Credit “Insidious: The Red Door” for getting the casting right: Ty Simpkins, a child actor in “Insidious” (2011) and “Insidious: Chapter 2” (2013), returns as Dalton, now headed off to college. And Andrew Astor is back as younger brother Foster.
Those seem like obvious decisions, but so many franchises outsmart themselves when casting adult versions of kid characters (see “Independence Day: Resurgence”) that it’s worth a tip of the hat. If only “The Red Door” was so savvy about everything else.
This fifth “Insidious” film overall – and the capper to the Lambert Family Trilogy – clearly means a lot to Patrick Wilson, who stars as dad Josh and makes his directorial debut. Also providing continuity is series co-creator Leigh Whannell, who co-writes and cameos as Specs.
“Insidious: The Red Door” (2023)
Director: Patrick Wilson
Writers: Leigh Whannell, Scott Teems
Stars: Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne
Wilson sings on “Stay,” the atmospheric rock track by Ghost that plays over the entire end credits. The song is the film in a nutshell – earnest, pointed, professional … but not as profound as it thinks it is.
Better to remember or forget?
Whannel and Scott Teems explore the question of whether it’s better to forget trauma or to remember it and move forward. Unfortunately, they forget the surprises and scares.
A decade after the events of the second film, wherein Josh is possessed by a demon and goes into abusive patriarch mode against his will, the Lamberts are fractured. Josh and Renai (Rose Byrne) have divorced, and Josh isn’t clicking with his two sons and young daughter (the basically unused Juliana Davies as Cali). Josh says he feels “foggy,” similar to “The Red Door’s” reason for existing.
Given the events of the first two films – including the taken-for-granted idea that it was right for Josh and Dalton to be mind-wiped of their Further experiences – this is an obvious area to explore. And if it had something fresh to say, “The Red Door” could’ve been great psychological horror. But it doesn’t have that; the story goes to the places you expect.
Spicing things up a little is the friendship between Dalton and Chris (Sinclair Daniel), an unusual mixed-gender bond that grows from Chris being assigned the wrong dorm room due to her androgynous name. He’s a quiet artist, she’s an outgoing musician, and they hit it off.
Arty horror – literally
“The Red Door” wants to be arty horror, and I suppose literally it is. In class, Dalton learns about chiaroscuro paintings and the way the masters create a “light source” in their works by contrasting whites and blacks.
The Lambert men, of course, have always struggled with darkness. They have the unwanted supernatural ability to astral-project into the Further, a parallel world of demons and haunted souls.
This film – despite an appealing, intimate focus on Dalton and Josh – struggles to project an investment in the wider “Insidious” saga. One notable character doesn’t return (except in reused footage), which allows the story to avoid confronting her with a major question about her past that borders on being a plot hole.
Four ghost investigators from previous installments return – all in cameos – and Byrne’s role as a supportive divorcee wife is unfortunately little more than a cameo. Still, the Lamberts do feel like a family, and Simpkins rightly was allowed to take up the Dalton role again because he’s a fine young actor.
Lin Shaye (whose Elise is the main character of “Chapter 3” and series standout “The Last Key”) feels like she’s giving a light coda to the “Insidious” saga in Elise’s brief pop-ins. It’s like the story’s already been told but “The Red Door” is repeating the old beats for the sake of remembrance, and nothing more.