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Blu-ray Review: INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR

Home » Blu-ray Review: INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR

Oct 03, 2023 Posted by in DVD/Blu-ray, Reviews | Comments

In Insidious: Chapter 2, Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) had used his powers of atral projection to enter the Further, where he become possessed by an entity, and attempted to murder his family. However, his young son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) used his own powers to enter the other dimension and rescue his father. Afterwards, Josh and Dalton were hypnotized, making them forget the events of the past year, The Further, and their special abilities—in the hope that the family could move on and live a normal life. However, during the 9 years that followed, Josh found his mind getting foggy, which caused him to become distant from his family. He and his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) separated and divorced, and Josh’s relationship with Dalton had also become estranged. Now Dalton is a young man, ready to head off to college, and Josh agrees to make the long awkward drive to bring him to school.

Dalton loves to draw, and is excited to be a part of Professor Armagan’s (Hiam Abbass) Art class. She asks each student to dig deep into their subconscious to find inspiration for their next drawing. As she counts slowly back from ten, Dalton sinks further and further into himself, unlocking something that has remained hidden from him for the past 9 years. He starts to draw a dark red door, but doesn’t know why. As he continues to work on the drawing, surprising details in the picture start to take shape. Whenever he goes to sleep, Dalton finds himself exiting his body and entering some sort of other dimension, where he can see his lifeless body. He also starts to see creepy, ghostly entities of people who had died on campus. As Dalton explores his newly rediscovered powers of astral projection, he feels like he is getting closer to something, or is it actually something that’s getting closer to him? Could Dalton be allowing something dangerous to come back from The Further? Meanwhile, Josh has his own reawakening as he seeks treatment for his fogginess. He starts to see entities as well—one man in particular. As he delves into his own past, Josh is surprised by what he discovers. However, it may be the key to helping Dalton stop the evil that he is unknowingly about to unleash.

Insidious: The Red Door is a thrilling, well-written next chapter in the Insidious saga. While Chapters 3 & 4 jumped back to give a prequel story to the Lamberts’, this fifth installment feels like a natural continuation and possible conclusion to the the Lambert trilogy. The Lamberts realize that simply trying to ignore and forget what happened is not going to work, and they are going to have to face their (literal) demons head on. This third installment of the Labert trilogy successfully recapture the magic that made the first two films so tense and enjoyable. And bringing back the same cast nearly a decade later is the icing on the cake. While Rose Byrne had a more prominent role in the first two films, in The Red Door, Renai takes more of a back seat. This is very much a father/son story in several ways. Dalton is forced to confront his relationship with his father, while Josh tries to figure out why he never had one with his. While both of these men are on separate voyages of rediscovery, their paths ultimately come together and inform one another. This grounds the story, while also filling it with the supernatural scares and thrills we’ve come to love from the franchise. New to this installment is Dalton’s college roommate Chris Winslow (Sinclair Daniel), who helps bring in some levity and humor to offset some of the more tense moments. However, as the supernatural elements start ramping up, she becomes more of the voice of the audience, telling Dalton that perhaps he shouldn’t be messing around with mysterious dark forces.

The filmmakers do an excellent job of slowly building the tension and anticipation, and playing with mysterious shapes in the dark. There are many jump scares throughout the film to keep the viewers on the edge of their seats. However, these moments never feel cheap, and are still in service to the story. The writers have done an excellent job of making this film feel like the natural progression of the original movies—like this is what was already the plan for the past decade, and they were just waiting for the right time.

Sony’s has released Insidious: The Red Door on Blu-ray and DVD, but it is also available digitally in 4K. I was sent the Blu-ray release for review, which features excellent picture and sound. The picture looks clean and clear throughout, and there is an excellent level of detail even in the darker moments. The audio track provides clear dialogue, and a nice general ambiance throughout. The surround channel is also well-utilized to provide a more immersive experience. This is especially noticeable when Dalton is in class and first starts to experience something, or when Josh is getting his MRI and something awakens inside of him.

The bonus material is a little slim this time around, with the disc including about 8 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes with the cast. Star Patrick Wilson directed this installment, and has some interesting things to say in the interviews—I wish they would have gotten him to provide a full commentary. The Blu-ray disc resides in standard HD keepcase with a glossy slipcover. An insert provides instructions on how to redeem an HD Movies Anywhere-compatible digital copy of the film.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:47:08)

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