This film is so disappointing. I went to the cinema with one of my closest friends for nostalgia. We watched the original film - over a decade ago - in the cinema too.
It's rare to come across a Hollywood blockbuster today that isn't some rehashed stuff, or some remakes, or some banal sequel to force another film (= ££). This one is quite forgettable. The tragedy is that James Wan was innovative and fresh in his Insidious film. He set the groundwork so you couldn't go wrong. He infused the films with his unique scares and atmosphere, and paired with Joseph Bashara's hypnotic musical score for the insidious films, so it should have been a great recipe. Patrick Wilson had a great franchise laid out for him to close off, and it withered ... painfully and tragically.
The first twenty minutes is devoted to tedious character development and some ham-fisted & lazy dialogue. No ear-splitting dramatic intro of the earlier films. The dialogue scenes were just awful and corny. The characters don't make any sense, and their family grievances seem petty despite - notwithstanding the initial long burst given to their characters. In short, we are expected to believe that the family members don't speak to each other because ... well, they just don't? And, then the plot is ridiculous. We are never told why it was necessary - or even intelligent - to have the two astral-projection characters forget everything. And why was the red door apt to be opened at all?
A lot of the plot seems forced and random (especially the art teacher counting back from 10, 9, 8 ...) and it's not clear the film understands what the point of the story is. Is it trying to answer the mystery of the other antecedent films? Why is the Josh's father appearing now - but didn't appear in the earlier films? I don't think we are told what the magic of the red door really is, or how it works? And why a door?
For me, the Renai and Josh separation was ridiculous. They had a very strong loving bond having been through so much together. It just didn't make any sense; and the audience aren't told why. And why was it necessary for Josh (father) to be hypnotized too? Why did we have to spend so much cinema time having the characters recall what happened to them (no surprise to audience). By the time we get to the red-faced demon, there was hardly any fight ... and ta da ... its over. There was no climax, no reason for anything.
The lack of Elise, Karl, Specs and Tucker make for a different feel which lacks the force and chemistry of the original mystery horrors. The red demon scenes felt like they came from the original film and there was little new. Felt like a sad film. The Elise cameo at the end with her platitudes was, well, also deflating.
Perhaps a caution for the production of a film picked up after a long decade.
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