2025 Horror Movie Sequel Officially Delayed an Entire Year

The return of the Insidious franchise with the upcoming Insidious 6 will take somewhat longer than expected, with the sequel being delayed by a year to 2026. News of the delay of Insidious 6 was revealed by Variety, with distributor Sony Pictures giving the movie’s planned release date of August 29, 2025 to Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. Insidious 6, meanwhile, has been rescheduled for August 21, 2026. No official reason has been given to account for Insidious 6 being shuffled to 2026, though it could be something as simple as the movie just needing more time for scripting, pre-production, and principal photography.

It isn’t even clear if Insidious 6 is ready for filming yet, so maintaining its 2025 release date would have been a difficult ask for the cast and crew. In that respect, the delay of Insidious 6 is perfectly understandable. What may be equally relevant to Insidious 6 being pushed back a year is who will ultimately direct the next chapter of the Insidious franchise.

Acclaimed horror director James Wan directed the first two Insidious movies (respectively released in 2011 and 2013), with Wan’s Insidious writing partner Leigh Whannell making his directorial debut with 2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3. Adam Robitel subsequently helmed 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key, with Patrick Wilson making his directorial debut with 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door. While Wan typically only directs the first one or two entries in any franchise he’s directed (as seen in Saw, The Conjuring, and Insidious), it may not be entirely clear whether Whannell, Robitel, or Wilson will return to direct, or whether a new director will be brought in for the next installment. In such a situation, that makes the delay of Insidious 6 even more understandable.

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The Insidious franchise first began with the eponymous 2011 film telling the story of the Lambert family, who begin experiencing chilling hauntings by a mysterious demonic visitor (canonically known as “Lipstick-Face Demon” in the franchise’s lore). With the help of demonologist Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye), Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) succeeds in rescuing his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) after he is kidnapped and taken to the supernatural realm known as “The Further.” Following the success of the first Insidious, the franchise continued building upon its supernatural mythos in its subsequent sequels.

Insidious 2 and Insidious: The Red Door directly continue the Lambert family’s story, with Josh overcoming his demonic possession set up in the first Insidious to save his family again in Insidious 2. Insidious: The Red Door sees Josh and the now-grown Dalton re-uniting, with Josh called upon to rescue Dalton from The Further once more. Meanwhile, Insidious 3 and Insidious: The Last Key focus on Elise bringing her knowledge of demonology to other paranormal cases with the help of her associates Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

It isn’t clear exactly where in the Insidious movie timeline Insidious 6 is intended to take place, but given the non-linear chronology the franchise has taken, it can clearly go in numerous different directions. The popularity of Elise Rainier, Specs, and Tucker especially shows the wide breadth of supernatural stories and characters the Insidious franchise can tackle. Such storytelling freedom also makes getting the story and script for Insidious 6 finalized an obvious priority for all involved, which could also have contributed to its delay. However unfortunate the rescheduling of Insidious 6 to 2026 may be, it should hopefully provide the sequel plenty of time for everything to be properly prepped for it to be a worthy entry into such a long-running and popular horror movie universe.