The Fantasy Review‘s Spoiler Free Review of Insidious: The Red Door (2023).
Rating: 3/5
Like many going to see this movie, I was skeptical. We have seen the premise of this franchise stretched pretty thin over the first four entries, so what are they really going to be able to do with a fifth.
I was pleasantly surprised! Which is good news – I always want a movie to be good, because a lot of people worked hard on it. Sure, the supernatural plot is lacking a little umph, but you can’t really take that side of the story much further, and is the reason why I thought The Red Door wouldn’t be great.
It’s the relationship between the father and son, and the incredible directing done by Patrick Wilson (his directorial debut, I believe).
The character work in this movie is what I am always begging to see in more horror movies. Too often do we follow one-dimensional characters who we never care about, but in The Red Door, that is certainly not the case.
I was very invested in the relationship between father and son, who had grown distant due to spoilery events from the third movie. The pacing is great, showing us how the past has affected these relationships, and then how they might be reconciled.
Finally, the directing was fantastic. Insidious as a franchise is kind of known for using jump scares as a trick, which is fine, but Patrick Wilson uses the absence of noise to scare us, and it works! It’s the unknown, the anticipation of a potential burst of noise, that really chills your bones, and it was done brilliantly.
Conclusion
Overall, sure, Insidious: The Red Door isn’t an amazing movie, as it needed more of a plot on the supernatural side of things which just wasn’t as great as the first movie, and I’m not sure how it could have been. I still think it’s worth watching though, for the great character work and
