Insidious The Red Door Movie Review: Patrick Wilson’s Uneventful Horror Film Lacks Genuine Scares and a Cohesive Plot (LatestLY Exclusive)

Insidious The Red Door Movie Review: While not flawless, the previous two Insidious films were appreciated for a true sense of tension, and they brought along this sense of dread that really contributed an agency to the viewing. The same can't be said for Insidious: The Red Door which feels uneventful for the majority of its 107-minute runtime rather than a horror rollercoaster geared to deliver scares. As the conclusion of a long-running franchise, there was a little more to be desired here. Insidious: The Red Door To Have Early Release In India with Midnight Premiere on July 6.

Patrick Wilson in his directional debut here also reprises the role of Josh Lambert with Ty Simpkins joining him once more as Adam Lambert. Picking up nine years after the events of the second film where Adam and Josh don’t remember anything about their past experiences, Insidious: The Red Door sees the door to the Further open up once more to torment the father-son duo, who must face the ghosts of their pasts and put an end to their misery.

For the most part, Insidious: The Red Door feels like it's setting up a payoff that sadly never comes. Wilson, in his directorial debut, shows promise behind the camera, but it doesn't translate into anything due to a mediocre script. Many of the problems here can be attributed to the writing, which is unsure what to do with the plot.

Dalton is now a melancholy grown-up child, and Josh has been an absentee parent after divorcing Renai (Rose Byrne). Insidious: The Red Door frantically attempts to be a father-son bonding story, but it just separates the two in the outset, where the film's big emotional elements just don't land the way they should. The film is occasionally so intent on presenting Dalton's point of view that it almost forgets Josh is also a protagonist.

Watch the Trailer for Insidious The Red Door:

Ty Simpkins delivers a worthy performance showcasing Dalton’s struggle with trying to remember his past. He steals the show here, although I wish the writing focused a little more on Wilson's Josh, who is just as important to the tale as Dalton. There is so much to be explored about him that the film just doesn't really dive deep into, and it does make a lot of it seem disjointed. Rather, Dalton is paired with Sinclair Daniel's Chris Winslow, his college flatmate, who is entertaining but doesn't contribute anything to the larger plot.

The scares in Insidious: The Red Door are weak, depending heavily on cheap jumpscares and failing to produce a real one through sheer buildup. I lost count of the number of times a ghostly apparition would sidle up behind a figure and then just vanish, only to reappear when the music grew louder. It just grew monotonous and caused undeserved thrills, which became an annoyance after a time. There is no sense of tension and dread and that heavily holds back Insidious: The Red Door. Insidious-The Red Door Trailer: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne and Ty Simpkins Return For Terrifying Final Chapter Of Lambert Family's Sinister Journey (Watch Video).

Insidious: The Red Door does get a little interesting in its final act, and that’s where the movie strikes an interesting conflict that could have easily mirrored the themes of the second film, but even then, the resolution just doesn’t pack in enough punch. It’s an unsatisfying ending that feels like it's just buying time, and for a third act of a film, it just doesn’t have much going for it.

Final Thoughts

Insidious: The Red Door is neither scary nor satisfying. While Ty Simpkins and Patrick Wilson deliver worthwhile performances, the film unfortunately suffers from an uneventful plot with missed opportunities. The film is playing in theatres right now.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 06, 2023 12:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).