Insidious: The Red Door | Dir: Patrick Wilson | ★ ★ ★ ★
This is meant to be the final instalment in the horror franchise where the Lambert family can finally defeat their demons or die trying. The first edition of the Insidious story was created by Australian filmmakers Leigh Wannell and James Wan back in 2010 and this will be the fifth film in the franchise that includes sequels and prequels.
The last time we saw them, the father and eldest son had their memories of previous horrors wiped by a psychic medium. Now, ten years later, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Dalton (Ty Simpkins) get drawn back into the family’s dark past.
Josh and wife Renai (Rose Byrne) are now divorced, and Dalton is off to study art at college. The film opens with the funeral of Josh’s mother and Renai begging Josh to drive Dalton to his college dorm and make an effort to mend the father/son bonds that have been shattered in the last ten years.
Josh still battles imaginary (or not imaginary) demons, and this cues the first of the horror frights for the audience to get in the mood. But the film centres more on Dalton whose art teacher encourages him to reach into his inner being to unlock his creativity and draw inspiration for his artwork.
Still afraid of the dark, Josh at least has the support of fellow student Chris Winslow (Sinclair Daniel). They go to one of those American frat parties where horror can be found in the ‘ordinary’ – such as a young adult dressed in only a nappy and a bib with a large pacifier shouting abuse at an African American woman because he can.
Through his artwork and his ability to astral travel, Dalton is drawn into the world beyond the red door, a world populated by tortured dead souls. As flashbacks reveal previous horrors, Josh’s only path to redemption is to confront the past and rescue his son … or die trying.
Horror films usually try to scare the shit out of you or act at a more cerebral level to flood your mind with troubling thoughts, but they rarely do both. While not topping the Richter scale either of these, the film effectively manages to combine food for thought with some adrenaline rushes.
Lezly Herbert
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