Aside from reuniting the original cast of the first Insidious film, original producers James Wan and Jason Blum are also back in Insidious: The Red Door, to bring the Lambert family’s terrifying saga to an epic conclusion. The final chapter of the blockbuster horror franchise opens exclusively in cinemas on July 5.
When last we met the Lambert family, at the end of Insidious: Chapter 2, astral projectors Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Dalton (Ty Simpkins) had survived multiple trips into The Further. Dalton had been kidnapped by a demon… Josh had rescued him, only to be trapped in The Further while a ghost possesses his body in our world… that ghost, in Josh’s body, had rampaged through his house, trying to kill his family… and Dalton had ventured back into The Further to find his real father and bring him back.
“Alongside James Wan, we went to some crazy places in the Insidious movies, but I think the reason they connected was that we started with a loving family,” says Jason Blum, who produces the franchise. “Just about everyone who starts a family does it with the best of intentions, hoping to create that warm, comforting, safe space with the people we love – and then, just about all of us discover that most families are complicated in one way or another. For some of us, that means years of therapy. For others, it means fighting a demon in a nightmare dreamscape.”
Insidious: The Red Door marks the directorial debut of Patrick Wilson who says the time was right to take the helm of his first feature film. “I hadn’t really entertained the idea of doing an Insidious movie, but when it was presented to me, it felt like an incredible gift. I deeply care about this franchise, and I knew I would be protected – that Blumhouse believed in me as an actor and as a person, and that they would gather the best team they could for me. And James Wan and I have discussed filmmaking for a number of years.”
In directing for the first time, Wilson says that it was Wan – his Insidious, Conjuring, and Aquaman director – who set the mold by setting an example. “The one thing that James would tell me over and over was, ‘Make it yours. It’s your movie. What story do you want to tell? You’re the one who’s going to be living with it.’ You better have some passion and understanding for the story you want to tell.”
Jason Blum has produced lucrative, iconic, genre franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, Insidious, Happy Death Day, Sinister, and The Purge, among several others. Most recently, Blumhouse released the box office juggernauts M3GAN and The Black Phone.
Meanwhile, James Wan is regarded as one of the most creative filmmakers working today. Breaking into the international film world as co-creator of Saw. Wan is a visionary with a dynamic career directing both studio and independent films in genres including horror, superhero, action, thriller, adventure, mystery, and fantasy. He is a world-builder pioneering no fewer than six franchises – Aquaman, The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw, Mortal Kombat – and M3GAN, the sci-fi horror/thriller that became an instant global hit and began the M3GAN universe, all of which captured the zeitgeist of the moment around the world.