Insidious: The Red Door Review
Director: patrick wilson | Script: Leigh Whannell and Scott Teems | Cast: Patrick Wilson (Josh Lambert), Rose Byrne (Renai Lambert), Ty Simpkins (Dalton Lambert), Sinclair Daniel (Chris), Lin Shaye (Elise Rainier), ea | Time to play: 107 minutes | Year: 2023
InsidiousCreated in 2010 by modern horror icons James Wan and Leigh Whannell, it is now in its fifth chapter. Insidious: The Red Door save the prequels Chapter 3 in the last key and pick up the thread Insidious: Chapter 2. In other words, part five is actually part three, completing a trilogy.
The Lambert family, victims of demons from another dimension (the so-called Verder) in parts one and two, hope to put their misery behind them once and for all. Through a hypnosis session they try to banish the events from their memories. Nine years later, Father Josh walks around with what he calls a “cloudy head” and is divorced from Renai. Dalton, who was in a coma in the first part and thus gained access to the Afterlife, is now a passionate cartoonist who wants to further develop his illustration skills at school.
When the teacher kindly but urgently forces him to draw from his deepest, darkest emotions, he sketches demonic figures. And they don’t stay on paper. Is Dalton hallucinating? Or does this have everything to do with Continue? Has he reopened the door to this universe? And what memory are he and Josh trying so desperately to suppress?
On this occasion, the protagonist Patrick Wilson gave the stage directions, but this horror film continues to breathe the typical atmosphere in which Whannell and Wan have specialized. He’s the kind of creepy that breathes down your neck. Think vague appearances in the corner of the image. Raspy music that expresses the underlying madness. Or colored lights, fog effects and unpleasant makeup.
Wilson manages to put the story under constant pressure. You know something is coming, that a psychic is ready to strike. The only question is when? There are guaranteed scary effects that will affect you quite a bit. The scene with the MRI is a gem in that regard. In such moments, this oppressive and atmospheric horror film is at its best.
Whannell and co-writer Scott Teems have also focused on the characters and their underlying relationships. Dalton is afraid of the dark (quite logical, given the traumatic experiences) and Josh tries to reconnect with his son. Due to the thin psychology of the character, the drama is not always convincing. Verder’s vague rules and dubious hypnosis (is it really that simple to have your memory wiped?) aren’t convincing either. Still, it’s admirable that Whannell and Teems are at least trying to make it more than a pure horror movie.
Fragile drama aside is Insidious: The Red Door turned into a fascinating horror movie. The ending suggests that Whannell and Wan still have plenty of ideas to keep their universe growing.