Insidious: The Red Door - Everything You Need To Know

The "Insidious" franchise has been freaking viewers out for over a decade, and the spooky series shows no signs of slowing down. After all, when it comes to horror movies, the dead don't stay dead for too long, and demons always have a way of coming back. In that spirit, a fifth installment is on the way and will haunt your local theaters in the near future. 

It's been three years since horror fans were last scared by evil creatures from the Further, with "Insidious: The Last Key." That movie grossed $167 million worldwide on the back of a $10 million budget, so with those kinds of numbers, another flick was always going to happen. However, the last two "Insidious" movies saw the supernatural saga focus on prequels, but this fifth film will take a different approach and bring back some fan favorites. What else can we expect from "Insidious: The Red Door" when it finally arrives?

"Insidious" fans, rejoice — after this sequel was announced in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the movie finally made headway in 2022. In February of that year, star and director Patrick Wilson said that location scouting had begun, and by August, he also revealed that filming had wrapped.

The next installment in the "Insidious" franchise is set to be released on July 7, 2023, and now that COVID-19 delays are (hopefully) a thing of the past, that seems like it'll probably stick. That means that this horror sequel will arrive ahead of huge releases like "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie," among others, and it will eventually have to go up against them at the box office.

Interestingly, the movie has undergone a bit of a big change in the months leading up to its release. Originally, the fifth "Insidious" film was subtitled "Fear the Dark." Now, it's called "The Red Door," in reference to the ominous passages that have led to great evil throughout the franchise.

"Insidious: The Red Door" will be a direct sequel to "Insidious: Chapter 2," which ended with the Lambert men being hypnotized so they'd forget all about the Further and its demonic residents. The new movie takes place 10 years after the events of the sequel, with the father and son duo dealing with the aftermath of those events. Or as the official plot synopsis puts it, "To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh and a college-aged Dalton must go deeper into the Further than ever before, facing their family's dark past and a host of new and more horrifying terrors that lurk behind the red door."

As for as additional plot details go, "Red Door" actor/director Patrick Wilson talked a bit more about Dalton and his experiences at the 2020 BlumFest. The character was just a child the last time viewers saw him, and as Wilson explained, "I just latched onto watching Dalton go to college and what does that do? Watching a young man go to college and all the new experiences and feeling like an outsider trying to fit in." So it looks like things are about to get really spooky on a college campus, as Dalton deals yet again with a demonic presence.

"Insidious: The Red Door" will bring back several major players from the first two films of the franchise. Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, and Ty Simpkins are all coming back to face some demonic forces. They'll be joined here by Hiam Abbess ("Succession"), Sinclair Daniel ("Madam Secretary"), Jarquez McClendon ("Attack"), and Peter Dager ("WITS Academy").

Now, here's the big question — will we see the return of Lin Shaye? The actress has played a major part in the "Insidious" franchise, portraying medium Elise Rainier. While her character died in the first movie, she returned in two prequels, and fortunately for "Insidious" fans, she'll be coming back here — courtesy of video footage that's likely to help our tormented heroes. 

It's pretty awesome that Shaye is returning to the franchise, as she's long wanted to come back, telling ComingSoon in September 2020, "It was a really beautiful arc for me to find as the character and in the storyline. Now it's in my memory, and I would love it if there was another one."

"Insidious: The Red Door" is marking a really huge turning point for the franchise. For the first time in his career, star Patrick Wilson is set to pull double duty for an "Insidious" movie. The man will both star and direct, and "The Red Door" will mark his directorial debut.

"I'm honored and thrilled to be at the helm of the next 'Insidious' installment, which will provide an amazing chance to unpack everything the Lamberts went through a decade ago, as well as deal with the consequences of their choices," Wilson said, in a statement that was provided to Variety in late 2020. "Directing the movie is both professionally and personally a full circle moment for me, and I am extremely grateful to be entrusted in continuing to tell this frightening and haunting story. Into the Further we go..."

A new name is joining the "Insidious" team for this fifth installment — writer Scott Teems, whom you might know as the scribe behind movies like "The Quarry," "Halloween Kills," and the recent remake of "Firestarter."

Speaking to ScreenRant, Patrick Wilson expressed his excitement about working with Teems and making his own directorial debut with the movie: "It's something that I'm super passionate about, and there hasn't been a day since they pitched me the idea that I haven't been all in. It's been a lot of work by Scott Teems, the writer, and me." Fans can only wait and see where Teems takes this hit franchise now that he's helping with the storyline.

It shouldn't be a huge surprise to anyone familiar with the "Insidious" franchise to hear that some of horror's heaviest hitters are behind the project. Jason Blum, James Wan, Oren Peli, and Leigh Whannell are all listed as producers, and if you're a horror buff, you know those are some of the biggest names in the industry. Jason Blum is, of course, the mind behind Blumhouse Productions, which was released some of the biggest indie horror hits in recent memory. Leigh Whannell wrote the original "Insidious," as well as the second film, along with directing movies like "The Invisible Man," and he worked with Scott Teems to craft the story for "Insidious: The Red Door."

As for Oren Peli, he produced 2007's "Paranormal Activity," one of the biggest low-budget horror flicks of all time, and James Wan, of course, created the entire "Insidious" franchise — as well as "Saw" and "The Conjuring" — and directed the first film.

Blum talked to The Hollywood Reporter about Wan handing his director's chair to Wilson, and he only had good things to say. "I'm super excited for what Patrick's doing with 'Insidious,"' the producer explained. "Patrick reminds me a little bit of Leigh Whannell in that they are not just actors slash whatever; they are filmmakers as well. They're film buffs, and being film buffs, they look at acting from the point of view of what the final film will be like. And so that actually helps inform them as filmmakers. So I'm always very excited when people like Leigh Whannell and Patrick Wilson want to jump behind the camera."

It's been 10 years since the Daltons found themselves up against a bunch of demons, but those evil spirits are back again. As we see in the trailer for "The Red Door," Josh Lambert and his son, Dalton, had their traumatic memories suppressed to keep them safe from the Further. But now, they're both experiencing some pretty upsetting visions. Josh is assaulted in his home, and as Dalton goes to college, his art class seems to unlock something dangerous deep inside his mind. The trailer for "The Red Door" highlights all sorts of messed-up monsters as the entry to the Further opens up and demons come crawling out. Plus, it brings back that creepy little ditty "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," which is sure to send a shudder down your spine. If the official trailer is any indication, it looks like "The Red Door" will be the scariest "Insidious" movie yet.

When "The Red Door" opens up for viewers, it's going to be a terrifying experience — albeit a PG-13 one. Yep, the latest installment in the "Insidious" franchise has earned a PG-13 for "violence, terror, frightening images, strong language, and suggestive references." 

Of course, we're expecting the film to press the boundaries of PG-13 and truly frighten everyone in the audience. After all, every movie in the "Insidious" franchise has been rated PG-13, and they've all been incredibly horrific movies. So while we might not be getting buckets of blood, that's not really what the "Insidious" films are about. Instead, expect plenty of demons lurking in the shadows, getting ready for some upsetting jump scares.

If you're completely new to the "Insidious" franchise or just want to revisit all of them before you watch "The Red Door," you can currently find them spread across a few different streamers or available to rent.

The film that kicked off the franchise — and introduced us to the Lipstick Demon, the Further, Elise Rainier, and the poor Lambert family — is available to stream on Max. You can also rent it on Apple iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube.

In the sequel, there's something very strange going on with Josh Lambert, and his loved ones must go to incredibly dark places to save his soul. (Also, keep an eye out for a very young Jenna Ortega.) You can stream "Insidious: Chapter 2" on Max, or you can rent it on Apple iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube.

With "Insidious: Chapter 3," the franchise shifts focus from the Lamberts to psychic Elise Rainier. In this prequel, Elise gets involved in a supernatural case when a young girl wants help contacting her dead mom. Needless to say, this doesn't go well. You can rent the third film on Apple iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube.

Lastly, there's the prequel "Insidious: The Last Key," where Elise must travel back to her childhood home and face an evil she unleashed years before. You can rent the fourth film on Apple iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube.