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Patrick Wilson has a serious case of the revolving doors. Between Insidious and this fifth sequel, and Conjuring and its several iterations, Wilson seems to never get out of haunted corridors. Insidious, especially, is a classic example of one door closing in the franchise only for the Lambert family to gatecrash through another – just to land in the realm wherein reside ghosts and all those other bad things, on the lookout for any “life” to return to our world.
That’s the basic idea, though it’s not really clear what exactly is happening in The Red Door, what gets resolved and doesn’t, and is it really ‘The End’. It’s nine years in movie time since Josh (Wilson) and Dalton (Simpkins) survived their first encounter with that realm, referred to in the film as ‘Further’. It ended with a psychic doctor of some sorts repressing their memories so that the two of them would no more remember their time in the nether world.
Of course they do. This time, Dalton’s memories are triggered by a highly regarded art teacher at university, of the kind who dons robes, beaded necklaces and walks easel to easel telling students to seek their “inner selves”. We know what lives in Dalton’s inner self, and once it gets a chance to express itself, it’s all puking students, popped bulbs, walking corpses, bloody footprints, and the like.
What’s nice about The Red Door is that it makes time for its characters, particularly Dalton’s roommate Chris (Sinclair Daniel), who tries her best to add some cheer to the dour proceedings – and succeeds to an extent – and doesn’t tot up much of a body count. It’s also low on big scares, intelligently deciding not to reinvent the wheel, and instead builds up the fear slowly, sometimes a trifle too slowly.
The reason for that, one suspects, is that Insidious really has nothing new left to say about the much-tortured Lambert family, including Josh’s wife Renai (Bryne). Even ghosts need to have shelf lives. Close the door on this one.
Insidious The Red Door movie director: Patrick Wilson
Insidious The Red Door movie cast: Patrick Wilson, Ty Simpkins, Rose Byrne
Insidious The Red Door movie rating: 1.5 stars
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