Insidious: The Red Door
SONYInsidious: The Red Door is the culmination of the mainline Insidious trilogy that began with the first film in 2011, continued with the sequel, two prequels, and then ultimately (possibly) ends here twelve years later. The Insidious franchise has always been able to pride itself on being a poster child for horror franchises that survive purely on audience reaction, and an ignorance of critical evaluation. This one should prove to be no different, unfortunately. The Red Door is carried squarely on the shoulders of Patrick Wilson, of whom stars as well as makes his directorial debut on this feature. He carries the camera gracefully as if he is a veteran of B-movie horror schlock and does his absolute best to bring some genuine emotional weight to this already arguably comatose franchise.
The strangest action this film takes is to erase the ending of the last film in which we saw the Lambert family. Insidious: Chapter 2 ends with the erasure of Josh and Dalton's memory regarding the further, as well as the aptly named, red door. The Red Door begins with those memories beginning to fade back into existence starting with, surprise, a haunting of sorts. Patrick Wilson does a surprisingly good job of bringing back the family in a realistic sense with the passage of time being conveyed in a way the audience can believe. Josh (Wilson) has had a foggy, fading memory for years due to the erasure of The Red Door. Dalton has an ever-growing resentment towards his father for being absent over the years, with Ty Simpkins doing an admirable job of showing that teenage resentment in an authentic and engaging way.
The biggest issue at hand here is that overall the scariness factor that was present in the previous – and, if honest, better produced – films (James Wan) within the franchise is almost non-existent with a focus on familial drama and mystery taking the cake. Not necessarily an issue for the quality of the film itself but does ultimately hurt the final product due to the expectation of there being more than one appropriately placed scare. The scare in question involving Josh and a memory game holds the middle act on its very thin shoulders. A film categorized as horror but holding no weight or horrific elements is ultimately failing at the end of the day. Not everything needs to be "elevated" horror but should at least cover the final basic need of being scary.
The technical aspects are all there and none of it feels juvenile or is done poorly, but sadly, and this could be considered worse, none of it is memorable. The standard Insidious piano noises are present but not necessarily in an effective way. While the majority of jump scares are accompanied by loud noises which are just, quite frankly, lazy. The movie is working at its best when it allows the father and son dynamic to come front and centre because unfortunately the whole ventute just isn't very scary, and for a franchise that projects itself as nightmare enducing entertainment, it is ever so dissapointing
Nevertheless, it is a nice surprise to see Wilson so effectively direct a moderately budgeted entry in a successful franchise first time round without much pushback, but horror may not necessarily be his strong suit behind the camera even if it has worked so well for him in front of. If anything, at a bare minimum, The Red Door is a decent entry that does a nice job wrapping up any loose ends that may have lingered in this decade-old franchise but as limited as it is as a genre piece, it still provides strong performances and at least one solid scare that should appease audiences and fans for years who yearn for this franchise. Those who want or expected more, however, will probably have to wait to see what is yet to come.