Patrick Wilson gets a chance to see his demon-obsessed father Josh Lambert again with Friday’s brand new dramatic horror show “Insidious: The Red Door.”
With the returning cast, the “Conjuring” and “Aquaman” star makes his directorial debut.
James Wan’s 2010 “Insidious” was a surprise success and is now hailed as the first big hit that cemented Blumhouse Films as Hollywood’s horror house.
“Insidious: The Red Door” is a direct sequel to 2012’s “Insidious: Chapter 2” and the fifth film in the franchise.
Here, Josh takes his sly teenage son Dalton (again as Ty Simpkins) to a New England college where, once again, evil demons haunt both Lamberts. Rose Byrne is also returning as Josh’s wife.
In the Zoom interview, Wilson, who turned 50 on Monday, explained that it was his agent’s idea to make his directorial debut.
Wilson came up with new characters and subtly transformed Dalton into an aspiring artist whose painting became a portal. “Once I basically said, listen, this is a story I’d like to go into, I put Dalton in an art school. Because I went to a theater school and I knew what that relationship was like.
“In an arts college you are asked to find your truth. As an artist, you are asked to remove the layers and get to the core of who you are.
“I thought it was a great metaphor for this movie.”
As far as his biggest surprise as director goes, it wasn’t anything monstrous. “It will sound silly but that was the amount of compromise that you are constantly asked to make. That’s my friends and it’s not even a knock on the system – well, it’s actually probably a knock on the system. But this is no blow to my friends and colleagues.
“You wake up and you are constantly asked questions throughout the day. every minute. There really wasn’t anything technical that surprised me, but you have to make sure you know the story you want to tell.
“While you feel like, ‘Okay, we’ve got a great script,’ then you figure out that people can schedule it to fit the script. Only you find yourself in pre-production, then in production and you’re not going particularly slow, but ‘Hey, can you do that?’ ‘Can you do this quickly?’ ‘Can we change the location because this actor is not available?’ ‘Can you deal with it?’
“When everything is changing around you, you have to stay the course and focus on the film you want to make? It was a little boost.”