If you too are a die-hard horror fan like myself, then I’m sure you would agree that after watching Insidious, you are craving similar movies to add to your horror movie bucket list?
To recap, Insidious follows Renée and Josh Lambert, along with their two sons, Foster and Dalton, happily settling into their new home. One tragic day, their eldest son accidentally falls off a high ladder and hits his head so hard that he slips into a coma.
However, doctors report that he has no signs of head trauma, leaving his parents confused. Then, terrible, sinister things start happening, leaving them no choice but to call in a paranormal investigator. Movies like Insidious include:
- Sinister
- Paranormal Activity
- Dead Silence
- Annabelle
- Lights Out
- Get Out
- Oculus
- The Nun
- Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
- Hereditary
- The Possession
- Poltergeist
- Isabelle
- The Orphanage
- Orphan
- The Others
- The Babadook
- The Messengers
- The Ward
- Identity
- Hide & Seek
- Mirrors
- Insidious 2 & 3
If these titles give you a tingling, chilling sensation, then you are in the right place. Have a read about all the movies that we have found similar to Insidious, and remember, always check underneath your bed before you get in, and sleep with one eye open!
1. Sinister (2012)
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Ethan Hawke, James Ransone, Nicholas King, Juliet Rylance
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Ellison Oswald, a true-crime writer, has hit a wall in his career. It’s been more than ten years that he hasn’t been able to come up with a bestseller, and he is desperate for some inspiration to get him out of his writer’s blocking slump.
When he learns of a snuff film that shows a family’s horrifying death, he decides to move his family into the victims’ home on the tape to solve the case and hopefully get the story he needs to further his career.
However, the film footage seems to have the presence of an evil supernatural entity, and Ellison realizes that moving into that house can potentially mean they will suffer the same deadly fate as the family on the film.
2. Paranormal Activity (2007)
Director: Oren Peli
Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Katie and Micah are so thrilled with their new home in the suburbs. They are just a couple in love who are starting their future together. But something doesn’t feel quite right; there seems to be an eerie presence in their home.
A supernatural presence, perhaps. To try and find out what is happening in and around their home, the couple installs cameras inside and outside the house to capture anything suspicious. Their suspicion soon turns into fact, and the footage they see of what happens at night is horrifyingly disturbing.
3. Dead Silence (2007)
Director: James Wan
Cast: Ryan Kwanten, Amber Vallette, Judith Anna Roberts, Donnie Wahlberg,
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
After Jamie Ashen’s wife dies a gruesome death, he decides to return to their eerie hometown in Ravens Fair to try and figure out what happened to her.
When he arrives, he learns of the legend of Mary Shaw, a ventriloquist who was murdered and whose eerie presence still lingers over the town. While searching for answers, he encounters a deadly curse that caused his wife’s death and soon starts threatening his life too.
4. Annabelle (2014)
Director: John R. Leonetti
Cast: Annabelle Wallis, Patrick Wilson, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
When John Form finds an antique doll in a beautiful white vintage dress, he thinks it is the perfect gift for his wife Mia, who is expecting his first child. Mia is in awe of the doll as she has been collecting vintage dolls since she was a little girl.
However, their delight soon ends when their home is invaded by devil worshippers who launch a violent attack on the couple one night.
The cultists attempt to summon a demon and smears blood all over the nursery walls. As the blood drips down from the wall, a drop lands on Mia’s new doll, which turns it from a collector’s item into a conduit for evil.
5. Lights Out (2016)
Director: David F. Sandberg
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
When Rebecca was a little girl, she never really understood what happened each time the lights went out at night. She thinks that she is finally rid of her childhood nightmare when she moves out into a place of her own. But her terrifying nightmare isn’t over yet.
Her little brother is also experiencing the things she did when she lived there. Something sinister lurks in the dark at night. Something that holds a mysterious attachment to their mother and now the evil entity back with a vengeance to destroy her entire family.
6. Get Out (2017)
Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
It’s time to meet his girlfriend’s parents, but Chris is hesitant because he is an African American man, and Rose and her family are Caucasian. She assures him not to worry everything will be fine and invites him to her parent’s upstate home for a weekend getaway.
When they arrive, Chris suspects that their overly accommodating behavior hides the disappointment of Rose’s interracial relationship.
He decides to stop being paranoid and enjoy the weekend with his girlfriend and her parents, but he soon makes some very disturbing discoveries that lead him to a horrifying truth.
7. Oculus (2014)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Karen Gillan, Katee Sackhoff, Brenton Thwaites, Annalise Basso
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Ten years after their parents died an extremely violent death, Kaylie and Tim are still trying hard to rebuild their wrecked relationship. They are also trying to make sense of what exactly happened to their parents.
Kaylie has a strange feeling that their parent’s antique Lasser Glass mirror has something to do with it. She soon discovers that anybody who gazes into the mirror at their reflection has their mind infected by a malevolent force. As she desperately tries to uncover the mystery, she and Tim get caught within the mirror’s evil spell.
8. The Nun (2018)
Director: Colin Hardy
Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Bonnie Aarons, Demian Biehir, Jonas Bloquet
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
A priest with an eerie, haunted past and a novitiate who is on the threshold of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to a cloistered abbey in Romania to investigate the recent suicide of a young nun.
Not long after their arrival, they uncover the order’s dark, unholy secret, and they will need to risk their souls and their faith to confront the evil entity in the form of a demonic nun.
9. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark (2011)
Director: Troy Nixey
Cast: Bailee Madison, Katie Holmes, Guy Pierce, Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Sally is an introverted, lonely young girl who has recently arrived at her father’s and his girlfriend’s 19th-century mansion that they are currently restoring. Sally decides to explore her new environment and stumbles across a long-undisturbed, hidden basement.
What she doesn’t know is that by opening the basement, she has unleashed dark-dwelling, evil creatures who will try to drag down her entire family into the bottomless depths of the mansion.
10. The Possession (2012)
Director: Ole Bornedal
Cast: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Natasha Calis, Kyra Sedgwick, Madison Davenport
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Clyde and Stephanie’s youngest daughter, Em, seem obsessed with an old wooden box they bought at a yard sale. At first, they don’t think much of it, but when Em’s behavior starts to change, and she becomes more unstable, Clyde and Stephanie fear that a malevolent presence has manifested itself in their daughter’s body.
When they look for answers, they make a horrifying discovery; a dislocated spirit is known as a dybbuk inside the box. This evil entity will devour their daughter’s soul if they don’t find a way to stop it.
11. Poltergeist (2015)
Director: Gil Kenan
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Rosemary DeWitt, Saxon Sharbino, Jared Harris
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Eric and Amy Bowen, along with their three kids, have recently moved into their new suburban home in Illinois, and they couldn’t be happier. But when their youngest daughter, Maddy, starts talking to an “imaginary” friend, the family experiences some unexplained events in their home.
When malevolent entities capture Maddy, Eric and Amy have to turn to a group of parapsychologists specializing in the supernatural to help save their daughter from evil.
12. The Orphanage (2007)
Director: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Belen Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Roger Princep, Fernando Cayo
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Laura only has good memories of the orphanage she grew up in. Wanting to help children like her, she asks her husband to buy the same old building so that she can turn it into a safe home for sickly children.
When Laura’s critically ill adopted son, Simon, disappears for several months, they have to come to terms with the fact that he may be dead. However, Laura starts to hear the voices of spirits who seem to want to help her find Simon.
She is grief-stricken and desperate to bring her son home, but does her desperation make her hear the voices of good spirits, or is there something far more sinister happening.
13. Orphan (2009)
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Cast: Isabelle Fuhrman, Vera Farmiga, Aryana Engineer, Peter Sarsgaard
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
John and Kate decide to adopt a little orphan girl after suffering the devastating loss of their unborn child. The couple is instantly drawn to the girl, Esther, and takes her with them to her new home.
Kate soon starts to get the sense that there is something off about Esther. After a few very dangerous events occur, Kate starts to suspect that behind the little girl’s angelic exterior lurks something far eviller than she could ever have imagined.
14. The Others (2001)
Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Alakina Mann, James Bentley, Fionnula Flanagan
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
It’s World War II and Grace and her two children, Anne and Nicholas, move to the English coast while waiting for news regarding her missing husband. The children have a rare photosensitivity disease that prevents them from coming in direct sunlight.
Her daughter tells her that she sees ghosts, but Grace thinks it’s only the servants who are playing tricks on her. However, when Grace starts having eerie visions and strange and chilling events take place in their home, she starts to think something more sinister is going on.
15. The Babadook (2014)
Director: Jennifer Kent
Cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama, Mystery
Movie Plot
On the way to the hospital to give birth to her son, Samuel, Amelia loses her husband in a tragic car accident. Life hasn’t been easy for Amelia to raise her son by herself, and make matters worse, Samuel has this constant and intense fear of monsters.
His violent reactions make it difficult for her to keep friends, and slowly one by one, they start to distance themselves. When they read a mysterious book they found in their house; things get even worse.
The book is about Babadook, a monster that lurks in the dark parts of their home, and it scares Amelia so much that she tries to destroy the book. Her attempt is unsuccessful, and the mother and son are in for the nightmare of nightmares! Could it be that her son hasn’t imagined things at all?
16. The Messengers (2007)
Director: Danny Pang Phat, Oxide Pang Chun
Cast: Kirsten Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, John Corbett
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
The Solomons have decided to get away from b7. usy city life and have recently relocated to a lovely peaceful farm in North Dakota. Everything seems to be going great, and they can feel their peace of mind and sanity returning.
However, their teenage daughter Jess and her younger brother see horrifying apparitions and are attacked by evil forces. When Jess tries to explain to her parents what happened, they don’t believe her, and she is left to try and save them by herself.
17. The Ward (2010)
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Amber Heard, Danielle Panabaker, Mamie Gummer, Lyndsy Fonseca
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
When Kristen is admitted to a psychiatric ward, she suspects that the angry spirit of a former psychiatric patient is haunting and traumatizing all the girls who are still being treated there.
Despite her many warnings to the staff about the strange events, they ignore her and just assume that she is crazy and it must be part of why she was placed here in the first place. Kristen needs to escape the evil spirit while lying low so the staff doesn’t catch her.
18. Identity (2003)
Director: James Mangold
Cast: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta, Pruitt Taylor Vince
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Movie Plot
A ferocious storm in the Nevada desert forces ten strangers to seek refuge at a mysterious, isolated motel. While we follow their story, a serial killer is being questioned and evaluated by Doctor Mallick, a psychiatrist who has found the journal of the killer, which reveals all his secrets.
What’s interesting is that he is being held for the murder of ten strangers that were staying over in a motel for a night to dodge a heavy storm.
The strangers soon make the horrifying realization that they are being murdered one by one. Ed Dakota, one of the ten stranded people, assures them that he will find out who is committing these horrific murders.
19. Hide And Seek (2005)
Director: John Polson
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Robert De Niro, Famke Janssen, Elizabeth Shue
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
David Callaway, a psychologist whose wife recently committed suicide, decided to move away from New York City to a lovely home in the country for a fresh start with his daughter Emily. Emily still has PTSD after seeing her mother’s bloody body in the bathtub and is having trouble appreciating her new surroundings.
She has no friends except her imaginary friend Charlie, and he keeps getting her into situations that upset David. Charlie soon begins resenting David, and he will use Emily to get back at him.
The only problem is, Emily gets into trouble for the things Charlie wants her to do. Her excuse is always that Charlie makes her do these things, but Charlie isn’t real, or is he?
20. Mirrors (2008)
Director: Alexandre Aja
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Cameron Boyce, Paula Patton, Amy Smart
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Trying to fix his shattered life, Ben Carson, a troubled ex-cop, accepts a security guard position to guard the burnt ruins of what once was a prosperous department store.
As he movies through the charred hallways of the building, he starts seeing terrifying things in the ornate mirrors that are surprisingly still hanging on the walls even after the tragic blaze. But what Ben will soon realize is that a dark, evil force is trying to pass over to our world using the mirrors as a portal.
Ben needs to do everything in his power to keep the malevolent spirits from hurting his children or his wife. He covers all the mirrors in the house with paint as an attempt to shut the entrance from their world to ours, but will it be enough to keep them out?
21. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Director: James Wan
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lindsay Seim, Jenna Ortega
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
After their recent deadly encounter with evil entities that possessed their eldest son, Josh and Renai Lambert are finally ready to move on with their lives. When they think things are back to the way they used to be before the possession, their youngest son, Josh, starts acting very strange.
The Lamberts don’t know that he, too, is possessed by the malevolent forces that almost killed Dalton. In the last resort to try and rid Josh’s body and soul from the evil spirits, they call upon Lorraine Lambert and her ghost-hunting crew to delve into the eerie past to save the family’s future.
22. Insidious: Chapter 3
Director: Leigh Whannell
Cast: Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney, Lin Shaye, Patrick Wilson
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Quinn Brenner gets the sense that her recently deceased mother is trying to connect with her. She asks Elise Rainer, a gifted psychic, to help her contact her mother, but Elise is reluctant to use her clairvoyant abilities due to her tragic past.
When an evil entity attacks Elise, her father begs Elise to help his daughter. Elise agrees, and with the help of two parapsychologists, she ventures deep into The Further. There she finds a powerful, evil demon that feasts on human souls!
23. Mama (2013)
Director: Andres Muschietti
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Megan Charpentier, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Javier Botet
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Movie Plot
Victoria and Lilly, two young sisters, vanished into the woods when their parents died suddenly. Their uncle Lucas and his girlfriend organize a frantic search for the girls, but they are found inside a decaying cabin in the woods only five years later.
Their uncle and his girlfriend, Annabel, welcome them into their home to take care of them, but things don’t go as smoothly as they had hoped. As Annabel attempts to reintroduce them to normal life, someone or something is tucking them in at night, not her or Lucas.
24. Veronica (2017)
![Verónica [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51IIGKwac7L._SL500_.jpg "Verónica [Blu-ray]")
Director: Paco Plaza
Cast: Sandra Escacena, Ivan Chavero, Claudia Placer, Ana Torrent
Genre: Horror, Supernatural horror
Movie Plot
Fifteen-year-old Veronica has become like a substitute mother to her little brother, Antonito, and her twin sisters, Irene and Lucia. She stepped up after her father’s death and took on most of her mother’s responsibilities while she worked long hours at a local bar.
However, she is struggling to deal with or accept his passing and gets two of her friends from Catholic school to conduct a séance with an Ouija board during a very rare 1991 solar eclipse.
She hopes and prays to get through to him but instead makes contact with demonic entities that are desperate to cross over into Veronica’s world. Slowly everybody around Veronica becomes the demon’s target, making her realize that this isn’t her father, so who or what did she summon?
References:
Reel Rundown: Movies Like Insidious
Scary Mommy: 30+ Movies Like Insidious That’ll Make You Second-Guess Every Creak In Your House
All Horror: Movies Like Insidious