The Insidious movies have been around since 2010 and I can’t really see why they’re so popular or successful. For me, this latest entry, The Red Door, is another example of a horror franchise that has outstayed its welcome. But more on that in a sec.
Patrick Wilson returns, and this time he not only stars but makes his directorial debut (although I can’t imagine why other than he’s a part of the series). Wilson’s Josh Lambert has been repressed from the experience of being possessed by The Further. He’s now divorced and dealing with the death of his mother. Plus, his relationship with his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is almost nonexistent. His ex-wife Renai (Rose Byrne) tries to persuade Josh to take Dalton to his first day of college in order to help mend the relationship between the two.
When Dalton begins art classes, he draws the Red Door that enters into The Further and Josh begins having visions of a man who turns out to be his father. He does some investigating to learn what happened to his father years ago.
Dalton befriends a girl named Chris (Sinclair Daniel), who becomes a support system for him. Chaos follows when Dalton has his own bizarre visions, and the father and son’s experiences become interconnected.
They are not having a good day.
The movie offers a lot of the same old same old from the series. We get a lot of exposition scenes on how The Further and The Red Door work, but the only thing the exposition succeeds at is putting us to sleep.
Fans of the series will no doubt acknowledge that this movie is nothing more than a regurgitation of previous installments with a few new elements thrown in, hoping that moviegoers won’t notice.
We get a lot of backstory into Dalton being tormented as a child and a nightmare explained by Dalton’s brother about someone trying to kill them. These scenes serve as nothing more than pointless filler.
Wilson directs this movie trying to stay true to the series’ spirit, but he can’t work with a script that is dead in the water. This film relies heavily on constant jump scares. The story feels contrived and artificial, and by the end, it has really no one or nothing for us to care about. It’s impossible to have any kind of emotional interest when the only thing the characters are good for is to serve as a clothesline for the supposed frightening scenes.
Wilson has certainly made a name for himself in the horror genre between this series and the Conjuring Universe, but now both franchises have little to nothing left in the tank. Maybe it’s time for him to move on.
As it stands, Insidious: The Red Door should close the door on this franchise.
Grade: D
(Rated PG-13 for violence, terror, frightening images, strong language and suggestive references.)
