Insidious - The Red Door (2023)

I must admit an initial disorientation, expecting Vera Farmiga to appear before realizing: Oh yeah, that’s the other James Wan produced spooky Blumhouse franchise starring Patrick Wilson. With over 13 entries, 5 in this series, the lines begin to blur. This is the one with astral traveling, drag specters, and a cameo by Darth Maul. Check. Wilson directs this, and while far from unskilled in his first directorial attempt, this film is a waste of any talent he’d wish to showcase as this franchise offers little left worth exploring. He crafts a number of good moments, striving for a deeper tale of fatherhood and connection behind a veil of spooky shenanigans, but there’s little to connect or sympathize with. While the core Conjuring entries are decent, the Insidious films exercise exponentially diminishing returns. This is the weakest entry yet, scares barely existent, plots increasingly trite, and the familial drama predictable and grating in equal measure. The haunted child from the first film grew into a sullen, unlikable, socially awkward adult with unresolved daddy issues due to hypnotically purged memories of that, ya know… the one time Dad tried to murdalize him. A brief acknowledgement to the continuity events in the script and consistency with the child actors, but there is far too much nostalgia baiting and memberberry evocation to the film’s detriment as it will remind viewers of better films. While there’s nothing egregiously horrible here, there’s nothing to connect with and nothing to recommend. Hopefully the coda on this particular entry indicates the door can finally be slammed shut. 

D