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Insidious Is Proof That Blood & Gore Don't Make Movies Scarier
The Insidious movies have become one of the more popular horror franchises of the past decade; they’ve accomplished this with nearly a complete lack of blood and gore.
Insidious marked another memorable collaboration between James Wan and Leigh Whannell that pushes the horror genre to new and unexpected places. Insidious begins as another take on the haunted house genre, but it eventually reveals a much deeper story that’s actually about astral projection and demonic possession. The movie has spawned three sequels that greatly expand upon the characters and mythos within the greater Insidious universe.
It comes as a great shock in Insidious when it turns out that the Lambert family’s house isn’t haunted, but it’s actually their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) who’s susceptible to supernatural interference. Insidious depicts the battle for Dalton’s soul in a visually creative way with the introduction of “The Further,” an astral realm that’s full of terrifying demons. This leads to many of the big scares from the franchise, which all find ways to rattle the audience without the use of blood and gore. While a strange approach for a horror movie, Insidious proves how it can be done well without sacrificing scares.
James Wan and Leigh Whannell first made names for themselves as horror filmmakers with the ultra-violent Saw. The movie’s graphic nature led some to be hesitant to work with Wan or thought he’d be unable to create horror without these tools. Insidious is largely constructed as a response to this. This is the primary reason why the movie instead prioritizes psychological horror, aggressive jump scares, and the advent of The Further, which assaults the audience with both demons and surreal visuals. The first Insidious also centers around a young child in danger, and creates a lot of horror from the inherent tension of a defenseless youth that’s frightened for their life. That in itself can create more anxiety than a bloody massacre.
The only blood that actually appears in Insidious is via a bloody demonic handprint that appears on a wall. It’s an evocative image, but no blood actually spills from any of the movie's victims. The Insidious sequels stay faithful to this principle and continue to focus on scares that revolve around uniquely disturbing demons and the dangers of exorcisms and possession. The final entry in the franchise, Insidious: The Last Key, shows the most blood of the lot, but it’s still only in the context of minor wounds. The movies don’t suddenly turn into slasher films with giant body counts. This unconventional focus in modern horror movie filmmaking would also go on to be a major guiding force during Wan’s work in creating The Conjuring universe. Insidious helped prove that not only could James Wan function without excessive gore and violence, but that a whole horror movie franchise can successfully thrive that way.
