Insidious: The Red Door
The fifth instalment in the horror franchise fails to frighten.
Thirteen years on: Ty Simpkins as Dalton Lambert. Image courtesy of Sony Pictures.
It’s extraordinary how these horror franchises can be stretched out for years, revamping a familiar template with new tricks. The one novel aspect of The Red Door is that Dalton Lambert, first played by a nine-year-old Ty Simpkins in James Wan’s Insidious (2010), is the protagonist of the new film (still played by Simpkins) and is now sporting five o’clock shadow. Imagine Linda Blair returning as Regan MacNeil in the new Exorcist film (2023) and you get a whiff of how unsettling this is. In theory.
Here, Dalton has turned into a surly young man who makes it clear at the funeral of his grandmother Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) that he believes the dead are genuinely deceased (more the fool him). There are issues between Dalton and his dad, Josh (Patrick Wilson), the latter struggling to make the best of a bad job, but who agrees to drive Dalton to his new freshman college. Farewell hugs are off the table and Josh agrees to seek professional help to sort out his questionable behaviour in the past. Meanwhile, Dalton, who exhibits a genuine skill with a pencil and paintbrush, attends the art class of the authoritarian Professor Armagan (Hiam Abbass). The film’s best sequence follows where it becomes apparent that the two men share more than a genetic bond. As Dalton is encouraged by Armagan to “dig deep into the darkness of memory” to serve his art, Josh is placed in an MRI scanner to confront his psychological demons. Patrick Wilson, serving as director this time round (his debut), draws on his experience with such accomplished filmmakers as Todd Field, Jason Reitman and Ridley Scott to fashion a moment of genuine unease. Sadly, the rest of the film provides nothing as visceral.
Unfortunately, a conventional overture evolves into a honeycomb of visions and nightmares that shuts out any basis in the real world, creating a conveyor belt of hallucinogenic effects. Thus, such talented actors as Simpkins, Rose Byrne, Abbass and a feisty Sinclair Daniel – as Dalton’s temporary roommate Chris Winslow – are given little opportunity to mine the humanity of their characters and to make us care (or fear) for them. If one is to remember The Red Door for anything, it’s the scat frat party at college – or Diaper Do – which proves to be a minor eye opener on the American educational establishment.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Sinclair Daniel, Hiam Abbass, Andrew Astor, David Call, Steve Coulter, Peter Dager, Rose Byrne, E. Roger Mitchell, Joseph Bishara, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell.
Dir Patrick Wilson, Pro Jason Blum, Oren Peli, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, Screenplay Scott Teems, Ph Autumn Eakin, Pro Des Adam Reamer, Ed Derek Ambrosi, Music Joseph Bishara, Costumes Dajia Milan, Sound P.K. Hooker.
Screen Gems/Stage 6 Films/Blumhouse Productions-Sony Pictures.
106 mins. USA/Canada. 2023. UK and US Rel: 7 July 2023. Cert. 15.
