| “ | My name is Parker! | „ |
| ~ Parker Crane as a little boy in his former life. |
| “ | You are a miserable, ungrateful bitch! You have no idea how much you wasted your life to be afraid of death. It was pretty soon you're going to be one of them, and I will take you to my home in the dark, you'll realise how happy you shouldn't been for you to breathe for a little moment in the sun. | „ |
| ~ Parker Crane, as Josh, reveals himself/herself before Renai |
| “ | BITCH! | „ |
| ~ Bride in Black as Josh Lambert, as he chokes and kills Elise |
The Bride in Black (real name: Parker Crane), also called "Marilyn Crane", "The Dark Bride" and "The Old Woman" and also "She", is an undead serial killer who is an old man dressed as a woman in a black bridal gown. He is the tertiary antagonist of the 2011 supernatural horror movie Insidious and later one of the two main antagonists in the sequel Insidious: Chapter 2, and the secondary antagonist in Insidious: Chapter 3. This parasitic ghost lived among the tortured spirits of the dead within the shadowy astral realm known as The Further, who yearns for life as well as yearns to inflict pain upon others is a young man who was abused by his mother by forcing him to dress as a girl under the name "Marilyn" which soon begun his descent into madness and later became a mass murderer under the alias "The Bride in Black", and later after his/her death, formed a connection with Josh Lambert whom he knows him/her only as a frightening figure of an old lady since his childhood.
He was portrayed by Philip Friedman in the first film and later by Tom Fitzpatrick (as "Old Parker") in the sequel while his younger self was portrayed by Tyler Griffin (as "Young Parker") but in the ending of the first film ans its sequel, Parker's spirit got inside Josh Lambert's body, so therefore, Patrick Wilson also portrayed Parker.
Appearance
The Old Woman wears a seemingly bridal, black Victorian dress, laced with black finery, and holds a small red candle in her hand. Her appearance is ghastly, as she sports long, unkept hair, dark eyes and a face laden with wrinkles and pockmarks. This is later shown to be a disguise as a serial killer for the deluded man, Parker Crane.
History
Insidious
During the opening scene, the old woman is seen outside the window holding a candle. Later, when Lorraine visits Josh, Renai and Elise and tells Josh about the old woman. She recounts that Josh used to suffer night terrors as a child due to an 'old woman' visiting him at night. Dismissing his fears as superstition, as well as telling Josh to grow up and shrug away the bizarre dreams, Lorraine became aware of the malevolent hag's existence when she witnessed her presence in photos with Josh in them. Disturbingly, in a chronological span, the Old Woman seemingly moves in closer to Josh as he ages, nearly touching him in one photo. Elise Rainier explains that the Old Woman is a 'parasite' who befriended Josh's astral form in an attempt to possess his physical body. The only way to stop her from doing so was to repress Josh's memory of her and cease taking photos of him. However, Josh developed a subconscious fear of having his photo taken. Towards the end of the film, the Old Woman reappears to Josh by standing outside a window. Josh, filled with anger and fear, lashes out at her, shouting "LEAVE ME ALONE!!". She seemingly retreats back into the darkness while Josh and Dalton escape the Further together.
The Lambert family celebrates that the nightmare is over, but Elise feels something wrong. Taking a quick picture of Josh, Elise sees, much to her horror, that his image is replaced by the Old Woman. In retaliation, the Old Woman strangles Elise with Josh's body and the movie ends with seemingly leaving the fate of Josh ambiguous.
The films ends with the Old Woman blowing out the candle into complete darkness.
Insidious: Chapter 2
In Chapter 2 the old woman is shown to actually be a male serial killer whose actually name was Parker Crane he was abused by his mother during his childhood. She even hates the mere mentioning of the name "Parker" due to the fact her former husband, Parker's father gave him that name since birth and soon no longer with his wife though it is unknown what happened to him upon his death after that (possibly commttted suicide or his wife killed him), but his father earned her mother's hatred which is why she prefers the name "Marilyn". He dressed as a old woman in a black wedding dress to hide his identity and murdered about 15 women.
His mother raised him as a little girl causing himself to have a complex personality. He was hospitalized after a self-castration and then killed himself by jumping from a great high. After a encounter with a young Josh. He was seen then after by Lorraine as a ghost.
It was said he targeted Josh because he envied his youth. At the ending of Chapter 1, he took over Josh's body and killed Elise. He was arrested and later released via lack of evidence. Parker's soul was deteriorating Josh's body due to him being physically dead. He was then convinced by his mother's memory that he needed to kill Josh's family to save the body.
The soul of psychic Elise soon battled and killed the spirit of Parker's mother within the Further, and the Bride in Black personality along with her, forever putting Parker's spirit to rest and freeing Josh.
Insidious: Chapter 3
In the prequel it is revealed that the Bride in Black was terrorizing Elise ever since she helped Josh, threatening to kill her, and attempting to choke her to death on multiple occasions. This frightened her so much, that she retired from being a psychic for a while. During the events of the film she finally managed to overcome her fear, and temporarily defeat The Bride while trying to save Quinn Brenner from The Man Who Can't Breath. Despite this, at the end of the film it is revealed that The Bride began stalking her again, and eventually The Bride manages to successfully kill Elise in the first film.
Gallery
Trivia
- The Bride in Black along with his/her tragic story share similarities with Alessa Gillespie, Carrie White and Ryan Jacobson who were abused by their parents within their own familes. While all of them who begun their descent into madness after their abuse at the hands of their own relatives, some developed their own supernatural powers as soon as a tool of vengeance against their wrongdoers and humiliators while other developed mental illness (such as having a multiple personality disorder).
- The Bride in Black is the only villain in the series to appear on screen in all three films.