To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh and a college-aged Dalton must go deeper into The Further than ever before, facing their family’s dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the door.
James Wan made his mark on the world with his 2004 breakout hit, “Saw.” It grossed $103 million worldwide against a budget of only $1.2 million, making it one of the most successful indie horror films ever. His following two films, “Dead Silence” and “Death Sentence,” failed to ignite the box office and were critical disappointments as well, so Wan took some time off and came back with 2011’s “Insidious,” the first film in the successful horror franchise. After directing the film’s sequel, he moved on to other projects, but the Insidious series kept going, culminating with this year’s “Insidious: The Red Door,” produced by Wan but directed by Patrick Wilson, the star of the series and “The Conjuring” movies, which Wan also created.
While it is Mr. Wilson’s feature film directorial debut, it never achieves the same level of scares or fear its predecessors exuded, especially the first two. And that’s a shame because while the film never terrifies, Mr. Wilson works well in the dramatic department, infusing the story with much-needed emotional coherence and a finality that will hopefully end the waning franchise once and for all.
Nine years after his possession, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and his son Dalton’s (Ty Simpkins) memories of being trapped in the Further have been repressed. In the years since, however, both men have experienced strange goings-on that they cannot explain and suffer from brain fog. As a result, Josh and Renai (Rose Byrne) are now divorced, sharing their kids. When Dalton moves away to college, Josh insists on driving him, but instead of bonding, their strained relationship boils over and ends with an argument.
Shortly after, both men begin remembering their time in the Further and start seeing the red-faced demon that tormented Dalton as a child. Josh tells Renai what’s going on, and she tells him they both can astral project and agreed to have their memories repressed so they would forget about the Further. When Dalton becomes trapped in the Further, Josh decides to go in after him, willing to put his soul on the line to save his son.
While James Wan’s first two movies delivered exceptional scares and pulse-pounding jolts, parts 3 and 4 failed to capture that magic, producing pale imitations that we have all seen a thousand times before in movies of this ilk. With “The Red Door” and first-time director Wilson at the helm, I hoped he would return to the ambiance and fear factor that Wan imbued throughout the first film, but sadly, they are nowhere to be found. Even the red-faced demon, who terrorized the Lambert family in the original, fails to elicit genuine scares.
Wilson capably directs his cast and delivers on the emotional elements of the family dynamic, but that is about all. There has been talk about the INSIDIOUS and SINISTER universes crossing paths, and a new INSIDIOUS spinoff titled “Thread: An Insidious Tale,” starring Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani, is currently in production, but where they’ll go from here is anybody’s guess. I just hope they leave the Lambert family alone and go off in a new direction.
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