The Bride in Black

The Bride in Black (real name: Parker Crane), also called Marilyn Crane, The Dark Bride and The Old Woman, is an undead serial killer who appears as an old woman dressed in a black bridal gown, and one of the villains of the 2011 supernatural horror film Insidious and later the secondary main antagonist in the sequel Insidious: Chapter 2 and "Insidious: Chapter 3".

This parasitic ghost among the tortured spirits of the dead within the shadowy astral realm known as "The Further", who yarns for life as well as yarns to cause pain upon others, is a young man who was abused by his mother by forcing him to dressed as a girl under the name "Marilyn". This abuse let his descent into madness and later he became a mass murderer under the alias "The Bride in Black", and later after his death, formed a connection with Josh Lambert whom he know him 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/her younger self was portrayed by Tyler Griffin (as "Young Parker").

Appearance
Parker wears a seemingly bridal, black Victorian dress, laced with black finery, and holds a small red candle in his hand. His appearance is ghastly, as he sports long, unkept hair, dark eyes and a face laden with wrinkles and pockmarks. This is later shown to be a disguise.

Before the death
Parker was born to a mother and an unnamed father. However, at some point in their marriage trespasses, as demonstrated by the fact that his mother hates even the mere mention of the name " Parker " due to the fact that her ex - husband, the father of Parker , gave him that name at birth. The fate of the Parker's father is unknown. Perhaps he committed suicide or he was killed by his wife, for now it is only known that he leaves his wife at one point Parker's childhood. For unexplained reasons Parker earned the hatred of his mother, who prefers the name " Marilyn ".

His mother raised him as a little girl causing him to develop a personality complex disorder. This led him to don the clothing and appearance on an old woman in adulthood, being dressed in a black wedding dress. This disguise masked his true idenity and while wearing this disguise, he killed 15 women.

At some point in his old age Parker was hospitalized after attempting to castrate himself. After a meeting with a young Josh he committed suicide by jumping from the roof of the hospital. However, shortly after his death he was seen by Lorraine as a ghost.

Insidious
During the opening scene, the Old Woman is seen outside the window holding a candle. Later 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 being'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 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 it appears that both 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 the Chapter 2, Parker, still in the body of Josh, he was arrested for the murder of Elise Reiner but is released through lack of evidence. When the family moved into the house of the mother of Josh, Renai begins to witness strange happenings throughout the house. Parker, aware that these events are actually caused by the real Josh trying to contact his family, he tells her not to worry and that from now on everything will be fine.

Initially, Parker tried to integrate into the Lambert family, replacing Josh, but his lack of knowledge about the personal life of Josh, have become suspicious at first Renai, but she ignored it, and later Lorraine, who went to seek help from Specs and Tucker.

Subsequently, the group, which were joined by Carl, is conducted by "Elise" in the house where Parker lived, where the two assistants are threatened by a younger version of Parker and are in a secret room a black wedding dress with veil and several clippings newspaper about a man called "The bride Wore Black", who had kidnapped and killed several people wearing exactly disquieting clothes.

Lorraine realizes that his son is possessed, and comes home to warn Renai that she and the boys have to get away from "Josh", who has since been repeatedly urged by his mother to kill the family of Josh if he wants to keep his youth (the man is pale , unkempt and even lose a tooth ). Once in the car, Lorraine speaks to the daughter of the history of "the bride in black" and the theory that the real Josh is trapped in the elsewhere.

At the same time Carl arrives at the house, where there is Josh , with a syringe of sedative in his pocket while Specs and Tucker control the situation from their van parked outside. After a brief discussion, the plan fails to quell Josh and the three, despite the numerical superiority , they are overwhelmed. After receiving a message from the phone to Carl who tells her that everything was fine, Lorraine and Renai return home, but falling into the ambush of Parker. After blocking Lorraine in the closet, the man tries to suffocate Renai, but Dalton, just got home with Foster, hits him in the head with a bat. Taking advantage of the occasion, Renai and children run downstairs and barricade themselves in the laundry.

After recovering, Parker begins to make inroads into the room while hammering the wall meanwhile, in the Further, the young Parker meets Elise and helps you get in your room.

Just as Parker is going to kill the family of Josh, the soul of psychic Elise soon battled and killed the memories 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
Elise was afraid of "the woman" who tried to kill her. This entity followed her back the last time she went into The Further, and from there on she vowed to stop going there. However, when she did go to The Further to help Quinn, she was attacked by the Bride in Black. She almost died the first time, and when she woke up, she told the family that she couldn't help them.

Later on, she is convinced by Carl to continue helping Quinn, so she goes to where the Wheezing Demon lives. Again, Parker Crane tries to strangle her, she pushes Parker off and ends up throwing him at the wall, this causes Parker to leave immediately in a rush and possibly out of fear.

Personality and Traits
Parker Crane is an old man who was abused by his mother for forcing him to dressed 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 death, formed a connection with Josh Lambert whom he know him only as a frightening figure of an old lady since his childhood.

Parker wears a black wedding dress, which led to his naming by the press during his lifetime as the Bride in Black. He wears a veil over his face and this appearance led viewers into initially assuming that he was an elderly woman. Parker may have been around the age of sixty to seventy years old at the time of death.

At the ending of Chapter 1, he took over Josh's body and killed Elise. With its new, young body Parker has gained the possibility of a second life, however, 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 his new body.

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 relatives, some developed their own supernatural powers as soon a tool of vengeance against their wrongdoers and humiliators while other developed mental illness (such as having a multiple personality disorder).