Insidious: The Red Door has just been released, and where it sits on the scariness level compared to its predecessors couldn't be clearer. The series is about the Lambert family, who encounter malicious spirits in their home, most notably the Red-Faced Demon, who has become an iconic horror villain. The original 2010 movie sees the son trapped in a coma-like state and being tormented by the spirits. Insidious: Chapter 2 is about how Josh Lambert has become so connected to the spirit world. Insidious: Chapter 3 and Insidious: The Last Key follow different families from the Lamberts, but Insidious: The Red Door sees the return of the original family one last time.
The popular horror franchise began in 2010 and has gone from one success to another. The franchise has spawned spin-offs, has grossed more than $550 million worldwide (via Insidious 6 has even been teased. Insidious: The Red Door marks the fifth movie in the main series, and it's directed by Patrick Wilson, who has starred in most of the Insidlious movies as Josh Lambert. Given that he knows the franchise better than anyone, Wilson is a great choice to helm the fifth movie, even if he hasn't directed anything else previously. However, based on early reviews, Wilson might not have delivered the terror that the Insidious franchise is known for.
Insidious: The Red Door Is Less Scary Than Other Insidious Movies
As the Insidious: The Red Door story follows teenage Dalton again being tormented by the spirits from The Further, the fifth movie has been criticized as a retread of the first movie, and it's hard to be scared by a worse version of a much scarier movie. Insidious: The Red Door doesn't deliver the same scares as the previous movies, and while the fifth movie is less reliant on jump scares, it doesn't do anything new. Because the Insidious formula has become predictable, it isn't anywhere near as scary as the first two Lambert-led movies or even the two follow-up movies. Graeme Tuckett noted that the movie is no scarier than Stranger Things (via Stuff).
Tuckett explained that Insidious: The Red Door "mostly plays as though someone read the outlines for three or four average horror movies and then watched a couple of episodes of Stranger Things." Critics noted that the movie is padded with scenes that aren't remotely scary. While horror films should let audiences can catch their breath,this happens too often in Insidious 5. There's an overly long sequence in a frat party that doesn't go anywhere, and the movie's scare level could have benefitted from much tighter edit. However, some scenes do reach Insidious levels of horror, such as the anxiety-inducing moment in the MRI machine, but they are few and far between.
Insidious: The Red Door Is Less Violent Than Other Insidious Movies
Insidious: The Red Door is rated PG-13, which means that it isn't particularly violent, but that doesn't mean the movie doesn't deliver the goods, as every Insidious movie has been rated PG-13. As a result of not being R-rated, the Insidious series has never been overly violent, especially not compared to its peers like the Conjuring franchise, and Insidious: The Red Door is no different. However, while the previous Insidious movies haven't necessarily needed to lean on violence to scare audiences, based on the early reception to Insidious: The Red Door, a little more violence to get across the higher stakes might have helped the movie's performance with fans and critics.
