In the 10 years since Josh and his son Dalton were compelled to “forget,” their lives haven’t exactly flourished.
You could certainly say that the hypnosis that stripped away many of their memories was a good thing. For it masked the horror of young Dalton being psychically yanked into a dark netherplace filled with troubled souls of the dead. And it blotted out Josh’s tortured memory of being possessed by a demon and abusing his family. But it left both of them foggy-minded and empty feeling.
For Josh, that resulted in him pulling away from his family. It drove he and his wife, Renai, to divorce.
Dalton, on the other hand, retreated inwardly, isolated by headphones as he frowningly worked on a never-ending string of drawings.
Now, however, there might be a chance for a new beginning for both of them.
Dalton is headed to college. His incrementally improving artwork has earned him entry into an out-of-state university and a highly coveted spot in a respected art teacher’s class.
That opportunity opens the door for Josh to drive his son to school. Maybe a couple days together could encourage them to talk again. There’s been an inexplicable angry wall between them for years—a wall that neither of them fully understands.
The trip together doesn’t go so well. But it does spark important questions in both of them. Why has it been so tough? Why dothey both feel so angry? Why are there gaps in their memories? And why do those gaps seem so important?
Josh determines to finally step up and seek some medical help. He gets an MRI. He tells a doc about the feelings he’s had, the crazy thoughts he’s been thinking.
Dalton, on the other hand, immerses himself in his new art teacher’s classes. Her exercises help the students connect with their innermost self, and they’ve been bringing forth some surprising results for Dalton.
In fact, Dalton drew this piece that took the shape of a dark, shadowy door. It was beautiful and terrible. It virtually sprang from his subconscious.
But then, both Dalton and Josh—hundreds of miles apart—begin experiencing ghosty and ghoulish things. It’s almost as if some seal has begun to break down.
Or as if a horrible door has cracked open.
For all of their angry father/son struggles, Josh and Dalton eventually come to the point of both entering the dark astral projection realm of the Further and fighting for one another. In fact, Josh is willing to give up his life to protect his son, and the world, from the entities behind the Red Door—the gateway to that realm.
Josh also learns more about the father he never knew. He was angry with him, but he comes to understand a bit more about the man’s struggles—issues that Josh has, and must deal with, himself.
Dalton makes a good friend at school named Chris. She encourages him to work through his problems when they initially appear to be emotional or psychological. But when the dark spiritual truth comes out, she also steps up to shield an unconscious Dalton from harm (being physically battered in the process).
As with many horror films of this stripe, you can look at Insidious: The Red Door as both a warning against dabbling in the realms of the dead and the demonic (a warning that’s voiced by several people) and as an enticement to, well, crack that door open.
Both Josh and Dalton step into a shadowy world of astral projection. A YouTube-like video links that practice to the danger of drawing the attention of dark entities. In some cases, Josh and Dalton slip into that alternate dimension almost accidentally and in some instances they do so on purpose. That dimension sometimes perfectly mirrors the real world; at others it becomes its own dark-and-smoky realm known as the Further.
In both cases, the alternate dimension is home to a variety of ghost-like, demonic and sometimes ghoulish creatures. One of those creatures traps Dalton in the Further and possesses his body, causing havoc and injury in the real world. (We also see flashbacks of Josh being possessed by a dark entity and battering his family members around.)
Dalton encounters what appears to be a former student who died and was trapped in a fraternity house. The entity constantly moans and vomits, and it pins Dalton to the floor and vomits profusely in his face. Josh is terrorized by a crawling spirit form while getting an MRI. In another scene, human-like, naked and disjointed creatures crawl into the real world. Etc.
Dalton reads from Ecclesiastes at his grandmother’s funeral.
When Dalton and Chris first meet, they discover that she has been accidentally assigned as his roommate. So she bunks down there while waiting for a room change. Dalton walks in dressed only in a towel after taking a shower.
Dalton and Chris go to a frat party and are introduced to Nick, a fraternity house leader with a very crude nickname, dressed in nothing but a bib and a large diaper. They end up in this guy’s room, and Chris discovers a lotion that she suggests he uses as a sexual lubricant. Dalton also hides under the guy’s bed as Nick rummages around for condoms. There are references to sexual happenings at the frat house. When Dalton and Chris are caught in Nick’s room, they hide their true intentions by instantly locking lips, and then use the excuse that they were looking for a place to be physically intimate.
A college frat party show cases some girls in low-cut tops.
In class, Dalton’s teacher displays the Francisco Goya painting of Saturn Devouring His Son. Dalton works feverishly on a drawing when a clawed hand reaches out from the Further and slashes his palm open, causing him to bleed profusely on the piece. Other arms and hands grasp at both he and Chris. Chris, in fact, is grabbed by the throat and strangled till she passes out on the floor. Blood smears on a lightbulb and in the form of a handprint on someone’s sheets.
Chris knees Nick in the crotch. A strange man (that turns out to be a spirit) smashes through a large window, then proceeds to bash Josh to the floor repeatedly. At one point Josh is slammed so forcefully into the back of a closet that he passes out and slips into the Further.
Dalton paints a picture of his father raging with a hammer clenched in his fist. Then he flashes back to a memory of his father, possessed by a spirit, breaking through a barred door, bashing family members around and attempting to kill young Dalton with a raised hammer.
Dalton is possessed and he throws Chris into a wall. Chris, on the other hand, later protects Dalton’s unconscious body from attacking creatures that grasp and pull at the both of them. A demon creature smashes a hole in a door and threatens to bite Josh.
One f-word and a half-dozen s-words are joined by one or two uses of the words “a–,” “h—” and “b–ch.” God’s name is misused three times. Crude references are made to male and female genitalia.
We see lots of drinking students at a frat party. The above-mentioned vomiting entity apparently died while vomiting during an overdose. (People make mention of it at the frat party.)
Chris makes a joke about Dalton’s masturbatory practices. Dalton’s brother makes a crude joke about someone’s body part.
If by some chance you’ve seen all the previous films in the Insidious movie franchise, you might expect Insidious: The Red Door to be something of a noteworthy finale, a film that fills in all the story gaps. After all, this fifth entry is returning to wrap up the tale of the Lambert family, where everything started. And all of the series’ films have held one pressing question: What is the meaning of that dark and mysterious Red Door?!
If you’re hoping for that sort of revelatory denouement, however, you ought to lower your expectations.
This pic—the directorial debut of star Patrick Wilson—does indeed focus on Josh Lambert and his son, Dalton, remembering and coming to grips with their past horrors. Insidious: The Red Door even goes so far as to proclaim that it’s good to remember the terrible things of our past. For it’s in that remembering, the film tells us, that we are made stronger. Those pressing personal horrors, in fact, compel us to reach out to the family, friends and loved ones in our lives.
That’s a potentially positive statement. But that’s about all of the insight you’ll find here.
The rest of this flick is simply more of the dabbling with darkness that we’ve seen before. There are astral projection wanderings into demonic realms and razor-clawed horrors screeching from the dark depths. You’ll encounter pitch-black jump-scares and bloody mishaps. But in the end, you’ll be hard pressed to say that you’re better coming out then when you went in.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
