INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR (2023) - Movie Review

Director: Patrick Wilson
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Ty Simpkins, Rose Byrne, Andrew Astor, Steve Coulter, Joseph Bishara,
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Writer: Scott Teems
Runtime: 107 min
Rated: PG-13 for violence, terror, frightening images, strong language and suggestive references
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

In Insidious: The Red Door, the original cast from the horror franchise is back for the final chapter of the Lambert family's terrifying saga, with Patrick Wilson (also making his directorial debut), Ty Simpkins, Rose Byrne and Andrew Astor. To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh and a college-aged Dalton must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family's dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door.

Review:

It turns out "Insidious: The Last Key" was not going to be the final chapter in the horror franchise created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Even though that movie brought the story full circle, leading directly into the events of the original film, it seems that the Lambert family saga is far from over.

"Insidious: The Red Door" is the first installment in the franchise not to be directed or written by either Wan of Whannell. Series alum Patrick Wilson makes his directorial debut with this fifth installment, while the script is penned by Scott Teems ("Halloween Kills", 2022's "Firestarter"). At the end of "Chapter 2" Josh (Wilson) and Dalton's (Ty Simpkins) memories were wiped to help them move forward from the trauma of the horrifying events that transpired in the first two films, but apparently that wasn't quite the happy ending we thought it would be.

The story picks up nine years later, and finds the Lambert family in a pretty dark place. Renai (Rose Byrne) and Josh are divorced, Dalton is drifting away from his family, and Josh's mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) has passed away. As Dalton goes to college, the haunting begins again as both the boy and his father start seeing things they can't explain, and soon enough they're drawn back into The Further to face the evil that almost destroyed their lives all those years ago. This time, however, there's no Elise (Lin Shaye) to guide them, and neither are Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson). Thankfully, the bumbling duo only make a brief online video appearance.

It's nice that for once they've abandoned the ghost hunters routine, so no more fancy gizmos and found-footage emulation, but the story is still incredibly rote and boring. The pacing is glacial, it doesn't flow, it lingers and lags behind a plot that wastes too much time covering story elements we already know. Dalton and Josh's struggles to reclaim memories from the past is an interesting idea on paper, but as executed on screen it's a slog to get through. Not even Elise could save this one.

I've always thought it strange that the series never went back to the Darth Maul looking demon from the first film. The so-called "Lipstick-Face Demon" (played by composer Joseph Bishara) is still the best villain in the entire "Insidious" universe, and yet he was so criminally underused, appearing only in the first film as a full-fledged antagonist, then used as a call-back reference at the end of each of the other three movies. In "Insidious: The Red Door" he's back as the main evil entity, but Wilson lacks Wan's genre knowhow and the once frightening bogeyman is now just a dull mascot whose return was teased so many times it's not even scary anymore.

While "Insidious: The Red Door" tries to give its horrors a psychological edge by exploring family trauma, it falls way short of its lofty ambitions. What we end up with is a psychological drama with no depth, and a horror film with no scares. It's a depressingly bad bookend to the series, and the saddest thing is that it made a lot of money, so they'll probably want to make more. I'm just not sure this franchise really has anywhere left to go.

SCORE: 5/10