For one, he's a guiding beacon for Josh in The Further that he couldn't be for him in real life, and for another, he helps him regain some of the memories he suppressed in order to find some semblance of serenity. Ben couldn't find any respite except in death, and when he sees his son and grandson suffering because of something he's given them, tries to help them mend their relationship.īen becomes incredibly important to Insidious: The Red Door for several reasons. Josh becomes worried that he's passed on his father's inherited schizophrenia to Dalton which, while not true, opens up a dialogue about the weight of chronic illness suffered in silence.
#HYPNOTIZE SCREEN MOVIE#
The movie really drives home the concept that Ben's ability to astral project and the demons he encounters in The Further are metaphorical examples of mental illness and its affects, which might make The Red Door less scary and violent than other Insidious movies, but no less poignant. When Josh eventually regains some of his memories and reenters The Further, Ben is able to act like a guide and help Josh find his way to Dalton without encountering as many hungry spirits as he has in the past. He isn't, as Josh initially thinks, a malevolent spirit, though he does appear to be tormented by the pain he inflicted on his family. Lorraine did her best trying to help Josh by calling upon Carl and Elise, but she didn't understand that her son was suffering from a real demonic threat as well as a mental health crisis.īen not only has the ability to astral project just like Josh and Dalton but also to make himself physically present in the real world. Josh still developed the ability to astral project into The Further, where he became the object of desire for Parker Crane and his mother (as seen in Insidious: Chapter 2), and his son Dalton exhibited a strong, bright spiritual energy that attracted the Lipstick-Face Demon. Leaving Lorraine a note that reads, "It ends with me," Ben seemed to think that taking his own life would save her and Josh, but this sadly wasn't the case. He ended up throwing himself off of the roof in an effort to not only bring himself some peace, but refrain from passing down the trauma of interacting with The Further to his son. He suffered from the same night terrors as Josh, and was eventually checked into an institution for treatment. Josh comes to find out that Ben was diagnosed as a possible schizophrenic who was also capable of astral projection. Part of Josh coming to terms with his own past involves doing the same with his father's. For whatever reason, he's finally able to get through to Josh and, in his own spectral way, guide him to discovering the truth about astral projection and The Further. As Elise Rainier explains in a video that appears during Insidious: The Red Door, the spirits trapped in The Further are endlessly tormented by the worst things they did while alive, which for Ben was abandoning his family (albeit with good intentions).
RELATED: Insidious Timeline Explained: What Happened In Every Movie Before The Red DoorIt's possible that Ben has been trying to reach his son for some time, but apparently was only able to do so after Lorraine passed away. Lorraine struggled to raise her son alone without any help with his nightmares, eventually having to call upon Elise (Lin Shaye) and Carl to help make sense of his outbursts. While this is the first time fans meet Ben, his presence has loomed large over the Lambert family, particularly in the lives of Lorraine and Josh. While he might look like the long-haired demon that first appeared to terrorize the Lambert family in Insidious, he's a brand-new character who hasn't been in any other movies in the franchise. What Josh perceives as an attack is a desperate attempt to communicate with his son and tell him the truth about his abilities and connection to The Further. He's not able to reach Josh until he's actively trying to retrieve some of his repressed memories through a children's matching game, and Ben comes crashing through his front window. He carries the hurt, blame, and rejection of his father into his adulthood, never understanding why his father abandoned the family.īen is present from the moment that Josh leaves his mother's grave site, visible first as a blurry figure in the background, then slowly becoming more discernable as he comes into focus in the back window of his car. The lack of a father figure in his life resulted in Josh developing a fierce need to be a better father for his own children, which is why he's so distressed when he keeps falling short of his own expectations and disappointing Dalton. After finding some of Ben Burton's public records, Josh realizes that the man who's been stalking him is his father, who was completely absent from his life as a boy.
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