Insidious 5: The Red Door Pays Homage To John Carpenter With A Certain Scare

Contains spoilers for "Insidious: The Red Door"

As the temporary endpoint for James Wan's terrifying series, "Insidious: The Red Door" chills the audience with a variety of unpredictable and unprecedented scares. The fifth entry adapts a more emotional story surrounding mental illness undercut with several sinister presences that reemerge to terrify the Lambert family. In Patrick Wilson's first time in the director's chair, he made sure to include a gripping reference to the iconic horror visionary John Carpenter. 

In a riveting interview with Digital Spy, Wilson showcased his knowledge of the genre by pointing out the different routes he intentionally took with the latest sequel. He sought to utilize the series' history to create a more refreshing installment rather than replicate the past. "You're not going to get better than that one behind my face [in 'Insidious']," Wilson said. "It's just not going to happen. I think it's been listed as one of the best jump scares ever. The last thing I wanted to do is try to recreate that." 

Instead of opting for hungry demons lurking in the shadows, Wilson brought them into the daylight, which actually makes them even more horrifying. He took a page out of Carpenter's book to produce effective scares that authentically end the series (for the moment) in a satisfying way.

Patrick Wilson adapted John Carpenter's chilling style by forcing the dark figures into the light, similar to Michael Myers (Tony Moran) boldly stalking Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the afternoon in "Halloween." In a particularly harrowing scene of "Insidious: The Red Door," Josh (Wilson) is attempting to strengthen his memory skills with a homemade puzzle game. Through the window pane, we can see a malevolent force that gets closer and closer with every move and is seemingly unaffected by the sunlight.

Wilson told Digital Spy that he was inspired by this tactic, which Carpenter continued in his later films in the 1990s. "I wanted different kinds of scares because that's what appeals to me," Wilson said. "Yes, we've got some jump scares. I also wanted just some eerie moments, some more tonal scares. I wanted to scare in the daytime. I had a scare that almost turns into an action sequence, a little nod to '90s John Carpenter." 

The first-time director was possibly referring to an exciting sequence from Carpenter's 1998 gem "Vampires," in which two warriors clash with the notoriously nocturnal creatures during the day. After failed attempts to drag the beast into the sun, the soldiers fight to the death, and the sequence is even scarier because the light exposes the horror even more. Wilson's inspiring use of this technique elevates "Insidious: The Red Door" into an unforgettable experience for any fan of the genre.