With Ghost Month just around the corner (August 16 to September 14 this year), horror films are starting to make their way to our movie screens here in Hong Kong. One of the most highly anticipated of them, at least among fans of the genre, is INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR. While it’s the fifth film for the franchise, it is a sequel to the second film, INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2, which came out in 2013.

In this installment, which is set nine years after the events of CHAPTER 2, Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson, AQUAMAN; THE CONJURING franchise), who tried to kill his kids nine years earlier, and Renai (Rose Byrne, INSTANT FAMILY; SPY) are now divorced but they remain on friendly terms. The same cannot be said about the relationship between Josh and their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins, THE WHALE), however. The young man is now all grown up and about to go off to college where he’ll study art. Though neither of them has any recollection of that fateful day, both feel that something is off. At Dalton’s first day in class, his professor (Haim Abbass, BLADE RUNNER 2049) tells him to dig deep into his subconscious and draw what he sees there. Dalton draws a red door, which he senses has some significance that has eluded him for a decade. At the same time, Josh undergoes an MRI examination, which unlocks memories that have eluded him too. Separately, they rediscover The Further and now they must go back there to put to rest once and for all the malevolent spirits that have torn their family apart.

Though INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR starts off well with a zippy pace, strong writing, a nice dose of levity courtesy of
Dalton’s new friend, Chris Winslow (Sinclair Daniel), and actors who know their characters inside and out, the film jumps the shark once Josh and Dalton go back to The Further. At that point, Wilson, who makes his directorial debut here, shoots the action in near total darkness, neutering the jump scares that take place as the two men literally battle their demons. The two actors barely share any screen time together so, when they finally do, their characters’ sudden camaraderie lacks authenticity and their fate ends up being rather low stakes. By the time the final credits rolled at my screening, I joined many others in my audience in a collective shrug.

But none of that really matters. The INSIDIOUS franchise has been hugely successful with the first four films taking in over US$600 million at the global box office off a combined production budget of just US$42.5 million. Even this film is doing extremely well despite its lackluster reviews, taking in four times its budget after just one week. Last weekend, it unseated the new INDIANA JONES movie to take the #1 spot in the US box office. Does that mean there will be more INSIDIOUS films? Most definitely but producer Jason Blum has said that this is the last time audiences are going to see the Lambert family for the foreseeable future. Instead, focus will be on a spinoff entitled THREAD: AN INSIDIOUS TALE. Mandy Moore (TV’s THIS IS US) and Kumail Nanjiani (ETERNALS; THE BIG SICK) are set to co-star. It is currently in pre-production so it’s still a while before it comes to the cinemas.

INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR is playing now in Hong Kong and elsewhere. If you’re a hardcore fan of horror-mysteries or if you’ve already seen the other four INSIDIOUS films, you’ll probably want to give this one a go even though it’s very average. If you’re not, you can safely shut the door and get on to watching something else.

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