From Jeremy Kibler

Never has a screechy, atonal score of a hundred violins felt like home as it does here. It’s the calling card that opens each of the entries in the Insidious series, and what we do at the beginning we do at the end. Neither James Wan nor Leigh Whannell are directing this time, but Patrick Wilson (who has doubled dipped in Wan’s two titan horror franchises) makes his directorial debut with Insidious: The Red Door, a solid if ultimately sentimental final chapter in the “Lambert family trilogy.”

After two prequels that gave us more Lin Shaye, this direct sequel to Insidious: Chapter 2 picks back up with the Lambert family. Time has actually passed, nine years to be exact. The Lambert family reunites to put Grandma Lorraine (Barbara Hershey) to rest. Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) have divorced, but Dad still gets to see his three kids on his given weekends. The eldest, Dalton (Ty Simpkins), is about to go to a liberal arts college as an art major, and Josh offers to drive him. Father and son each share a talent for astral projection, though neither one remembers their abilities, anything about the dark realm of The Further, or the events of the first two films. Their relationship is already strained as can be, but Josh experiences major brain fog and Dalton desperately seeks the truth about his “coma” when he was just 10. Both father and son will have to make their own discoveries to face their repressed traumas and close “the red door” for good.

Director Wilson and screenwriter Scott Teems (Halloween Kills) trust that we’re already emotionally invested in this family. There’s no time for a whole “Previously on ‘Insidious’…” recap, although there is helpful footage from Insidious: Chapter 2. If you’re already clued in, it is more of the same but more conclusive with a neat little bow. The film’s first half is decidedly the strongest, structurally sound and character-driven as it’s actually interested in the people involved. It might take a while to start paying everything off, working in fits and starts, but there seems to be actual care made in crafting a family drama. Impatient viewers will be disappointed they don’t get a scare-a-minute fright machine, although the jolts do eventually come. The word “insidious” does mean gradual after all.

There are at least two standout scare sequences, both expertly executed: one involves a CT scan and another has Josh playing a memory picture exercise on his windows. Showing a fair amount of promise behind the camera, Wilson has most likely learned from James Wan how to tease and prod his audience until goosing them with the actual payoff. His restraint in allowing something to materialize in the background within a static frame also lends a classy directorial touch. 

It does make a difference to have 21-year-old Ty Simpkins returning to play Dalton and not just recasting. He brings an emotional impact to his scenes when sharing the screen with Patrick Wilson, a terrific actor in his own right who rises above the Absentee Dad cliché. Rose Byrne, while much more of a supporting player than before, still gets to show how Renai has evolved over the years in one scene opposite Wilson. The other two Lambert kids are still afterthoughts, even with Kali no longer being a crying infant, but Andrew Astor, as son Foster, gets a few amusing moments over the phone with his big bro. The biggest impression is made by a new face. A total find, Sinclair Daniel is a burst of much-needed energy and charisma, especially being alongside a brooding artist, as Dalton’s mixed-up roommate/new friend Chris; we can’t get enough of her.

Not that this series ever lost it, but Insidious: The Red Door does gain back the uneasy, goosebump-inducing power of the original film and the first sequel in spurts. The scares are effective and not always predictably timed, and the script rightfully keeps its trapped, life-craving souls as mysterious monsters from The Further, knowing that too much lore-building just dissipates the fear. And, yes, everyone’s favorite claw-sharpening, Tiny Tim-playing “Lipstick-Face Demon” (Joseph Bishara, also the composer) is back in his weird, freaky glory. 

Perhaps the fourth best Insidious in the five-film series, Insidious: The Red Door might overestimate the poignancy we’re supposed to feel by the end. Even so, a familiar face in the last scene is more than welcome, finding well-deserved closure for not only the Lamberts but this singular horror series.

Insidious: The Red Door is in theaters now.

Rating: 3/5

Follow Jeremy at @JKiblerFilm