In Insidious: The Red Door by Patrick Wilson, terror is an element that is part of a dark heritage. Not only because the film returns to the context of the Lambert family, protagonists of the first and second installments of the saga. At the same time, because it is evident that more than an exploration of terror, the plot emphasizes the idea of a cursed blood bond.
The director, who makes his debut behind the cameras, uses his first scenes to make it clear that what will happen next concerns more than just a house. Much less, a particular region or space. except that it is The beyondthis time turned into a concrete enemy, rather than the crack that separates the world of the living from that of the dead.
One, which extends to any place and circumstance. In the context of the film, the geographical distance, the years that have elapsed or any other eventuality that implies the limits of reality are not important. What is relevant is the horror that manifests itself in a whole new dimension. In its fifth part, the idea is more present than ever.
Insidious: The Red Door
Insidious: The Red Door’ by Patrick Wilson, recovers the universe created by James Wan without its depth and weirdness. The story, set ten years after 2013’s ‘Insidious: Chapter 2’, follows the Lambert family again. Less inspired and without the element of mockery and absurdity of the previous installments, the film is a mixture between tension and classic horror codes, which does not impress. This, despite the director’s efforts to create an atmosphere similar to the rest of the saga. But whether due to lack of expertise or skill, the actor’s first attempt behind the scenes falls short. In the end, the film closes its story as it can, without living up to a saga known for its originality.
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Especially during the first minutes trying to remember the essential points of the universe. Which makes it clear that the new narrative relies almost entirely on what James Wan has created to sustain itself. A point that will become more evident as the film progresses in its plot.
Nothing new in a familiar story
In fact, the story of Insidious: The Red Door it is so indebted to the previous plots, that it could not be fully understood without them. It is not independent, nor does it seek to be. Which is notorious from its first sequence (direct homage to the initial film) and without a doubt, in the way of resolving the progressive tension on the screen. Closing doors, the usual sound and camera games in the dark. The tape manipulates the point of view, in an attempt to mix the dreamlike with the real.
But the director does not have enough pulse to integrate the creepy – or what will be – to the common world. So the usual grotesque and even absurd element of the franchise is no longer an ingenious twist and becomes a drag on the narrative. A good part of the images refer to the saga directly. The hints of another universe soaked in blood, creatures with huge, monstrous eyes. On more than one occasion — especially as history shows that the familiar demons are back — it all seems extremely familiar. More than obvious, intended to repeatedly remind that what is hidden in the life of the Lamberts is a core of darkness that is impossible to avoid.
A problem that increases when the various allusions about the evil that stalks the Lamberts are shown over and over again. Although a decade has passed since their last encounter with the unknown and life seems to move on, the world of mystery haunts them.
Whether in dreams, memories, the relentless feeling of being stalked or that the darkness tenaciously corners them. The truth is that the tape devotes a good amount of time to narrating the obvious. That the family is only in a brief, unclear and undoubtedly fragile period of peace. But that there are debts — invisible and apparently evil — that must be paid with blood and even life.
The fear that waits to attack
Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins) is no longer the boy possessed and beaten by forces he doesn’t understand. He is now a young man who will go to university to study art and who, apparently, has forgotten a traumatic past. Around him, everything has also changed. His grandmother died, his environment became a hostile space. But at least he struggles to find his place in the world. That is, until his mind—or the dark force that guides his steps without his knowing it—shows him hints of what he forgot. Which is none other than what happened during the time he was in a coma, still a child.
However, before reaching that critical point, the narrative provides abundant context of the current life of the family. In particular, the emotional and mental fissure that ended up separating them. The element of shared condemnation returns to be the center of the narrative. But never as clearly or eloquently as it once was. Instead, the plot decides to be obvious and make it clear that after a traumatic experience, no one survives without injury. So Scott Teems’ script explores the circumstance that Lambertthey go through drastic changes and in essence, that push them into danger.
As your child begins his life as an adult, Josh (Patrick Wilson) and renai (Rose Byrne) are in the middle of a difficult time as a couple. Divorced after the events of the last circumstance they lived together, they are little more than strangers. What creates a fertile ground for the attack of what is hidden in the Beyond. Darker still, turns both to Josh like dalton in vulnerable victims of a progressive mysterious element that follows them wherever they go.
So the story goes through the possibility that the only thing that kept them safe from darkness was love. It is a topical point that, in previous films, was intertwined with the idea of what unites and separates families. Much more, by turning that link — of origin and emotional inheritance — into a dangerous sentence that is carried on his back.
A fragile addition to the franchise
But Patrick Wilson is not as adept as James Wan at exploiting fear from familiar ground. From the unforgettable scenes of the first installments – pale figures that appeared and disappeared, the fiery red-skinned demon – the film is limited to familiar ground. One of the lowest points of the fifth installment of the Insidious saga, is just its inability to overcome previous visual and narrative experiments.
We miss the claustrophobic and violent tension of the close shots or the motionless camera, which awaits a brutal event. A focal point in the way the franchise has posed horror so far. Also, how James Wan managed to build a varied and complicated universe, through the formal idea of evil.
Without being especially deep, the franchise tried to give its version of fear its own identity. Even in the stories in which their original protagonists were not essential. Despite the different scenarios that ran through a single common thread, the narration was flexible and capable of showing multiple nuances.
Patrick Wilson falters when innovating, so the film bears a more than obvious resemblance to the second, the last to appear, the Lamberts. In fact, the plot uses the same plot tricks. In the 2013 feature film, the move into Josh’s mother’s house was the trigger for the poisonous secret that haunts its protagonists.
Ten years later, the peaceful oblivion of a decade, is broken by the new life that each member must face. As much as the script tries to lend weight to the notion of the creepy bond they can’t avoid, the film lacks solidity in explaining it. There are few scenes that show the affection, understanding or at least the heavy legacy that everyone carries. Something essential to delve into the scenario of fear, just as the feature film proposes.
Further than ever in the afterlife
All in the midst of the thin veil that separates the supernatural from the physical world. Also, even more, the way in which each of the previous plots, provided information in understanding the apparent final chapter of the franchise. From the nature of the Afterlife to Josh Lambert’s ability to make contact with the unknown. Gradually, the new tape remembers the place from which it came. But especially, where he wants to go.
That is, of course, the ultimate showdown with the forces of evil contained in the spectral spaces. But again, Patrick Wilson finds no common ground between the inner and outer journeys of the characters. Now the Lamberts must remember the horror that attacked them and can only escape the threat, returning to the endless corridors beyond death.
But if for James Wan the emptiness of existence was a collection of intertwined nightmares, the new director delves into symbolism. Before The Beyond was a projection of terrors, now it has its own rules that are discovered little by little. The games of lights, so recognizable in the saga, once again announce danger. Still, not as effectively as before.
Also, the connection of the living and the dead, as occupants of different layers of reality. The director increases the tension by hinting that the exit is a secret to be discovered and that it depends on knowledge to which the characters do not have access. Which is credible, as the journey through the shadows of the ghosts, becomes a maze that runs through known points of the saga.
Yet when the film needs to piece together the jumbled pieces of its plot, the filmmaker can’t find a visual way to encapsulate the supernatural impact. Much less, mixing the concept of inherited fear with the possibility of salvation through love. In its disappointing ending, the film shows its weakness to tell a story that is not complex, but emotional. Between the two, the film drifts and decays until it becomes a run-of-the-mill horror story. His most serious problem, coming from a saga known for its powerful personality.