The Insidious series and The Conjuring franchise may be chalk-and-cheese, despite sharing both James Wan and lead star Patrick Wilson, but one has clearly enjoyed more commercial success than the other. While Wan’s The Conjuring series is now one of the highest-grossing horror franchises in history, with a TV adaptation on the way, Insidious has always played second fiddle.
Regardless, the profitable franchise is being brought back by Sony Pictures and Blumhouse Productions with the forthcoming Insidious: The Red Door messing up the timeline of the previous four films, cutting out 2015’s Insidious: Chapter 3 and 2018’s Insidious: The Last Key. Hence, it will be a direct sequel to the first two films, presenting a confusing rearrangement that’s not too dissimilar to what a few long-running horror franchises have done in past: act like poorly-received sequels just didn’t exist in the first place.
In good news for horror fans, this at least means that series creator Leigh Whannell is confident enough that Insidious: The Red Door will bring a bit of dignity back to the series, which has still managed an impressive level of success with a total Box Office take of over US$542 million worldwide against a combined budget of US$26.5 million.
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That confidence is clearly backed by the newly-released Insidious: The Red Door trailer, which dropped this week to further flesh out what we can expect when the film is released in cinemas on July 7, 2023.
Patrick Wilson, who leads the film as Josh Lambert alongside his wife Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne), will be making his directorial debut as Scott Teems (Halloween Kills) handles the screenplay. Insidious: The Red Door also stars Ty Simpkins, Andrew Astor, Hiam Abbass and Sinclair Daniel.
The official synopsis places the film ten years after the end of Insidious 2 where Josh Lambert (Wilson) heads east to drop his son Dalton (Simpkins) off at “an idyllic, ivy-covered university.”
“However, Dalton’s college dream becomes a nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return to haunt them both.”
