Insidious: The Red Door brings chills to viewers with the focus back on the Lambert family haunted by the supernatural! The horror franchise began with the first film in 2010 directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannel. The story concerns father, Josh (Patrick Wilson), and his son, Dalton (Ty Simpkins). The duo continued with Lambert family in Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013). Whannel took over as director and as writer with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) which focused on Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) and Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye).
Wan continued as producer of the Insidious films. Insidious: The Last Key (2018), written by Whannel, had the haunting of Christian Rainier (Bruce Davison) who lives in the former childhood house of Elise Rainier! Insidious: The Red Door is the directoral debut of Wilson. Scott Teems is the screenwriter, he wrote the horror remake, Firestarter (2022), and also the co-story. Whannel is also wrote the story for the fifth Insidious movie. It begins with the eerie music of Joseph Bishara and has starred as demons in the Insidious and Conjuring movies!
We see the Lambert family; father, Josh, mother, Renai (Rose Byrne), older son, Dalton, Foster (Andrew Astor), and youngest daughter, Kali (Juliana Davies). This picks up with the Lambert family since Chapter 2. Wilson was last in the sci fi movie, Moonfall (2022). Byrne was last seen in the comedy, Spirited (2022). Simpkins was in the drama, The Whale (2022), as Thomas. Astor returned to play Foster since Chapter 2. Foster becomes important later in the movie. Davies takes over for twins, Brynn and Madison Bowie from Chapter 2, and was in the horror comedy, She Came From The Woods (2022).
There is a closeup of Josh’s eyes and mention of the place called The Further. Then, we move to “Nine Years Later”, an upside down shot of a tombstone is turned over. This is the funeral of Lorraine (Barbara Hershey), Josh’s mother, she had contacted Elise to help the family. Dalton reads from Ecclesiastes, “a time to speak; a time to love”, but doesn’t believe that his grandmother misses them. He goes to the mini-van and picks up his drawing of Lorraine. Renai asks Josh to drive his son to college. It is obvious that Josh is separated from his family.
He notices a man, Carl (Steve Colter), and walks up to him. He tells him, “I know your mother.” Colter was also in Chapter 2 and Carl was also a colleague of Elise Rainer. At his car, Josh texts Dalton about driving him to college while watching videos of his son as a baby. We see a blurry figure behind him that moves closer, but is gone when he buckles his seat belt. On the drive, Dalton puts on his headphones, and then texts his mother. They drive into the campus of JPU with a “Welcome Freshmen” banner. They carry crates and Josh has some backpacks.
Josh picks up a frat party flyer for his son. After finding his room, Dalton puts up the picture of Lorraine on his wall, and says, “She’s hiding something.” Father and son get into an argument and Josh admits that lately, he’s been “foggy.” Their argument is interrupted by Dalton's new roommate, Chris Winslow (Sinclair Daniel), this is the first theatrical movie for Daniel. She previously starred in the tv movie, Once December Night (2021). Her lively energy counters the darkness and Daniel is another actor to look for her next film.
Josh leaves and sees other parents helping their kids move in. Dalton sees Chris using a mouth melodica keyboard. Dalton gives it a try playing a song from his mother. He admits that he doesn’t remember when he fell into a coma when he was 10. It was explained as viral meningitis. There is enough back story here that the audience is not required to see the previous Insidious films. Chris prepares to go to sleep and Dalton admits that since he was ten, he has been afraid of the dark, which is absolutely reasonable considered what he encountered!
The next day at art class, Professor Armagan (Hiam Abbass) enters and has the students take out a drawing from their portfolios. Abbass was in the remake, Hellraiser (2022). One student has a portrait almost like a photograph, but Armagan tells him to tear it up, he leaves the class. She says, “Any fool can learn technique.” Dalton rips up his portrait of Lorraine. Armagan likes his boldness. She has the students close their eyes, Armagan slowly counts to ten, and tells them, “go further and further into yourself.” The teacher’s voice echoes as Dalton starts frantically drawing with charcoal.
He forms a door, Josh suddenly is awake, and there is blood on the drawing from Dalton’s hand. Armagan looks at the door and asks, “Is it keeping you in or out?” The artist who has disturbing paintings of the supernatural reminds me of H.P. Lovecraft’s story, “Pickman’s Model.” This was adapted in a recent episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Josh had promised Dalton that he would get help with his condition. It is a broken family with Josh as the divorced father, distanced from Dalton and his ex-wife, and he has to finally confront his past.
He goes to get an MRI with Dr. Bower (E. Roger Mitchell) explains the procedure. Mitchell was in the biographical drama, Till (2022). Josh has headphones on and a panic button as he enters the scanner. From personal experience, this is a very confining space where you can’t move, and you are in the scanner for some time. Then, the power goes out! Josh calls out for Dr. Bower and he is asked, “Is someone with you?” Josh can only see the empty room outside of the MRI. A hand slides beside Josh! Pure terror. Josh leaps out of the MRI and Dr. Bower says that he had been asleep for fifteen minutes!
At Dalton’s room, the lights go out, the back-up power puts out a red light! He sees a bloody handprint on Chris’ bed sheet and tries to scrub it off. This was in The Further and Dalton finds that Chris has moved to room 323 above his dorm room. She sees the crumpled flyer for the frat partyi and says they should go. At the frat is boastful party guy, Nick (Peter Dager), who brings up a hazing accident. Chris takes them away from the party and they end up in Nick’s room. Left alone, Dalton sees the unfortunate hazing victim in the bathroom who tells him to close the door, he tries to hide under the bed, but he can't escape this spirit!
Dalton is wakened by Chris, she tries to make a distraction when the arrogant Nick enters, and she deals with him! Later, Dalton gets a phone message from his father. He closes his eyes and nods off into the Further! A lantern glows and the door opens. He walks through the hall to Room 323. Dalton sees her mouth keyboard and plays the song. Something crawls on the floor towards him before he is wakened by Chris. He explains about the incident with the frat kid.
Chris tells him that he has astral projection. She shows him a laptop with Professional Paranormal Investigators, part of the description by Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters (1984)! This is the duo of Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Leigh Whannell) who assisted Elise Rainer. She explains the phenomenon of astral projection. The suppressed memories of Dalton and Josh will be revealed, the Red Door opened, Josh and Dalton have to face what is behind it! Insidious: The Red Door is the tense horror movie and a story of fathers and sons that is worthy of the other Insidious films!
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