‘Insidious: The Red Door’ movie review: Some doors are better left shut

Nine years later, the protagonists struggle to move on, though evil is still strong and lurking in this middling fifth entry to the Insidious franchise

Have you ever wondered about creep chords? From where does that scary sound come? Does the evil announce its presence with a jump scare, thereby losing the surprise element, or does the scared person hear the sound in their head? Or is it just lazy cinema to fill a horror movie with loud sounds when they cannot think of anything else to scare you?

The fact that these thoughts were going through my mind during Insidious: The Red Door means the events on screen were not particularly engaging. More is the pity. Insidious: The Red Door,the fifth movie in the franchise, follows the events of 2013’s Insidious: Chapter 2; Chapter 3(2015) and Insidious: The Last Key(2018) were prequels.

Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins) and his dad Josh (Patrick Wilson) escape The Further and bury the horrific events deep in their subconscious through hypnosis, which is surely not the best way to deal with trauma. Nine years later, Josh and Renai (Rose Byrne) are divorced while Dalton is an angsty teen drawing lovely pictures but not given to communicating with his parents. He talks to his younger brother, Foster (Andrew Astor), though.

Josh drives Dalton to school where he (Dalton) will be studying art from the hugely talented Professor Armagan (Hiam Abbass). Josh hopes to re-establish a bond with Dalton on the long drive but it does not go too well with father and son screaming at each other. Josh feels his mind is all fogged up and he goes for an MRI to check if there is something physiologically wrong with him. The consultant is naturally surprised when Josh is unhappy at there being no abnormalities in his brain.

On Dalton’s first day at art school, Armagan encourages the students to delve into their subconscious and create artwork. Dalton’s delving unleashes all manner of nasties. Chris (Sinclair Daniel), Dalton’s roommate, does some quick research and then astral projection comes into play — not the Israeli electronic music group and ‘Mahadeva (1995)’ (sigh). Everything comes right in the end after yet another trip to The Further to do battle with vile spirits.

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Apart from Wilson and Byrne, Lin Shaye and Steve Coulter reprise their roles from the earlier films. Wilson makes his directorial debut with this film that is nice enough in an anaemic way.