Insidious: The Red Door – Review

12th July 2023

Insidious: The Red Door – Review. By Daniel Rester.

Patrick Wilson makes his directorial debut with Insidious: The Red Door, the fifth film in the supernatural horror series. It sees the return of Wilson as Josh Lambert, who was the main character of the first two entries; the third and fourth chapters were prequels that focused more on psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye, who barely features in this one). While Wilson certainly puts in effort both in front of and behind the camera, Insidious: The Red Door never quite comes up with a strong enough argument for visiting Josh and the rest of the Lamberts again.

Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is all grown up now and heading to college to study art. Both he and his father Josh have foggy heads due to the erasing of their memories of the ghoulish events from before. They both begin experiencing strange things again as “The Further” and astral projecting come back into their lives.

Insidious: The Red Door starts well enough as it reintroduces the Lambert characters and provides a new setting with the college campus. Simpkins takes the lead this time around and remains excellent throughout as Dalton, providing a less-is-more performance. Some of the runtime is dedicated to Dalton and his new friend Chris (Sinclair Daniel) as they try to find out what is happening to him. The film probably would have worked better if it solely focused on Dalton and Chris’ relationship as the shifts to Josh and his ex-wife Renai (Rose Byrne) are less interesting.

Unfortunately the film starts to really fizzle out by the second half as it becomes more and more routine with the scares and twists. The screenplay by Scott Teems, from a story by Teems and franchise creator Leigh Whannell, ultimately doesn’t come up with enough fresh territory to explore within The Further. Much of the plot has Josh and Dalton playing catch-up on events the audience already knows about. The climax then places the characters in a familiar position against the notorious red-faced demon once they are finally up to speed.

Though Wilson is working with a bland script, he does show some promise as a director as he gets what juice he can out of the material. One scene involving an MRI scanner is memorable as Wilson lets the suspense build as Josh is stuck in the confined space of the medical machine. More sequences like that could have helped Insidious: The Red Door stand out more. Instead it comes across as a mostly mechanical sequel.

Rating: 5.5/10

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