Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com August 28, 2023

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was a years later sequel to the first movie, with little Dalton grown up and headed to college. It was interesting seeing the same actors in the same roles years later, the parents and little brother Foster as well as Dalton. But it’s pretty dull and slow moving, low on action, and low on thrills until some payoff at the end. It gets there, but it’s a bit of a slog.

Spoilery Synopsis

Josh Lambert and his son Dalton get hypnotized by Carl to forget all about the last year and The Further. They will only remember that Dalton was in a coma and recovered…

Nine years later, Josh’s mother Lorraine has died, and everyone is there for the funeral. Dalton and Josh don’t get along well anymore. Carl, the hypnotist, is there, and he pretends not to know Josh. Josh has a weird feeling about the man but doesn’t remember. We see something creepy behind Josh as the credits roll.

Josh drives Dalton to school; Dalton’s an art student, taking classes with Professor Armagan. Josh tries to be friendly, but Dalton is aloof and mostly gives Josh the silent treatment. Josh apologizes for being “foggy” the last few years. Chris Winslow, a girl, comes in, and she’s his new roommate. There’s an argument, and Josh cries all the way out to his car.

Dalton and Chris talk about themselves, and Dalton says he forgot an entire year when he was ten. He also admits that he’s afraid of the dark. Professor Armagan is mean, telling the students to tear up their favorite drawings– except for Dalton, whose work she likes. She tells them to draw whatever their soul tells them, and he draws a door. Elsewhere, Josh dreams about that same red door.

Josh goes for an MRI to figure out why he’s so foggy all the time. Strange things happen inside the big machine. “The door is open,” someone tells him. The doctor says he just went to sleep in the machine, and the test went just fine and there’s nothing wrong with him. The doctor suggests counseling.

Dalton has a similar experience in his dorm room. Dalton and Chris go to a frat party. They get separated, and he sees some strange things, but Chris thinks he’s lost his mind. She eventually asks him, and he admits that he’s seeing things.

Josh sets up a kind of memory game that the doctor suggested. A man breaks through and chases him upstairs. He ends up finding a box of old photos.

Dalton gets more and more obsessed with his red door and calls his brother, who says there’s nothing in their past that would apply. Chris thinks Dalton is doing astral projection and traveling outside his physical body. They watch a video on the subject, and they mention the Further. The video also includes Elise, the paranormal expert from the first film. The video warns him not to do what he’s been doing.

Dalton remembers seeing a ghost in “Nick the Dick’s” bedroom and decides to Astral project himself back there to talk to it. Dalton sees the red-faced demon from the first film trying to kill Chris. She recovers, but she warns him not to try that again. Dalton calls his brother Foster again, and Foster warns him not to try to remember that stuff.

Meanwhile, Josh does some research on astral projection as well; he goes to see Ranai, his ex. The photos are from his dead father, who committed suicide decades ago; he’s also the man who broke into his house earlier. Renai explains what happened in the first film and that his mental fight against the hypnotic block is what has held him back for ten years. She’s been lying to all of them for a decade for their own protection. Foster comes in and tells Renai and Josh about Dalton’s visions.

Dalton flashes back to when Possessed Josh tried to kill all of them. Modern-day Dalton actually interrupted the attack ten years ago. Then he finds himself in The Further. Josh goes in after him with Renai’s help. Josh sees himself wandering around ten years ago; time seems flexible in this place.

Astral Josh rescues Astral Dalton. Meanwhile, in the real world, Possessed Dalton terrorizes Chris in the dorm room. Josh says, “This ends with me” and dies in the real world. Back at school, Dalton paints over his red door painting, which seals in the red-faced demon.

Josh wakes up, suddenly not dead. Everyone is going to be fine. Josh goes outside and runs into Elise, who is hanging around in the middle of the street for no real reason but to have a ghostly cameo.

Commentary

It’s got creepy lighting and atmospheric effects, and it all looks good, as a high-budget release should. But it’s soooo slow and boring. For the first 90 minutes, Josh and Dalton see things that may or may not even be real. Literally nothing “real” happens until the very end; the majority of the film is just Josh and Dalton trying to break the hypnotic block placed on them.

It’s predictable, generic, and unfortunately boring as Hell.