Shh...
What's the Work?[]
The Insidious films are a series of horror films. For the main details for this entry, we will be looking at Insidious: Chapter 2, the second installment in the franchise and the fourth chronologically.
Who is Michelle Crane? What Has She Done?[]
Michelle Crane, also known as The Woman in White, was a woman living in the 1930s. She was abusive towards her only child, her son Parker. When her husband left her, Michelle grew a misandrist hatred for men, and forced her son against his will to begin identifying as a girl named Marilyn. If Parker tried to refer to himself as male or even try and use his real name, he was physically punished. Parker eventually grew to be severely mentally ill. Just desiring to get his childhood back, Michelle somehow convinced him that the only way to make himself (and her) happy was to kill others. Thus, Parker became a serial killer, killing to appease his mother, murdering at least 15 women and putting their corpses on display in the basement of his mother's house. Years later Michelle died, and Parker was left alone. In his mental illness, he attempted to castrate himself to once again appease his mother, eventually leading to his suicide.
After both of their deaths and subsequent afterlives in a dark realm known as the Further, Michelle still continued to torment Parker in both his memory and in the afterlife. Seeking an escape, Parker targeted young Josh Lambert to try and posses him. While this initially failed, he eventually succeeded decades later when Josh was a husband and father. However, Josh's body began to rot as a result of the dead spirit inhabiting it. Michelle returned and convinced Parker that the only way to keep his newfound life was to kill the Lambert family for her.
Michelle begins haunting the home, first targeting the family's infant daughter Kali, even backhanding the baby when she cries and throwing her out of a crib. She then targets Josh's wife Renai, throwing objects at her and hitting her to the ground so hard she is knocked unconscious.
Meanwhile, investigators Tucker, Specks, and Carl, along with Josh's mother Lorraine, search for the answer behind Josh's possession. They are led to the abandoned Crane residence, where Michelle attempts to drop a chandelier on Lorraine, all while taunting them with psychic messages; she even refers to herself as Mater Mortis, or "Mother of Death". She attacks the group, who later finds the corpses in the basement and put together that Parker was forced to kill for his mother. Parker tries to kill Carl, Renai, and two of their children with an axe to appease his mother again.
Josh, still trapped in the Further with Parker still in his body, meets up with his old friend Elise, and together they travel back to Parker's past and witness his abuse firsthand. When Michelle sees them, she traps Josh in a room of ghosts and attacks him, all while laughing. However, with a bit of help from what remained of Parker's innocence, Elise manages to destroy Michelle's spirit, simultaneously casting out Parker's spirit and allowing Josh back into his own body, saving the day.
Mitigating Factors[]
She doesn't do much in the way of killing herself, but forces others to do it and definitely attempts it quite often.
Heinous Standard[]
There are many malevolent spirits in the Further, but most are either tortured souls just looking to live again or actual demonic creatures that feed on fear. For a simple, mortal woman turned ghost, Michelle is one of the standard setters in her direct involvement in Parker's mass killings and her horrible mental and physical abuse to children and babies.
Verdict[]
Yes.