NECA Teases Ultimate Lipstick-Face Demon from Insidious
It appears one of modern horror’s most recognisable demons is finally joining NECA’s Ultimate action figure line.
NECA has teased an upcoming figure based on the Lipstick-Face Demon from Insidious, posting an appropriately creepy image of the character peering from behind a red door alongside the simple words “COMING SOON”. There are no specifications, accessories, price or release date attached to the tease yet, so those details will have to wait for the full reveal, but the Ultimate branding makes this a particularly exciting addition to NECA’s increasingly enormous horror collection.
And yes, before everyone starts calling him the Red-Faced Demon, the character is officially credited in the original Insidious as the Lipstick-Face Demon. He’s also commonly referred to as the Red-Faced Demon or the Man with Fire on His Face, but Lipstick-Face Demon is the wonderfully strange name used in the film’s credits.
Considering just how instantly recognisable the character has become since James Wan’s Insidious arrived, it is actually surprising that we’ve had to wait this long for a proper NECA Ultimate version.
The Demon Behind One of Modern Horror’s Greatest Jump Scares
Released in 2010 in North America after its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, before receiving a wider theatrical release in 2011, Insidious helped James Wan and Leigh Whannell establish an entirely different supernatural horror universe several years after Saw had made their names.
The story follows Josh and Renai Lambert, played by Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, whose son Dalton falls into an unexplained coma. What initially appears to be another haunted-house story gradually becomes something considerably stranger when it is revealed that Dalton is capable of astral projection and has travelled too far into a nightmarish realm known as The Further. His apparently empty physical body consequently attracts supernatural entities desperate to take possession of it.
Among them is the Lipstick-Face Demon.
Even people who haven’t watched Insidious probably recognise the bastard. During one of the film’s most famous scenes, Lorraine Lambert describes a nightmare involving the creature before Wan abruptly cuts to the demon standing directly behind Josh. It lasts only moments, but the red-and-black face and yellow eyes became one of the defining images of 21st-century supernatural horror.
It is an exceptionally effective scare because Wan doesn’t overcomplicate it. There is no monster slowly crawling out of the darkness, no ten-second musical build-up and no enormous CGI spectacle. You’re looking at Patrick Wilson and then suddenly there’s something behind him that absolutely wasn’t there a second ago.
And millions of viewers collectively required a change of underwear.
The demon was played by Joseph Bishara, which comes with one of our favourite pieces of Insidious trivia: Bishara also composed the film’s wonderfully abrasive and unsettling musical score. James Wan originally approached Bishara about physically portraying the creature before eventually bringing him aboard as composer as well. Bishara has subsequently become something of a specialist in appearing beneath terrifying makeup, with performances in The Conjuring and Annabelle films alongside his composing career.
The character’s striking appearance was deliberately built around black skin and a face covered with red lipstick. Wan has confirmed that an unused sequence actually showed the creature applying lipstick to itself, explaining both its official name and another easily misunderstood detail from the film: the red handprint discovered near Dalton isn’t supposed to be blood. It’s lipstick.
The elaborate creature makeup Bishara endured involved facial and body work, lenses, hair, claws and hooves, with Bishara recalling that the complete transformation could take roughly five hours. He even practised moving in the hooves because their construction naturally affected the demon’s posture and physicality.
Tiptoe Through the Tulips…
The Lipstick-Face Demon becomes even more disturbing once Josh enters The Further to retrieve Dalton.
Rather than simply giving the creature a generic hellish cavern, Insidious gives us that bizarre lair where the demon listens to Tiny Tim’s Tiptoe Through the Tulips while working on its claws. It’s precisely the kind of completely incongruous detail that can make horror considerably creepier. The song should be harmless. After Insidious, however, an entire generation became incapable of hearing it without expecting a red-faced bastard to emerge from somewhere nearby.
The character has remained connected to the franchise ever since, appearing again across subsequent Insidious films before becoming particularly important in Insidious: The Red Door (2023). Patrick Wilson, making his feature directorial debut with The Red Door, specifically wanted Bishara back because the demon represented Dalton’s greatest childhood trauma before Josh’s possession.
That longevity makes an Ultimate figure particularly welcome. This isn’t simply a creature that appeared for thirty seconds and disappeared into horror history. The Lipstick-Face Demon has become one of the visual signatures of the entire Insidious franchise.
Another Monster for NECA’s Ultimate Horror Shelf
NECA’s Ultimate format has become one of the company’s most popular ranges with horror collectors. The basic idea is to offer highly articulated versions of characters with additional heads, hands, weapons and character-specific accessories rather than simply putting a basic figure in a blister pack. NECA itself has described the format as providing a more complete representation of a character accompanied by a broad selection of accessories.
Over the years that has allowed horror fans to build shelves populated by an increasingly ridiculous gathering of people you would never actually want assembled in the same room.
The company’s current horror catalogue includes Ultimate Art the Clown, while its 2026 releases have continued expanding the roster. A revamped Ultimate Ghost Face Returns features updated articulation, a soft-goods robe and five interchangeable masks, including the classic Ghost Face, bloody and green versions, the elongated “Whassup?” design associated with Scary Movie and a new bling mask.
NECA has also been busy with Jason Voorhees. Its 2026 announcements have included new Jason figures drawing from Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason Goes to Hell and the Tom Savini-designed version created for Friday the 13th: The Game. Elsewhere, the company’s current catalogue stretches from classic monsters to contemporary horror, including new Ultimate Pennywise figures based on IT: Welcome to Derry.
That’s what makes the arrival of Insidious particularly interesting. NECA has spent years covering everyone from classic Universal Monsters through to slashers, aliens, predators and more contemporary characters, and the Lipstick-Face Demon feels tailor-made for the Ultimate treatment.
Exactly what comes in the box remains unknown.
NECA hasn’t revealed the complete figure yet, so we’re not going to pretend we know which accessories are coming. However, given the Ultimate format and the wealth of memorable imagery associated with the character, there is certainly plenty of material for NECA to work with. Interchangeable hands, those elongated claws and something referencing the demon’s lair would all make sense, but until NECA actually announces them, they remain firmly on our wish list rather than the specifications sheet.
What we do know is that the teaser clearly shows the unmistakable red-and-black face lurking behind that equally unmistakable red door.
For Insidious collectors who have spent years looking at their horror shelf and wondering why The Further hasn’t yet invaded it, that appears about to change.
And if NECA somehow puts a miniature phonograph in the box, we’ll take two.
