Insidious: The Red Door ★★½

INSIDIOUS franchise stalwart Patrick Wilson takes the helm for the fifth instalment Insidious: The Red Door.

It’s the actor’s directorial debut and while he does a decent job it fails to reinvigorate a film series that continues to spin its wheels.

Unlike the adjacent Annabelle and Conjuring series of films, Insidious seems to constantly repeat itself with little variation to the formula and miniscule advancement of the overall story arc.

It’s 2019, nine years after the first possession, and Josh Lambert (Wilson) and his son Dalton have had their memories of the experience in ‘The Further’ erased. How this was achieved isn’t really explained…and the fact they slowly come back is nothing if not expected.

He is divorced from his wife Rena, played by Rose Byrne, the relationship with Dalton is strained and his mother Lorraine has recently died.

Josh is haunted by the spirit of a man whom he eventually discovers has links to his past, but for much of the film we focus on Dalton who is studying art and, surprise, surprise, starts to draw pictures of the red door through which you enter The Further where the red demon lurks.

In a year of some great horror releases, this is another average entry for the franchise.