How Insidious: The Red Door star Patrick Wilson got sucked back into the Further

After starring in 2010's supernatural horror movie Insidious and its 2013 sequel, actor Patrick Wilson departed the Blumhouse-produced series, assuming that his days battling supernatural beings in the cinematic universe from writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan were over. "It wasn't out of, ugh, my god. I love these guys," the actor, 49, tells EW. "I have such great memories of making those movies. I just thought, 'Okay, I've saved someone from being possessed and I've been possessed. What else is there to do?'"

The answer to that question can be found in the franchise's fifth entry Insidious: The Red Door (out July 7), which follows 2015's Whannell-directed Insidious: Chapter 3 and 2018's Insidious: The Last Key, the latter from Escape Room filmmaker Adam Robitel. Written by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills), the new movie finds Wilson reprising his role of the literally haunted Josh Lambert. Insidious: The Red Door is also the actor's directorial debut and reunites him with Rose Byrne, who played the role of Josh's wife Renai in the first two movies, as well as Ty Simpkins and Andrew Astor, who portrayed his two young sons.

This time around the story hinges around the difficult relationship between Wilson's character and Simpkins' just-starting-college Dalton, both of whom had their knowledge of the supernatural events they endured wiped away by hypnosis at the end of Insidious: Chapter 2. Nine years on, father and son must overcome their issues, and spotty memories, to once again face off against the malevolent spirits of the supernatural realm known as the Further. "At the core of the film [is] an exploration of a father-and-son relationship," Wilson says. "With dead people."

Nicole Rivelli/Screen Gems Ty Simpkins and Patrick Wilson in 'Insidious: The Red Door'

Wilson's return to the franchise came as the result of several factors: Blumhouse founder Jason Blum's desire to continue the franchise, Whannell's germ of an idea for a fifth entry, and Wilson's ambition to direct a film. "Leigh Whannell had written a 15-, 20-page outline: Dalton going to college and then s--- happens," the Aquaman star explains. "[My character] was in it for a little bit. They pitched it to my agent originally. Because we had been actively looking for projects [for me] to direct, my agent said to Blumhouse, 'What if he directs the movie?' And they were like, 'That's a perfect idea.' So then they pitched it to me.'"

Wilson got the call in the summer of 2019 on the first day of shooting his role in The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, the most recent film in the actor's other supernatural franchise, which began with 2013's James Wan-directed The Conjuring. "I said, 'Just hold on a sec,'" he recalls. "I didn't feel like I wanted my first foray into directing to be a horror movie or to be trying to fill James' shoes. I sat on it for about a day and then I realized, 'Are you kidding me? Of course I want to do this.' Where else are you going to get this opportunity? And I started to think about the story, about what I would want to do."

Nicole Rivelli/Screen Gems Patrick Wilson in 'Insidious: The Red Door'

Wilson decided the movie should deal with the fallout from the events of the first two films, the negative impact on Josh's relationship with Dalton, and the fact that Byrne's character kept her husband in the dark about his supernatural adventures. The actor remembers, "I went to Blumhouse and said, 'If I'm going to do this movie, and step back into this franchise, I have to address these things. I have to look at Rose Byrne and say, "Why did you lie to me for 10 years?" This is the movie I want to make.' And they were like, 'Great, go with God.' So then we got Scott Teems and we spent literally two-and-a-half, three years writing it."

Simpkins, like Wilson, had assumed his time with the Insidious franchise was over. "I didn't think that I'd be coming back to this universe," says the actor, 21, whose other credits include 2013's Iron Man 3 and 2015's Jurassic World. "[I got] an email, at first, in 2019. So I was still in high school. They told me that this was in very early stages and that they wanted me to return to the role. Obviously, I got super excited, because I hadn't worked in a really long time, and they were saying that this was going to be the lead. Then, as the years went on, Patrick and I started talking to each other more, and he would tell me where they were at with the movie. I saw a bunch of different drafts of the script until we finally got what's onscreen."

Nicole Rivelli/Screen Gems Rose Byrne in 'Insidious: The Red Door'

Wilson finally shot the film last summer with a cast that also featured Succession actress Hiam Abbass, who plays Dalton's college art teacher, and Sinclair Daniel as a college student named Chris who becomes pals with Simpkins' character. (The movie boasts cameo appearances by a clutch of other Insidious franchise veterans whose identities we won't spoil here.)

Sinclair describes her role as "this unlikely friend that Dalton meets. She's very loyal and ends up being this confidant for Dalton." As for her director, the actress calls Wilson "a man who is very in love with moviemaking, and it shows. He's an actor and a director and an actors' director which is very helpful. He was a first-time director, but I wouldn't have known."

Nicole Rivelli/Screen Gems Sinclair Daniel in 'Insidious: The Red Door'

Simpkins explains that his long-shared history with Wilson helped to create a realistic father-son bond onscreen and forge a fruitful director-actor bond in real life. "Just to put it in perspective, I've known Patrick since before the Insidious franchise, way back to when I worked with him on Little Children when I was 3 years old," he says. "He's played my dad four times, and he's been a big part of my life, and, when you have that relationship with someone, acting-wise the chemistry is already built there. Then when he's directing you, there's so much trust. You can tell him what you really think about the character and what you really want to do with the character, and he brings to the table what he expects from you. I think he was able to bring out probably my best performance in anything I've done."

When EW spoke last year with Wan and Blum about Wilson's film, on which both are producers, Blum said that it had been "really, really fun, for both of us, to have Patrick in the director's seat." As he said, "We got to torture him a little bit, which was nice." While the Blumhouse founder was joking, Wilson admits that there is a germ of truth to the comment.

"I mean, these are friends of mine, these are coworkers of mine," he says. "But you never have enough money, you never have enough time, you're constantly asked to compromise. 'We don't have this' or 'this has got to go' or 'we've got to change this scene.' 'Do you need this many set-ups?' 'Can you tell the story quicker?' That's what you're constantly asked. It's just pulling away cards and you hope the house doesn't fall. They knew it was my first experience [as a director] and they're like, 'Eh, you'll be fine.' But everything's so precious to me. I need that scene, you guys!"

Boris Martin/Screen Gems Patrick Wilson in 'Insidious: The Red Door'

Speaking of Wan, Wilson will next be seen reprising the role of Orm Marius in the filmmaker's superhero sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (out Dec. 20) and teases that he and Conjuring franchise costar Vera Farmiga will likely start prepping to once again play ghosthunters Ed and Lorraine Warren once the writers' strike is over.  "The plan is to do another Conjuring film," he says. "I have not read anything nor have I signed anything, but there is a script. Once the strike hopefully gets resolved, then we can move on from there."

And what about Insidious? Is Wilson finally done with Josh Lambert?

"Well, the quick answer is yes," he says. "But I will say, and this is probably not the best way to sell a movie, but it would be cool if way down the line, if Insidious was like the Boyhood of horror movies. Ty could do these movies for a long time. I think that's really exciting as a filmmaker to do that and think it's exciting for an audience to see that. I'm sure it's exciting for a studio because the IP doesn't go away for a studio. But Josh and Renai? Speaking on behalf of Rose, no. I think we close our door."

Insidious: The Red Door is released in theaters July 7.

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