The Insidious series has proven to be a most profitable and fun franchise of possession stories. Starting in 2010, Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne have enjoyed the long-running roles of Joshua and Renai Lambert. They have become so comfortable portraying these flawed, frightened mortals that Patrick Wilson has taken the opportunity to use Insidious: The Red Door as his first directing project. So this brings us to two questions we must consider with this review: 1) How is the film? 2) How did Wilson do with his first ever directing of a feature-length film?
To the first question, Insidious: The Red Door is a deep, probing, psychological horror centering on Josh and Renai’s oldest son Dalton (Ty Simpkins). Having been enrolled in a posh East Coast liberal arts college known as JPU (I have no idea what the JP stands for), Dalton reawakens the long dormant possession saga by going deep into his recessed and blocked memories in service of his paintings. To this end, he paints a red door with a savage, furious figure outside it. By painting this door, Dalton has succeeded at opening the scary place in The Further, where the Lamberts first experienced the dreaded horror of possession.
“By painting this door, Dalton has succeeded at opening the scary place in The Further…”
The bridge between Dalton’s artwork and astral projection is a fascinating conceit. It feels almost like the sort of thing Fritz Lang would have concocted on behalf of his epic and mortifying villain Dr. Mabuse, who was a frightful entity long after his demise. That the most fertile location to find the tormented souls who gather in The Further is a campus frat house is a delightfully non-sequitur. I enjoyed all the sequences in the frat house. For this installment, Dalton is gifted a quirky, eccentric black girl sidekick in the form of Chris Winslow (Sinclair Daniel). She steals every scene she appears in. A chaotic ball of braided hair and energy, Chris is the voice of reason, while Dalton seeks to probe deeper and deeper into his family’s supernatural source of trauma.
To the second question, Patrick Wilson is really good at directing actors. You can tell he’s critical of his performance as Josh. There is a clear, compassionate hand guiding the torment and the humor. He’s very good at bringing the best possible performances out of the actors he works with. I look forward to seeing Wilson try his hand at directing other genres.
With Insidious, Leigh Whannell has created memorable characters in the Lambert family and the specters that haunt them. Insidious: The Red Door permits Scott Teems to take Whannel’s characters and a story they crafted together into a capable screenplay. While it’s not the best thing I’ve seen this year, the film has some wonderful jump scares and very creepy sequences, giving new terror to the prospect of receiving an MRI. This is an excellent summer horror film, and if you enjoy having the bejesus scared out of you, Wilson’s debut provides about 2 hours of entertainment. Seek this out if you like good horror films.
"…some wonderful jump scares and very creepy sequences..."
