‘Insidious: The Red Door’ (2023) Will Finally Solve a Mystery 10 Years in the Making

Fans of the Insidious movies have been waiting patiently for a reveal that will explain what happened in the cliffhanger ending of Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) for ten long years. Although the franchise has been going strong with Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) and Insidious: The Last Key (2018), those two films were prequels. The upcoming fifth Insidious film, Insidious: The Red Door (2023), is the first film since Chapter 2 that will pick up the original story of the Lambert family.

The Lambert family was introduced in Insidious (2011). Married couple Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) move into a new home with their three children. Soon after, their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) sees an entity in the attic and then falls into a coma. The family is devastated when Dalton does not recover. Eventually, with the help of Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey) and psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) they realize that Dalton is stuck in an astral realm called “The Further”. What the family assumed was a house haunting is actually the malevolent entities of The Further as they try to assume control of Dalton’s body to rejoin the physical world.

Insidious: Chapter 2 goes back to 1986 to explore Josh Lambert’s childhood when his mother and Elise Rainier discover that he is able to astral project. In the present, Josh is under suspicion for murdering Elise (while possessed by an entity from The Further). The family is able to defeat the entity possessing Josh, however, the film’s cliffhanger ending shows the paranormal investigators who worked with the Lamberts arriving to help a new family. The film’s last scene shows Elise’s spirit in a room with a comatose young girl when she hears a creaking noise behind her and turns to confront something unseen to the audience.

Now, after two prequels, Insidious: The Red Door (2023) will finally address what Elise saw in the room. This reveal may be the identity of the entity from The Further that will be the main antagonist role in this installment. The larger plot of the film will follow Josh Lambert as he drops Dalton off at college. Father and son are then both visited by demons and must return to The Further to free themselves of the hauntings for good.

Scream king and franchise star Patrick Wilson steps behind the camera and makes his directorial debut with this film. Ty Simpkins returns as Dalton Lambert in a story by Leigh Whannell, who wrote the first four Insidious screenplays.

Insidious: The Red Door (2023) hits theaters on July 7, 2023.

Further reading:

• Everything We Know So Far About ‘Insidious: The Red Door’ (2023)
• 14 Trivia Facts About the ‘Insidious’ Universe
• 6 Creepiest Moments in the ‘Insidious’ Franchise