Insidious: The Red Door

Blumhouse Pictures was once a force of nature in the Horror world. Their films kept the mainstream Horror genre alive and freshly stocked with their numerous franchise entries and stylish original movies. One of the first films that put the once highly regarded film studio on the map was Insidious in 2010. That small horror movie made over 100 times its budget and sealed the deal for Blumhouse to be the top name in the genre. Again, the mighty have fallen from grace in a big way with their recent slate of movies including The Exorcist: Believer and the recent Halloween Trilogy. The same can be said for the fifth installment of their Insidious franchise titled Insidious: The Red Door, which is a sequel to the second film from all those years ago.

Actor Patrick Wilson has put time and effort into this Horror universe over the years so it might have seemed fitting to allow the actor to step into the director's chair for the first time. With a screenplay from Scott Teems (Exorcist: Believer, Firestarter, Halloween Kills), Wilson directs this hopefully last entry in the Insidious franchise. At least for a good while. Even though this is the highest-grossing Insidious film to date with over $185 million in ticket sales, that's still no excuse to keep making PG-13 subpar horror that does nothing to further the story of this universe nor creates an original terrifying atmosphere that these films are known for. Instead, it's the same cheap scares that have been imported from the first film - rinse and repeat.

Wilson has a solid eye behind the camera, but the material he is given doesn't do anybody any favors. Plus, this hack-job of a script with no real scary moments seemed to only serve as a reunion for all the characters that were loved from the original two films as the setting takes everyone to college. Some time has passed since the events of the first film where Josh (Wilson) has divorced his wife Renai (Rose Bryne) and their son Dalton is on his way to University. Nobody is really happy in this film. Each character is moody and depressed. The end goal according to Teems and Wilson was to have that happy-go-lucky moment at the end of the film where everyone and everything comes back for hugs and kisses that are all wrapped nicely in a pretty red bow.

So to get there, Dalton and his father Josh must go through the proverbial and literal red door of hell and face that demonic entity that scared the wits out of everyone in the first film. So this father and son end up facing the demon, learning how to make sacrifices, and confronting their past and other family members while having Lin Shaye make a cameo appearance that ends up with a wonderful new painting that is not scary whatsoever. It's a way to end the franchise that allows this estranged family to come back together again after they all defeat the demon. The major flaw though is that nothing is new or fresh. This was a stale franchise that tons of other horror movies copied in story and style, thus the market was flooded with the same type of scares and horror scenarios.

It would have been great if this were different and went on a path of boldness and true terror, but it didn't It's a limp phallic gesture to the horror world and this franchise and fits right in with the lot of Blumhouse films of recent besides M3GAN. Despite the good performances and Wilson's solid first-time job behind the camera, Insidious: The Red Door does nothing but conjure up the desire to put this tired series to rest.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Insidious: The Red Door furthers its way to Blu-ray + Digital Code via Screen Gems. The sole Disc is housed inside a hard, blue plastic case with a cardboard sleeve. The artwork features the main four characters standing in front of the red door. There is an insert for a digital code.

Insidious: The Red Door comes with a 1080p HD transfer that looks good within its stylistic confines. It's still a strange day when a major money-maker like this movie doesn't release a disc in 4K and only in 1080p. That says that a 4K Steelbook is most likely on the way very soon. This 1080p image though satisfies the eye with those usual stylized colors.

This film takes place either inside a location or at night, rarely seeing the sun where bright and bold colors could pop. The color palette has a decayed look with a ton of moldy greens, blues, and browns that make up the interior settings. There's nothing rich that pops out at any given moment. But once inside that Red Door and into the Further, the color spectrum changes to a fiery orange and red layer of hell that looks quite good. Black levels are inky enough, however, there is a tiny bit of murkiness in those dark shadows. The skin tones are a bit on the cool side as well.

The detail is as sharp as it can be, revealing some decent closeups with individual hairs and practical makeup effects being shown off. A 4K presentation with Dolby Vision could have cleaned all of this up. This is not a terrible-looking movie, but when a film is steeped in darkness most of the time, it's nice to have a fluid image, and there were some instances that kept it from being great.

This release comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 audio option that sounds wonderful. This is the highlight of the film and would probably be elevated even higher with an upgraded Dolby Atmos track when the 4K is eventually released. Still, the sound effects are robust and loud, creating all of those spooky atmospheric noises throughout the film.

Ghastly sounds and supernatural forces travel nicely through each speaker with a smooth transition. Bigger noise and bangs create a fantastic low end of bass that creates a wonderful rumble. Surround speakers give way to the party scenes where people are talking and or screaming. The dialogue is clean and clear with no anomalies and the score is pitch-perfect like in the previous movies.

There are less than 9 minutes of extras here and NO audio commentary. Wilson, Ty Simpkins, and Rose Byrne are all present, but there is no time to actually get anything of note as they all talk about the franchise.

• Past, Present, Further (HD, 4 Mins.) - The cast comes together to talk about all the films in the franchise for less than four minutes. There needed to be more here.
• A Possessed Director (HD, 5 Mins.) - The cast and crew once again discuss ending the franchise, having Wilson in the Director's chair, and what the series has meant to them. Again, this is way too short for any real info.

Insidious: The Red Door ends the current franchise in a PG-13 family-friendly way. There is no real scare or horror here and manages to simply do the same thing each previous entry did. Patrick Wilson is a solid director though and should be watched for future projects. This Blu-ray has a solid DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix, but the dark 1080p HD image is average at best. The small amount of bonus features makes this feel like a bare-bones release. For Hardcore Fans Only.

Order your copy of Insidious: The Red Door on Blu-ray