind a jump scare if done right) but instead it was a random BOO! moment. That's not scary, just made me jump because it was so loud. They also barely used Lin Shaye, who really carried the rest of the franchise and I found the omission of Specs and Tucker to be a huge let down as they did bring the comedy light heartedness to the previous films and this desperately needed that.
I found that the narrative was going for something a bit deeper (the broken relationship between a father and his son) but it all just felt a bit flat and the horror seemed tacked on. Only after the film did I realise that this was the only instalment Leigh Whannell did not write, and you can really tell as it feels tonally disconnected to the rest of the films. Instead, they got the goon who wrote Halloween Kills (one of my worst slasher films) and Firestarter (awful film), which is a bizarre choice.
The post credits scene also infuriated me 5/10