Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth installment of the Insidious franchise and helmed by actor-turned-director Patrick Wilson, promises a dive into the haunted memories of the past, but the script by Scott Teems delivers little more than a stifling yawn. Alongside Wilson, the film stars Ty Simpkins, Rose Bryne and Sinclair Daniel.
The film begins where Insidious 2 concluded, with Josh Lambert (Wilson) and his suppressed memories of “The Further.” It then abruptly shifts to the solemn setting of the funeral of Josh’s mother, Lorraine (played by Barbara Hershey in previous films). While Dalton (Simpkins), Josh’s oldest son, reads from Scripture, the estranged Josh and Renai (Bryne) and other siblings wrestle with their loss. Also at the funeral, an encounter with Carl (played by Steve Coulter in previous films), the man responsible for erasing Josh’s memories, highlights the depths of Josh’s amnesia.
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In this grief-stricken state, Josh and Dalton attempt to rekindle their bond on a road trip to Dalton’s new school. Their attempt to reconcile, however, collapses due to an unresolved argument, showcasing a family war connected to their haunting past. At college, Dalton is surprised to find a female roommate, Chris (Daniel), due to a clerical error. The two strike up a friendship as she accepts his quirks and avoidant demeanor. Dalton’s first subconscious expedition happens during an art class exercise, where he sketches the infamous red door, nudging him and his father towards the supernatural realm of The Further.
The Insidious franchise has always crafted a glimpse of astral projection and what that looks like from an outsider perspective, and its impact on reality. Yet, the series’ most intriguing elements are eclipsed here by lackluster storytelling. The narrative meanders through supernatural phenomena that science can’t explain, leading Josh and Dalton to search for answers on their own separate journeys. While the film does maintain the franchise’s signature eerie atmospheric tone even with the directorial change, it drifts frustratingly slow between father and son storylines, leaving viewers to wait for the narratives to converge.
When they finally do, the result is chaotic and bewildering thanks to sloppy editing and a lack of cohesiveness as the story moves all over the series’ timeline and presents a lot of surface level ideas it has no intentions of expounding upon. The closer the characters get to the truth, and consequently death, the more it spirals into confusion and monotony.
The relationships between characters also feels flat here as there is no emotional connective tissue holding them together. The introduction of Chris was meant to add a layer of levity, but instead it only contributes to the film’s convolution.
Having cemented his status as a scream king within the horror genre, Wilson’s transition to the director’s chair seems like a logical progression. But despite these films often being fertile ground for helming novices, Insidious: The Red Door fails to deliver the anticipated scares.
With a better script, maybe Wilson’s full range of abilities could have been on display. Despite coming in at less than two hours, the film feels like a three-hour ordeal — a cardinal sin in the fast-paced horror genre. The first film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell have such a good grasp of horror mechanics that can’t be re-created, though that’s what Wilson and Teems are aiming to accomplish. Insidious: The Red Door is an unfortunate misstep and offers little in the way of horror or entertainment, making Wilson’s directorial debut fall short of its hauntingly thrilling potential.
Title: Insidious: The Red Door
Distributor: Sony/Screen Gems
Release date: July 7, 2023
Director: Patrick Wilson
Screenwriter: Scott Teems
Cast: Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Hiam Abbass, Sinclair Daniel, Andrew Astor, Rose Byrne
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 1 hr 47 min
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