Patrick Wilson starred in and directed the fifth and supposedly final installment of the horror franchise Insidious, this one subtitled The Red Door.

Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson), who split with his wife Renai (Rose Byrne), is taking his son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) to college. Their relationship was strained from the events of their past. Dalton meets a girl named Chris (Sinclair Daniel) who was accidentally assigned to the same dorm room.

Dalton’s art class encourages him to dive deep into the depths of his memories, causing him to question a time when he believed he was in a coma.

Strange things happen, and he eventually finds his way back into The Further.

Insidious: The Red Door is basically a bunch of jump scares with attempts to be shocking for the audience. There is not much to the story. It felt like a lot of retread from previous Insidious installments.

Ty Simpkins was fine as Dalton, but I am not sure what he did not remember the events of his father trying to murder him when he was a kid. He had some nice chemistry with Sinclair Daniel.

There was an idea that could have been developed more, involving the reaction from these kids whose father, though possessed, tried to kill them. How did that affect their lives and relationships? This was in the film, but it was nowhere near as developed as it should have been. Instead, we just try and solve the mystery that we already knew.

The things from The Further were unremarkable and seemed to have little reason for being. There were some downright silly moments too. Plus, I hate puke scenes and there were a couple here.

Lin Shaye’s Elise Rainer is shoehorned into the film too in a seriously dumb manner. I guess they felt as if they needed her in the Insidious franchise, but how they did it was barely worth the time.

Insidious: The Red Door felt as if the franchise had run out of ideas and was just revisiting the past to try and find something new. It failed at that. Keep the door shut.

2.1 stars