Insidious: The Red Door takes place nine years after Insidious: Chapter 2. During that time, the children have grown up, the Lamberts have divorced, and Josh’s mother, Lorraine, has died. We open on the occasion of her funeral. Josh (Patrick Wilson) has a strained relationship with his children, especially Dalton (Ty Simpkins), who starts art school at the beginning of the film. Dalton and Josh have no memory of their time on The Further or anything mystical happening. Dalton simply accepts that he was in a coma and that Josh has had a “blurred brain” ever since.
Insidious: The Red Door takes place nine years after Insidious: Chapter 2. During that time, the children have grown up, the Lamberts have divorced, and Josh’s mother, Lorraine, has died. We open on the occasion of her funeral. Josh (Patrick Wilson) has a strained relationship with his children, especially Dalton (Ty Simpkins), who starts art school at the beginning of the film. Dalton and Josh have no memory of their time on The Further or anything mystical happening. Dalton simply accepts that he was in a coma and that Josh has had a “blurred brain” ever since.
Josh and Dalton experience the same astral projections and haunting experiences as in the first two films. Josh seems to start with an MRI; At Dalton’s, his art professor tells her students to “dig deeper,” and, well, Dalton is digging a little too deep. Josh and Dalton experience various monsters and ghosts independently, unaware of their history as “travellers”.
Insidious: The Red Door offers nothing new for the franchise. Neither Josh nor Dalton have new powers, nor do they see anything new or face new challenges. It’s basically the same story as the first two Insidious movies, only they don’t know what’s going on because it’s new, they don’t know what’s going on because they don’t remember .
Patrick Wilson makes his directorial debut with this film. To be honest, I don’t think he’s supposed to direct horror. Maybe it’s because it’s too easy to compare this movie to the first two Insidious films directed by horror legend James Wan. Wilson relies on quick cuts and close-ups, which made some scenes look unclear but not creepy. There were no slow, quiet moments that increased the tension in an overwhelming manner. Most jump scares were interrupted by sharp noises in the soundtrack.
Overall the scariest scene was when Josh does an MRI as seen in all the trailers. In this scene, the rattling noise of the MRI and the claustrophobia of the machine itself were quite terrifying. Otherwise there were a lot of ghosts/ghouls/monsters, but none of them seemed very scary.
My favorite part of the film was Chris from Sinclair Daniel – Dalton’s random roommate and new friend. She’s quirky and funny, and provided a nice antidote to Dalton and his grumpy personality. She acts as a kind of stand-in for Elise, Tucker and Specs, who are obviously not part of this film but get cameo appearances via YouTube videos. Chris does research for Dalton and brings him the videos, although Dalton doesn’t recognize any of them.
Ultimately, “Insidious: The Red Door” brings nothing new to the series, despite occasional highlights. It’s the same story, all over again a decade later, with no further reason to watch.
SCORE: 6/10
As explained in ComingSoon’s Rating Guidelines, a rating of 6 equals “Fair”. It does not reach its full potential and is an experience of the extra class.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening of our review Insidious: The Red Door.