Title – Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Director – Patrick Wilson (feature debut) 

Cast – Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Sinclair Daniel, Rose Byrne 

Plot – Over a decade after traumatic events that occurred to the Lambert family due to the realm known as “The Further”, father Josh (Wilson) and now college student son Dalton (Simpkins) must return to the world they had long forgotten to ensure they can overcome evil once and for all. 

“It ends where it all began”

Review by Eddie on 31/10/2023

One of 2023’s surprise global box office hits, the reported (highly unlikely) conclusion of the Insidious franchise started by Saw masterminds James Wan and Leigh Whannell in 2010, the Patrick Wilson starring and directed The Red Door is a new series low that forgoes any genuine scares in favour of a languishing father/son story that has a few scattered and predictable jump scare attempts thrown in for good measure.

When we were first introduced to “The Further”, the world between dead and alive where Wilson’s family man Josh Lambert and his at the time young son Dalton could explore through their unique ability to astral project themselves into the realm, it provided Insidious with a fantastic horror back drop to explore that delivered chills, thrills and inventive genre ideas to create a property that appeared to have a lot to offer horror fans but despite a solid sequel, the diminishing returns of the franchise have halted enjoyment in its tracks to now make one wonder if this series needs to be sent to the depths of the realms it created, never to be seen again. 

Here reuniting the series original cast members after a few films with new forgettable cast members, Wilson, Ty Simpkins and Rose Byrne join forces once more with Simpkin’s Dalton now off to college and mostly estranged from his father, only to find that his new life has unlocked repressed memories and understanding of the world he has long steered away from, giving The Red Door a chance to deep dive once more into The Further only so waste most of its 100 minute runtime on a series of uninspired and forgettable set-ups that makes one think Wilson should stick to being in front of the camera not behind it, even if a few brief moments clearly inspired by his work with Wan show snippets of imaginative film-making. 

Long-term fans of the property or those just looking for cheap easy chills are going to be left hugely disappointed by The Red Door’s inability to bring the scares or give us something new for a series that 5 films in now seems out of ideas with prior successful entries showcasing that a huge budget or Hollywood wizardry wasn’t required to gift us above average horror and characters that were engaging rather than grating, something The Red Door seems to have forgotten all about. 

It’s a shame The Red Door has managed to be as financially viable as its ended up becoming as it means the bar has been set low when the next instalment comes our way with this once hugely entertaining and inventive property becoming another run of the mill Hollywood horror I.P that fails to justify its existence outside of easy money making potential. 

Final Say – 

Sadly gone are the days where the Insidious brand name meant an above average horror experience with The Red Door failing to bring anything new to the table on its way to producing a boring and predictable end product devoid of spark or scares. 

1 1/2 melodica’s out of 5