‘Insidious: The Red Door’ Review: The Sequel Disappoints Despite Patrick Wilson’s Promising Directorial Debut

thewrap.com:

While ghosts by themselves are frightening, the idea that they can hurt the very people we love is several shades scarier. “The Conjuring” and “Insidious”—the two James Wan joints that have spun the two most successful and sophisticated supernatural horror franchises of the last decade—understood this timeless fear at a deep level.

Through respective sequels and spin-offs that you probably have mixed up at least once, both of these collections handed us stories about loving but desperately trapped families, with only bad options to choose from in their ghost-infested lives.Now “Insidious: The Red Door” revives the tale of one of these movie clans—the one haunted by a spooky form of sleepwalking starring the terrific “Scream King” Patrick Wilson, and not the other one that also stars the same Patrick Wilson—reuniting the Lamberts nearly a decade after the disturbing happenings of “Insidious: Chapter 2.” If you are a devotee of the dark moods, red-faced monsters and creaky floorboards of these spooky cinematic page-turners like this critic, you might find that you’ve dearly missed this troubled family at first, easing into the next episode of their unnerving journey during the film’s initial act.

Though the straight sequel “The Red Door” proves fast that it doesn’t have much else to offer to the viewer other than some fan-service-y familiarity, becoming wearisome rapidly despite a dedicated cast and actor Wilson’s capable direction in his filmmaking debut behind the camera.One thing to note about that aforesaid familiarity: it is indeed crucial to possess in order not to get lost in “The Red Door,” written by Scott Teems and franchise regular Leigh Whannell.