Insidious: The Red Door – REVIEW

It must be questioned whether the point of producing sequels to movies is to milk the brand for financial gain, especially when the movies feel pointless and underwhelming, offering absolutely nothing new for movie goers to enjoy.

Unfortunately this is the case with Insidious: The Red Door which is the fifth and reportedly final film in the successful horror franchise.

The Lambert family who had hellish experiences in the first two films but were absent from the next two sequels return, and only time will tell whether audiences will take to this movie as it takes much more to scare movie-goers.

Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins)  are having horrific nightmares and strange visions. Josh feels like he’s crazy and that he has passed his mental illness onto his son. But why is his father, who has passed on, reaching out to him?

The fanbase who have watched all the previous chapters may enjoy this movie more than the first time viewers to the franchise, as they’re familiar with the characters and the previous storylines.

Australian actress, Rose Byrne adds class to this mediocre horror flick. Performances are good especially from black actress Sinclair Daniel who has all the good lines and adds spice as Dalton’s vivacious side kick and college roommate.

However the movie’s pace is insidiously slow in the first half with only the stereotyped jump scare moments keeping audiences from falling into deep slumber. The problem is that we’ve seen it all before. Only originality in storylines of the horror genre will continue to maintain interest for movie-goers and profitability for filmmakers, but unfortunately ideas have expired as every type of supernatural entity and monster has graced the silver screen from the early days of cinema.

Ultimately this movie is lacklustre and audiences may leave cinemas feeling indifferent. It’s definitely a movie worth waiting to watch on streaming services.

★★1/2

                      In Cinemas Now