Insidious: The Red Door–the fifth film in this long-running horror series–has provided a new landmark for star Patrick Wilson: It’s his first film in the director’s chair. In a lot of different ways, it’s an ideal situation for Wilson specifically.
He starred in the first two Insidious movies, both of which were put together by director James Wan, who also worked with Wilson on the first two Conjuring movies as well as both Aquaman films. Having one of the best working filmmakers on speed dial is probably pretty helpful when you’re taking your first big-screen directing gig.
But even more than that, we’re talking about a series that Wilson feels at home in, with a cast and crew that he’s known forever and who wanted to help execute his vision. And it’s a franchise with a consistent audience. It’s good work if you can get it, and you can feel Wilson’s level of comfort as you watch the movie.
But the first-time director wasn’t just happy to be there. He wanted to make a new Insidious film that deals directly with the traumatic events of those first two movies, and especially the second one, in which Josh Lambert (Wilson’s character) is possessed by the ghost of a serial killer and tries to murder his family. Insidious Chapter 2 ended with Josh and his son, Dalton, being hypnotized and forced to forget all their haunted adventures with all those spooky ghosts. But that’s not the end of the story–as in the real world, suppressed trauma often comes back to bite us in the butt.
“I really wanted to unpack the second movie and address the trauma. That’s the only way that I knew how to make a movie that I was passionate about, that I felt like I had any authority to make,” Wilson told GameSpot. “So luckily, I’m surrounded by people that are longtime collaborators and knew that they would trust me and be there for questions and help and which, of course I used.
“Because I think it’s important. This is very collaborative–it’s a team sport. So yeah, it was a real gift, really, to have my first one out of the gate be such a successful franchise, such a built-in audience, but the creative ability to push the boundaries a little and do a different type of movie, but one that still honored the legacy. So that’s what I wanted to dig into.”
Given the haunted nature of the Insidious movies, we had to ask if he’d ever experienced anything that he might have perceived as supernatural or extra spooky during one of these or the Conjuring films. But Wilson said no.
“First of all these movies, certainly the first two, we made on such a shoestring budget it felt like, and you’re so pressed for time that there’s not a lot of time for thinking about something else like something creepy happening,” Wilson said. “And certainly on this film, you know, I’m trying to scare the audience. I’m not trying to be scared myself. So I’m trying to craft something that I think would be cool or would think would be scary or different. Nothing really happens to me, no.”
Given his rich history with the Insidious franchise we decided to have some fun with Wilson by playing a game of Mate, Marry, Murder–GameSpot’s family-friendly and alliterative version of that crude game you’ve all heard of–with three Insidious baddies: the Lipstick-Face Demon, the Bride in Black, and the Man Who Can’t Breathe from the prequel third movie, which Wilson wasn’t in.
“I’m probably mating the lipstick demon because he’s a cool guy, Joe Bishara. He’s a good friend of mine. So I think it’s good to have a certain amount of darkness in your life,” Wilson quipped. Bishara, by the way, isn’t just the guy in the horrifying demon makeup–he’s a well-regarded composer who did the film’s score.
“Marry, I’m not going to go with the Bride because I think I’m gonna murder the bride,” Wilson continued, talking about the series’ primary antagonist. “I guess I’d marry the wheezing person only because I’ve never worked with them so maybe it would be like an arranged marriage with a wheezing, creepy ghost, whatever he is.”
In response, I joked that the Wheezing Demon “can’t be worse than the other two, right?” But Wilson disagreed.
“Oh, I mean it could be, for sure. But that’s the gamble you take when you get married, my friend.”
Insidious: The Red Door is in theaters July 7.
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