Being Film #11 for Hooptober 2024
Boy do I like Patrick Wilson. Guy is a phenomenal performer, handsome to a damn fault, and has made some really brave and interesting choices in his career. He also seems to really love genre, and I love that his passion for this franchise and these characters propelled him into the director’s chair for the first time for Insidious: The Red Door which concludes the story of the Lamberts. I wish the script held up its end of the bargain, because while there are the kernels of strong ideas and themes here, the door closes on the Lambert family in poor, dull, and rote style.
THE QUICK SUMMARY: It’s nine years on from Josh and Dalton’s last trip into The Further. Hypnotized to forget, Josh’s life is in shambles: divorced from Renai, his mother dead, and estranged from Dalton who resents him for reasons he can’t quite remember. When Dalton goes off to college his burgeoning art career awakens ancients evils, and a certain red-faced demon has been waiting all this time to get what he wants. If Josh wants to save his relationship with his son he’s going to have to remember fast, because the only way back is to close off the Red Door once and for all…
I think Wilson had a very definite idea as to what he wanted out of this film. His concern was the family dynamic, how events like this can tear a family apart, and how those bonds don’t truly break; as a father with a son leaving for college next year I 1000% identify with the scene of the fight at the dorm, and Wilson barely holding it together as he leaves for his car, not wanting to break down until he was safe to do so. There are many, many moments of small familial truths like this, and he and Ty Simpkins, who has been Dalton throughout all these films over the last 14 years really work great together.
I wish I could say the same for everyone else. The decision to have Josh and Renai divorced makes no zero, and really has zero impact on the film’s story. Maybe it was a scheduling thing, but Rose Byrne is barely in this film. Even worse: Specs, Tucker, and even Elise are relegated to cameos, although I freely admit the final scene with Elise made me choke up – possibly because in the last two days I spent almost eight hours with these characters. The only other character with any life at all is Sinclair Daniel as Chris, Dalton’s roommate who turns out to be a breath of fresh air, even when she has whiplash actions like running away from Dalton after a near death episode only to literally return moments later.
This is all script-related, and damn you Scott Teems for crafting such a generic, rote story with no ending except “hey! let’s just end it, okay?” I really felt deflated when the film ended, and even the return of the red-faced demon is nothing but a chase device to make Josh and Dalton run around in terror. Oof. I wish Insidious: The Red Door had a better story in service to Patrick Wilson’s intentions; hopefully much like Leigh Whannell his next outing as director will be much better.
Cinema Dual 
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