The horror franchise’s original cast is back in Insidious: The Red Door, playing in theaters now and directed by and starring Patrick Wilson.

In the film, “To put their demons to rest once and for all, Josh (Wilson) and a college-aged Dalton (Ty Simpkins) must go deeper into The Further than ever before.”

Wilson, who also pulled triple duty singing with Ghost for end credit track “Stay”, spoke with Bloody Disgusting about the scare-crafting on the fifth Insidious entry. 

The Red Door‘s jump scares play with sound, often removing the music cues signaling an impending scare altogether and shaking up the familiar pattern. When asked about his approach to crafting scares, Wilson got candid. “I wanted different types of scares and I’ll be honest, some didn’t work out as well as I wanted, usually because of time,” Wilson explains.

He continues, “That’s usually how it happens. And James [Wan] would be the first to tell you that, and Leigh [Whannell] would say the same thing, I’m sure. It’s why the MRI sequence worked so well. One, it was an amazing idea that Leigh had, but we got all day to shoot it. I guarantee you, if I had to shoot that in production, they would’ve given me four hours, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it. It would’ve been fine. It just wouldn’t have been that. All you want is time, and unfortunately, with this schedule, even though Blumhouse was awesome with supporting me, just by the nature of scheduling, certain scares would get pushed to the end of the day, or some variable would happen. We only have one of those doors that he’s got to burst through, and you’re like, ‘What?’ Little things like that that you’re constantly asked to compromise, so scares become different. I didn’t want to overpromise and under-deliver. Some scares are, on a 1 to 10, they’re just a 5, and that’s okay. There’s a couple in there that you just want to remind people of the kind of movie [they’re watching].”

Wilson also sought to make this entry wholly his own, trusting his instincts when creating spooky set pieces. He tells us, “There were some that I fought for, even to the chagrin of my buddies, who were like, ‘Dude, this should not be in the daytime; it should be at night.’ I said, ‘No, I really want it during the day.’ And, ‘Okay, I’m not sure it’s going to work.’ A lot of that. I respect everyone’s opinion, but I always felt like just let it be something different. Maybe it’s not going to be the greatest scare in the world, but it’s going to be this movie. It’s going to be specific. I’m talking specifically about the townhouse scare, I call it, when I’m flipping pictures. I mean, it’s weird. It’s a totally weird scene. But I wanted that.” 

Demonstrating just how much of a horror fan he is, Wilson also cites a John Carpenter cult gem as a source of inspiration for the daytime scare that sees an unwitting Josh Lambert put up and take down photos from a window, unaware that he’s being watched.

“I was thinking of In the Mouth of Madness; it struck me when they’re sitting there in the diner, and you see the guy with the ax across the street, and he walks right towards the window, and you think, ‘Oh, that’s scary.’ Then he busts through the window, and they shoot him, and it’s like, ‘What is happening?’ I wanted that feeling. I did. I was inspired by a lot of just different types of scares, and that’s where the expertise of Leigh and James would come in,” Wilson tells Bloody Disgusting.

He continues, “Leigh, actually, some of his help was tremendous. Because when he was on set and came into the sound mix, he said, on one scene, I had music in there, and he would go, ‘You ever try it without it?’ I said, ‘Without anything?’ He goes, ‘Take it all out.’ And it was just great. It was great because he said, ‘Let the audience be the soundtrack.’ I said, ‘Dude, I’m stealing that. That’s the greatest response ever.’ It’s so true though, isn’t it?”

Ty Simpkins in Screen Gems Insidious: The Red Door Photo credit: Boris Martin

It wasn’t just scares that Wilson wanted to make his own in Insidious: The Red Door; the actor/director also dramatically shifted the story from its original concept. Wilson details how this sequel evolved from a superhero tale into a sentimental swan song for the Lambert family.

“I mean, to be honest with you, when I took the original concept from Leigh, which is Dalton going to college, different demons, no lipstick demon, none of that. Josh was in it a little, but not much. No Rose, no family. It’s just Dalton, almost like a Peter Parker story. It followed more of a superhero breakdown. And it didn’t feel that engaged to me. As a director, I couldn’t see my way in,” Wilson reveals. “I said, ‘If I do this, you guys don’t have to do this with me. I’m really not pitching myself. I’m just stating facts. If I do this movie, I’m going to get Rose. I want the kids back. I want Ty as Dalton, and I want it to be a father-son relationship. I want to unpack everything from the end of two. I want it to be the Lambert trilogy. That’s what I want.’

“The little sequence where I go knock on the door from the second movie, and it cuts to the first movie, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool device.’ I wanted to take that to a much more emotional low for Dalton, to confront the most traumatic experience that his family went through. Sifting through all that footage to create that laundry room basement scene, I wanted just to ground it emotionally. That was my saving grace, as I never felt like I was filling someone’s shoes because I felt like the story was so personal that I felt like even James and Leigh, if they had the script, they would direct it totally differently. Let me just do my thing.

“Love it or leave it. This is what it is. It’s me.”