Insidious 5 first reviews lead to low Rotten Tomatoes score (2024)

The first reviews have arrived for Insidious: The Red Door, and the critics don't seem too impressed.

The fifth Insidious instalment brings back the Lambert family, who kickstarted the horror franchise back in 2010.

Now a teenager, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) is travelling to college with his father (Patrick Wilson), but his college dreams quickly turn into a living nightmare when the repressed demons of his past suddenly return.

Rose Byrne and Lin Shaye also return for the film, which is directed by Wilson.

Related: Patrick Wilson didn't want Insidious: The Red Door to deliver the same scares

Although further reviews will be published as soon as critics who didn't get to see film ahead of time watch it, the ones already out aren't exactly glowing.

At the time of writing, Insidious: The Red Door is currently sitting at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, giving the film a relatively poor start.

Here's what they have been saying:

The AU Review

"For a film that’s had plenty of time to simmer, it’s even more disappointing that Wilson is unable to move beyond the very tropes he apparently wanted to avoid.

"In making this more a film about Dalton, he’s also relegated to a supporting role (and Byrne even less-so, a shame when she’s the only one in the film turning in solid work), and whilst Simpkins showed promise under the direction of Wan, here he’s such a bore of a performer, which doesn’t remotely help us as an audience to feel invested in his plight."

FILMINK

"While the runtime feels flabby, [Patrick Wilson] manages to create some menacing scenes (a sequence in an MRI machine is particularly effective) without resorting to endless jump scares. That said, you probably won’t be checking behind the couch or losing any sleep after seeing this film."

Fiction Horizon

"Considering the nearly 10-year gap between Insidious: Chapter 2 and Insidious: The Red Door, Wilson could only muster a disappointingly anticlimactic conclusion to the Lambert family story arc."

Insidious: The Red Door is out now in cinemas.