INSIDIOUS. THE RED DOOR. freudian ghosts

2023-08-02 17:15:13

Ty Simpkins in Insidious: The Red Door.

In 2010, Insidious opened a new door within the filmography of James Wan. Although the filmmaker and his partner Leigh Whannell already came from genre titles such as Saw y silence from evilthe commitment to a classic approach to terror that both this film and Warren expedient They finished placing these two filmmakers as two fundamental voices for horror in the 21st century. Ghost stories have always had a series of common patterns that the two partners knew how to adapt to the new times with a look at the classics of the genre.

THE BASIS OF TERROR

While Warren expedient was supported by the figure of Ed and Lorraine Warren, two researchers of paranormal phenomena widely known in the United States and with some cases that had wide prestige in the media, in Insidious They started from an original idea where family inheritance played a macabre role. In our opinion, the two installments of Insidious were below the two films of Warren expedient who would also direct James Wan; however, both franchises would face the same fate. Once Wan disassociated himself from directing and began to act merely as a producer, with his attention more focused on other projects, the level of the successive sequels was much lower.

RETURNING TO THE ORIGINS

Although the third and fourth installments of Insidious had focused more on previous cases of the medium Elise Rainier (played by Lin Shaye) and his assistants, so they acted more like a prequel, now Insidious: The Red Door it takes up the main plot, the one that had to do with the Lambert family, and tells us about the situation of the family ten years after the end of the second part, with which it maintains a close bond. Those events, erased from Josh’s memory (Patrick Wilson) y Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins), have turned the family into a broken and unstructured nucleus. Suddenly the memories begin to resurface, bringing back those ghosts that had been trapped in the “Beyond”. Insidious: The Red Door

SINS OF THE FATHER

In the first two installments it had already been established that the origin of evil is a legacy inherited from father to son, from Josh to Dalton, allowing them to make astral journeys with which to visit a parallel dimension in which all kinds of tortured spirits live, under the domain of the terrifying Red Demon.

In this third installment of the Lambert plot, the role of the apparitions and the main conflict (the distancing of father and son, without them being very clear about the reasons for this disaffection) take on a Freudian role, where the apparitions, more than deliveries Far from being truly terrifying threats, the previous ones become metaphors for that parent-child hostility, where both protagonists are going to have to introspect their psyche to unlock what is getting in the way of their relationship and their own personal development.

This provides this installment with its most striking component, although it also makes the film itself move away from the “scary cinema” format (without dispensing with them) which is perhaps the one that the public that goes to the theater is mainly looking for. Patrick Wilson directs Insidious: The Red Door.

EVERYTHING STAYS IN FAMILY

In the same way that the plot keeps ties with the first two installments, and following the established style, even playing to integrate past scenes into the new footage, making the new film dialogue with its predecessors, we also find many family ties within the realization of the new chapter.

Not only does the main cast return, but the script is once again signed by Leigh Whannell (here in the company of Scott Teemsscreenwriter of two other recent productions of Blumhouse, Halloween Kills y Fire Eyes) and the direction falls on the Patrick Wilson who debuts like this behind the camera, without forgetting the composer Joseph Bisharawho not only returns to compose the musical score, but returns once more as the incarnation of the Red Demon.

All this provides a sense of continuity and coherence with the above that benefits the film, especially when it comes to intersecting its plot with pre-existing sequences.

THE DEMON OF LITTLE THINGS

Unfortunately, despite the fact that we can find an improvement on the tape compared to the two prequels starring Elise Rainierthis fifth installment is still far from the merits of the first two films, when James Wan was still in charge of directing.

The film falls back into some of the deficiencies of its predecessors, such as secondary characters of little depth and with an annoying fondness for trying to bring humor out of tune to the film, as well as a tricky plot that requires modifying the already established ones to be able to keep moving forward

Despite the ambition of its proposal, the film avoids delving into the most interesting and controversial readings and takes the simplest and most bland path, although, fortunately, without falling into a gratuitous chain of shocks. The staging of Wilson it is functional and elegant, but it misses the ability to Wan to create a greater atmosphere and narrative tension.

CLOSING THE DOOR

Definitely, Insidious: The Red Door It ends as the third best installment of the franchise, much higher than the third and fourth parts, but a long way from the first two. As an independent film, it’s a simple and effective horror film, well done, with competent actors, and one that will entertain anyone looking for a horror film without great ambitions. Of course, and with her we consider the franchise more than closed. There is no need to reopen the door. Insidious: The Red Door