Behind-the-Screams | Insidious: The Further at Halloween Horror Nights 2024

When I watched the first “Insidious” film back in 2010, I found the concept to be a very unsettling twist on the haunted house story. The plot of those is usually: a family moves into a new home, scary things start happening and they either stay and meet a bad end, or they move out, never to be bothered again. Instead, this family moved out, but the evil entity followed — a terrifying prospect. I found it equally unnerving going through the nearly pitch-black Insidious haunted house in Orlando at Halloween Horror Nights 2015.

Now “Insidious” is haunting HHN again, but with a dark new twist. This year’s house, open now at both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood, focuses on the two latest movies: “Insidious: The Last Key” and “Insidious: The Red Door.” The film franchise follows the Lambert family: father Josh, mother Renai, sons Dalton and Foster, and daughter Kali.

At the start of the franchise, we learn that Dalton (and, spoiler alert, Josh) can astral project in his sleep. Unaware that what’s happening isn’t just a dream, Dalton passes through the Red Door, a.k.a the gateway into The Further, which is a shadowy realm between the living and the dead.

Unfortunately, he attracts the attention of the Red-Faced Demon, a malevolent entity who wants to trap him in The Further to possess his living body. He is ultimately saved by his father, and both are hypnotized to forget their abilities to avoid astral projecting and getting trapped in The Further once more.

When “Insidious: The Red Door” starts, Dalton is at college studying art. He unwittingly paints a picture of The Red Door, which begins to reawaken the dreadful childhood memories he’d forgotten and opens the way for the Red-Faced Demon to try to possess him again.

In “Insidious: The Last Key,” we encounter KeyFace, a skeletal entity with a keyhole-like face and unnerving, key-tipped fingers, who feeds on negative emotions. If you’re unlucky enough to get within his grasp, he’ll lock your screams inside you and then lock you in The Further forever.

When I first learned this house was coming, I watched all the “Insidious” movies in one week! That’s an excellent way to have very disturbing dreams, though thankfully none involved passing through The Red Door. You know what’ll also give you nightmares? This HHN house.

You’ll be trapped in The Further from the moment you enter the haunted house. Demonic entities will descend upon you from every direction, and you’ll be powerless to escape them. As you flee through the darkness, you’ll face some of the most frightening moments from the films, including Kali’s nursery, Dalton’s bedroom and dorm room, the Red-Face-Demon’s Lair and the prison haunted by KeyFace. Warning: since time has no meaning in The Further, this house is NOT in chronological order. You’ll never know what horrors you’ll encounter around the next corner.

“Our teams have translated so many different horror franchises to houses at Halloween Horror Nights over the years,” says John Murdy, creative director and executive producer at Universal Studios Hollywood Entertainment. “But there’s some properties that just from the minute you see the first film, you go: that’s a [Halloween Horror Nights] house. And ‘Insidious’ is the classic example of that. It’s just so perfectly set up to scare you in a haunted house.” Matt Flood, senior show director with Universal Orlando Entertainment Art & Design adds, “This property has the potential of being the scariest house we’ve ever had.”

Read on, if you dare. Remember, it’s not the house that’s haunted. You are!

Nonstop Jump-Scares

Like the “Insidious” movies, this house has an unrelenting onslaught of jump-scares. And since the whole house is set in The Further, the demons don’t operate by the rules of our world. They can come at you from any and every direction, and hordes of them can descend upon you at once. “There’s always this sense of they’re crowding in,” says Matt. “They’re trapping you here and they want your body. They want the living. They’re drawn to you almost like a magnet.”

John adds, “I remember the last time we did Insidious, I just stood by the exit and watched people crawling out because the ending is really intense and pulls out all the stops.”

So, this house may literally bring you to your knees with terror.

Shrouded in Darkness

One of the most harrowing things about this house, and The Further itself, is how dark it is. What little light you have is an ominous red, which does little to dispel the sinister shadows. There’s just enough light to keep you on the right path, but not enough for you to see what’s coming.

John notes, “It’s a fine balance between making the walls just disappear and making sure people can navigate it. A lot of the time, the Red Door is a signpost to lead the guest into the next section because it’s the only thing that’s lit in the environment. Red is a big color in ‘Insidious.’” Keep an eye out for red throughout the house, most prominently the Red Door, but also in Dalton’s childhood bedroom, dorm room, etc. And of course there’s the Red-Faced Demon himself.

Haunting Soundtrack

As a singer and horror fan, I know the power music has to shape emotions and build tension. Tiny Tim’s “Tiptoes Through the Tulips” always sounded a bit unearthly to me, something about his uncanny falsetto paired with the cheery strums of the ukulele. John agrees, “I always thought that that song was spooky sounding. The use of that song in Insidious just sends chills down your spine when you hear it.” When the song plays in the movies and in the house, it’s a sign that something terrible is about to happen.

If you’re a fan of the films, you’ll also recognize the eerie violin trills and glissandos — a rapid sliding up or down the scale for you non-musicians — at key moments throughout the house. Those never fail to make my hair stand on end.

What Scares the Scarers

You might think that since they work on Halloween Horror Nights, nothing would terrify John Murdy and Matt Flood. You’d be wrong.

According to John, one of those moments is the Red-Faced Demon’s Lair from the fifth film, where the demon has recreated the most horrifying scenes from Dalton’s childhood using mannequins. “There’s something about that whole mannequin tableau. They’re faceless and the way they’re lit with Dalton’s artwork, it’s just unsettling.” Mannequins have always freaked me out, too. It’s the whole Uncanny Valley thing.

Another scary scene in the house, also from the fifth film, is in Dalton’s dorm room, where you see a figure standing with his face against the wall. “There’s something particularly disturbing about that one. You just keep waiting for it to turn around or do something,” says John. “And then you walk through a little later and he’s in a different place and you’re going ‘is somebody messing with me or did something supernatural happen here?’” Those disturbing details are why I like to go through every house multiple times.

Matt shared that this house has even freaked out other members of his team. “We have a guy who goes in and takes pictures of the different stages as we’re building. Once the house was close to complete, he got about halfway through and had to step out for a little while, see the sunlight again, take some deep breaths and then go in again. Because he just started to feel very unsettled by the house itself.” If the house is that scary to its creators, even during the day without any scareactors, imagine how frightening it is at night when it’s full of demons!

Matt admits there’s one character who scares him the most. “KeyFace is horrifying to me. All of them are scary, but KeyFace is so tall and I’m a tall guy. Every time I run into a KeyFace, I get terrified.”

For John, it’s the original big bad: the Red-Faced Demon. “To me, that character is the scariest, and in the new film he’s been elevated. He seems to be primary amongst demons and spirits in The Further like he’s the puppet master of the whole place.”

The Red-Faced Demon is to The Further what John Murdy, Matt Flood and the rest of the entertainment leaders are to Halloween Horror Nights: They’re the puppet masters of terror. And this just may be their scariest house yet.

What terrified you the most about Insidious: The Further? Did anything surprise you? If you haven’t experienced it, secure your ticket for HHN in Orlando or Hollywood!