Cast and Filmmakers Talk INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 from the Set

Months ago members of the press were invited to the set of INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3, the latest installment of the Blumhouse & Focus Features horror franchise.

During a press conference the filmmakers and members of the cast had the chance to talk in depth about the prequel, being released in theaters on June 5, 2015.

Read what Angus Sampson (Tucker), Lin Shaye (Elise Rainier), Leigh Whannell (Specs, writer-director), Stefanie Scott (Quinn Brenner), Dermot Mulroney (Sean Brenner), and Jason Blum (producer) said about INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3.

QUESTION: Jason, I just want to ask you, since it seems to me you’re really good at franchise-building, obviously, with the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movies, THE PURGE, and with INSIDIOUS, could you talk about the art of taking a successful film and then building it out into an even more successful franchise?

JASON: Sure. I think the most important thing, which I learned on PARANORMAL, and tried to do on PARANORMAL and didn’t pull off, actually, is getting the people who originated the movie to keep doing it. So in this case, James and Leigh; SINISTER, Scott Derrickson; THE PURGE, James Monaco wrote and directed both. And I think there’s an arrogance sometimes on the part of financiers of, like, we got one on the line, now let’s hire a bunch of people and make another one cheaply. And I always am definitely a big believer in giving up more of the movie to share with the people who created it, because they definitely always make the best sequels. So I was begging James and Leigh, and tried to make it comfortable for them and in this case Leigh, making it as comfortable for him to get to do what he wanted to do. And that’s by far the most important thing, which I think is unusual, but not for big franchises, like TRANSFORMERS. Big franchises and companies think like that, like for TRANSFORMERS we’ll get Michael Bay to keep doing this. But for horror movies, it’s less common.

QUESTION: Leigh, what’s the impetus to do a fucking prequel? (AUDIENCE REACTION) No, because you had left an open door for INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2. You could’ve gone forward. What was the impetus behind going backward? Was it challenging to set that up?

LEIGH: My impetus to do a fucking prequel (AUDIENCE REACTION) was that, well, it’s a few different things. I mean, by the time it had gotten to that point where I was fully committed and writing it, I was thinking about the best direction this particular story could take. And I think, you know, I told you last time on INSIDIOUS 2 I didn’t think there was much more story to tell with that Lambert family. They’d been through so much with all this stuff that had gone on, and I think it would have been weird for the trailer to be, like, you know, “They’re back! And they’re being haunted! Again!” Because, you know, as you guys know, haunted house movies are always built on this feeling of what’s going on. You know, if you put Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson in this movie and the teacup moves, they’re like, “Oh, shit, it’s a ghost again.” They’re so knowledgeable by now that they could be experts themselves. And so if we take them out of the picture and start thinking of a new family, I thought about what the connective tissue would be. If it’s a new family, who’s familiar? And, of course, you know, the three of us came up. And the thing is, and we did this on SAW, you know, James and I wrote ourselves into a corner in that Lynn died in the first film. I don’t think that’s a spoiler at this point. She dies. So it’s like, ah, we, you know, we also invented a villain who had terminal cancer, so that was the same thing with SAW. So when I was thinking about it, I was like, well, you know, I really want Lin back but I don’t want to deal with ghost Lin, you know. I want Lin alive. And then I started thinking about an origin story for her, a prequel set before the first film. And that just became really interesting to me, the idea of seeing Lin years before the first film, and how she got to that point, and what happened to her in her life. And I realized that it could fit well, you know, because these guys, you know, when you met them in the first film they’d obviously been working together. They’ve probably worked on some other things. And just telling that origin story, I think, cemented the idea of a prequel. And then thinking of ways to tie it into the first film, you know, without giving it away, that sort of little strands that I could connect to the first film, it was exciting. You know, I always love origin stories. I love that that BATMAN BEGINS approach of, like, okay, let’s go back and see how we got to this point. So, we’re doing that little bit with Lin in this film, within the context of this new family. But having said that, I also like the idea that much more so than the second film, I think, people could walk in having seen neither of the last two INSIDIOUS films, and have a great time, and understand it. There might be some things that connect to the first films that maybe they’re not keeping total track of, but I don’t think it would be to the point where their understanding and enjoyment of the film would be affected. So I liked that slate-wiping aspect of it. Basically it’s like let’s just do the first film over again.

QUESTION: Would you leave room maybe to tell more stories after this film?

LEIGH: I think so. I mean, you meet Lynn and you meet us, and I think there is room. It’s set a few years before the first film, so I think you could go in any direction. Maybe if there was another INSIDIOUS film, you could go forward again if you wanted to get crazy. But I definitely think there’s room between this film and the first movie to look at. You want Lin Shaye alive.

DERMOT: Yeah! That’s right!

LEIGH: You don’t want morbid ghost Lin Shaye. You want full on, turbocharged Lin Shaye.

QUESTION: I want to know what kind of pressure do you feel after James Wan’s previous projects?

LEIGH: A lot. I mean, to me I think James is the master of modern horror. You know, I think in the last ten years James has set trends in horror, you know, twice over, making SAW. He’s also great. I love THE CONJURING. A lot of people credit me with writing THE CONJURING. I get a lot of tweets from kids saying, you know, “Leigh and James, how great was THE CONJURING! They’re awesome.” And I never correct them, because I just want to let this myth develop.

JASON: I do the same thing. Every time someone congratulates me on THE CONJURING, I say, “Thank you very much.”

LEIGH: I’ll take that. I had nothing to do with THE CONJURING. In fact, I never went to the set once. And it was the only film that James has made that I saw it at the test screening with completely fresh eyes and knew nothing about it. And I thought that was a cool experience to have the experience of being an audience member at a James Wan film, because I’ve never had that experience. I’ve always been there the whole way. I loved THE CONJURING. I just thought it was really scary, subdued and subtle when it needed to be, and I just thought it was great. And so the pressure is huge, you know, for me to be coming after him. It’s kind of like Michael Jordan coming off the court, and they send you in! So I’m just trying to do my best. The only advantage I have, if I have one, is that I’ve sat behind him all this time, watched him making the films, and I think I’ve probably absorbed more than I thought I did. But he also came to the set and he’s given me a lot of advice. I mean, if I’m in trouble, I’ll just text him. And it’ll be like, so how should I shoot the scare scene? I mean, maybe not that literally, but he is awesome the way he’s given advice on things like the best way to scare people. And I think we both have the same taste, as well. We like to shoot things in one shot, not rely on editing or CG or anything, like try and do it practically within the same frame. So, yeah, hopefully if it’s half as scary as INSIDIOUS or THE CONJURING, I’ll be happy.

QUESTION: You know, we were talking a little bit earlier about the difference in aesthetic between this new demon and the demons in the previous films. And I was wondering if you could elaborate on that, and also touch on if the tone of this is different from the prior films, and how the cast feels coming into this third film in the franchise?

LEIGH: I think there is a little bit of a different feel. I mean, I have my own sort of taste and style that differs a little bit from James. You know, he has a really flamboyant style. He loves Mario Barber and Darío Jinto, and he uses a lot of these bright primary colors, especially in the second film. And so I want it to be in the same world as the other two INSIDIOUS films, whilst also having a bit of a change. So I think that the demons have a bit of a different look to them, hopefully. But it’s still really in the same realm, I hope. It’s sort of right in the middle. And, yeah, I think the first film had a realistic tone to it as it started before things got really crazy. And I think I really like that, and I wanted to see if I could take the third film back to that first film where you meet a family and it’s very real. And these guys are such great actors, you know, that they make it very real. I loved that about the first film with Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson, just how real they were and you believed in this family, so when she went crazy you’re with them. These guys have done a great job, you know, coming into this franchise and just, yeah, they’re awesome.

LIN: I just wanted to add in terms of the scary parts, there is a familiarity of the demons on some level in this film that’s a little bit different than what we’ve seen before. And there’s a humanity that’s experienced in the deterioration of elements in this film that also, I think, are quite a bit different, if you know what I mean, without giving anything away. So I think it will hit people in a very familiar place. It’s not like some just scary face or whatever. There’s elements of the story that will touch people in a very human way. There’s elements that even a young person, or whatever the target audience is for the film, I think whether it’s subliminally or realistically, there’s dilemma and problems that this family faces in particular, and who the demon is in this particular case, it has a personal element to it that I think is really, really scary. I mean, seriously scary. It scares me in a different way. I’m not so much scared, even though I loved obviously the demons in the first and the second films, but there’s something about this that chills me in a whole other personal way and really kind of hits me in a very, it’s kind of a private way almost. And so I think in that way, it’s going to be scary in a whole new way that people aren’t expecting.

DERMOT: Yeah, and Leigh doesn’t paint a family that’s like a Disney cartoon and then suddenly all hell breaks loose. You know, this is a real family –-

LIN: With real problems.

DERMOT: — with serious struggles, problems, loss. You know, this film is as much about grief and reconciliation, as it is about who’s jumping out of the closet or anything. I mean, the root of the movie is the heart of this family, and they’re a family that’s in crisis, you know, so you start the story there. And then it gets even worse. And instead of having that temptation of painting a pretty picture that shifts, this is a much more subtle thing. And as Lin just said, you know, the horror in the movie is the same as the horror that the family is going through. In ways, in symbolic ways, or even in some ways literally. So it has a resonance, a real emotional resonance, instead of just a scare-fest. I mean, that’s what you need for this film in the first place, after speaking with Leigh.

QUESTION: Leigh, you called it an origin story. Is that an origin story for THE FURTHER, or is it an origin story for the ghost hunting that your characters do?

LEIGH: I think it’s an origin story in the sense that you see how Lin got to the place she’s in in the first film. And, you know, maybe you get to see how we come into contact for the first time. And a little bit with THE FURTHER. I think it’s an origin story, to use the often repeated phrase “without giving anything away”, you do see how this concept of THE FURTHER really comes into contact with this particular character. And it’s sort of simultaneously running with these guys. These guys have their own new story, you know, which as Dermot said, we treated that not as a side story but that it’s really important and it’s really the heart of the film, and how these guys come together is really important to it.

QUESTION: Stefanie and Dermot, you’re new to the franchise. Did you have any trouble getting into the swing of things with all these veterans?

DERMOT: Did you?

STEFANIE: I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to do a horror film. For me it wasn’t. I don’t think it was. I wasn’t really intimidated. I don’t think I was scared about it or anything. I loved the films and I loved the story. And I was just really excited to play Quinn and tell her story about her family. Yeah, I don’t know if I really thought about it as, no offense –-

LEIGH: I mean, Stefanie always says, she’ll say like, “You know, I’ve never done one of these before.” And I’m like, “That’s good!” Like, it’s a good thing.

STEFANIE: I’ve been scared, but (SOUNDS LIKE) Beachy just scares the crap out of me every day. That’s what it’s turned into, yeah.

DERMOT: It does, it’s true. You know, he keeps the lights on the set. Well, you were there. The lights on the set are really low. It’s like gloomy.

LIN: It’s very gloomy.

STEFANIE: Yes.

DERMOT: You go in, and one time I came in, and it literally happened what Leigh was hoping all along, is that I’m just doing a scene about a breakfast or getting the kids ready, and then behind me there’s a guy sitting there that I’d never seen him, and he’s in the full regalia of this demon, ready to go on to do his part. But he’s lurking in the corner, and it’s dark, and it’s like really, really creepy.

LEIGH: I remember I used an air horn one time to scare — this all came from William Friedkin, so here’s a story for you. Before I started shooting, I sent William Friedkin a tweet. And he responded in, like, three minutes tops. Which was scary, because I’m like, “Why is William Friedkin on Twitter? Shouldn’t he be being William Friedkin?” And I said, you know, I am directing my first film. Do you have any advice for me, things you’d wish you’d known before you directed? And he responds, “Well, let’s go out for lunch and talk about it.” So I ended up going out to lunch with William Friedkin. It was surreal. He comes and he sits down. I’d never met the guy. And he barely said hello. He was just like, “First of all, you’ve got to scare your actors for real. Every time somebody jumps in The Exorcist, it’s because I was just off camera firing a gun. Because do you think I could’ve got back Priest to jump like that when the phone rang? No. I shot a gun.” He goes, “That’s what you must do.” And I’m like sitting there, thinking, great. So I mentioned it to Laz, I was like, “I just want you to know, the first AD, I’m going to have to have some guns.” And he was like, “No, you won’t be doing that.” And I’m like, “Of course, I won’t. That would be stupid.” So the air horn was the consolation prize. But, you know, I haven’t gone as crazy as that. But I’ve definitely tried to create an atmosphere and get everyone into it.

LIN: One thing that for me has been great is, since Leigh has written these and has created basically my character and this world, some of the directorial elements that he’s been able to provide me with are so rich. And it’s things that I’ve thought about, but never thought about with the coloration that he describes them to me. And I think that comes also from being an actor and a performer. I tease him. I say, not only is he going to be a triple threat, he’s going to be an octagonal threat. There’s going to be tap dancing and doing Jersey Boys all on his own.

LEIGH: I’m also a great martial artist.

LIN: He’s also a great martial artist. But I mean it helped me so much to not just ground myself in the present and in this movie, but it literally felt like it helped me blossom, and I hope I fulfill that for you guys, and certainly for Leigh and myself. He’s an awesome director.

LEIGH: Well, it’s good to have Angus back, as well. I think this story starts with Angus and I a bit earlier in a different place, so that’s been fun. I think it’s been fun for Angus. I don’t know.

ANGUS: No, it’s been, it’s fantastic. There’s such warmth on the set, in a place where I guess you don’t expect to find warmth. And I think a lot of that’s down to Leigh and Jason’s casting, and James’s casting. There’s such a rich congeniality on set that I guess if you can empathize with people, not to say that people didn’t empathize with Rose and Patrick, but there’s such warmth that exudes from Lin just on and off set. For them to cast Dermot and Stefanie who both are almost like the glow out of that pulp fiction suitcase, you know. There’s such warmth.

LEIGH: So that was what was in there!

LIN: Stefanie’s clothes.

ANGUS: That is the thing that I think is really rich for me to come back and feel. It’s like such a privilege to see Leigh step into that valley that James and Jason and Oren and the team together have worked on, traversing that rocky path. But for them, the support they have and encouragement they have for Leigh, for me to come in and step in and just see how he’s handling that, he’s a true polymath, you know, aside from being a very dear friend of mine. The confidence that he has in the material, certainly for us when we’re dealing with the netherworld, it’s actually a real treat to have the director in the scene with you, as well. It’s actually quite liberating as a performer. And he’s so cute and generous.

LEIGH: It sucks for me, but it’s good for you.

ANGUS: He gives notes afterwards. It takes away the gravity of the notes. It’s just very logistical. “Okay, cut. All right, we just need you to say this in the next line, right? Okay, are we rolling? Action.” You know, it’s fantastic. There’s no, the melodrama goes and you’re really accessing a very truthful place. And I must say, with Michael, who’s playing the demon, and the same with Dermot, it’s like you suddenly turn around and they’re there. It’s actually quite frightening. You know it’s frightening when the rushes scare you. I think this will rip the audience out of their seats.

LIN: I think so.

ANGUS: And throw them out of the back of the theater. It’s going to be great.

QUESTION: You guys have revolutionized horror movies. I kind of lost interest in them a long time ago, but slowly one by one I’ve been discovering in films like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and others, it has blown me away how you completely breathe new life into it. And the thing that amazed me is the depth of the storytelling. Did you guys know the full range that you were going to tell of the first story? Did you think it was going to be a one-off? Or did you plan all those interlocking elements between all of the films?

LEIGH: With INSIDIOUS in particular?

ROB: Yeah, with INSIDIOUS. We were watching them the other day and it’s amazing how they all fit together. It’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.

LEIGH: Thanks. I mean, we didn’t plan it, we really didn’t. We just wrote that first INSIDIOUS film, and then we thought it had a cool ending. I mean, with horror films James and I always love the down endings, the negative endings. And then you get asked to do a sequel and you’re like, “Oh, how do we deal with that, the fact that everyone died?” And so we just sort of backed into it, like, thought about it. If we had planned it out, it probably wouldn’t have been as good. But we never plan anything out. But I mean, Blumhouse is great and Jason is so great at letting the filmmakers do their thing, you know.

JASON: Right.

LEIGH: That’s the key to their success is just letting them come in and go, “You curate this world.” Because the people who invented it, they’re going up with so much more attention into it. And they’ve been awesome about that. So probably with the other Blumhouse films that have these sort of rich backstories, it comes from that approach of letting the filmmakers do what they want to do.

JASON: Also on the first movie I think it’s a huge mistake, it’s another thing that people do all the time with horror movies, is like talk about the sequel before they make the first movie, which is a disaster. It is so hard. Everybody glumps horror together like we were talking about before. And there’s great horror movies and there’re terrible horror movies, like every other genre. But a lot of people don’t think that way. And it’s really hard to make a really good one. So to make a really good horror movie and then put pressure on the filmmakers to say, and make sure you’re thinking about a sequel, you’re going to compromise the first movie. And so I always think about it, when we were doing PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, we always thought about BLAIR WITCH. And every time, a sequel to a found footage, there’s actually nothing more absurd. It’s like, we found more footage! Right?
(LAUGHTER)

LEIGH: We found more footage.

JASON: And it was a great lesson from that that we’ve had on whatever number we’re on now. And I always say that to the filmmakers. Like if we made a sequel from PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, if the movie works, we’ll figure out the sequel, but do not think about the sequel. Like I said to James, when whatever happens, everyone has to die or whatever, make a great first movie. And then if that movie works, we’ll figure out a sequel. Now I get nailed on this sometimes. I don’t think that’s true of a second movie. In other words, what I just said would apply to INSIDIOUS, SINISTER, or THE PURGE, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY for the first time. If you’re now making a sequel, the chances that you’re going to get a series of movies are infinitely higher than when you start from the original. So, again, I would never say it to compromise the movie, but I certainly, if I’m on number two of any of the movies that we’re talking about, including this one, it’s like if we’re doing two, we should be conscious that the chance of three is pretty good. Whereas when you’re doing one, the chance of two is not good and you should just get a good first one. I don’t know if that makes sense. Does that make sense?

LIN: Oh, yes.

QUESTION: Dermot, for you. I wanted to ask you about your choice to join this franchise. What is it like as an actor to come into a series like this that’s already established?

DERMOT: Yeah.

JAMIE: To be in the horror film genre? I don’t think you’ve done that too much before. And a little bit about your character?

DERMOT: Thanks. Yeah, I met Leigh, you know, and it had great things going for it. Obviously there’s the success of the other two movies. I mean, I hit it off with Leigh right away. It shoots in town. It was good to go in about two weeks.
(LAUGHTER)

DERMOT: Seriously, though, the schedule is more often than not the thing that keeps you from doing the movie that you want, is that you have something else already, or whatever. So the fact that I had a slot and it was soon, is always a good sign, because that’s the one you’re going to do. And in this case I could tell that there was a real intellect involved, you know. I wasn’t familiar with the INSIDIOUS franchise, the Insidii, as I call it.
(LAUGHTER)

DERMOT: But I subsequently saw them. And I have a fifteen-year-old son who is a huge horror genre fan. So I’ve been at, you know they call it the midnight show, but it’s really Thursday night at ten that you get to see the show. So if you’re in ninth grade, you know, you really want to come to school on Friday having seen INSIDIOUS 2 the night before, so you can not tell your friends what happened.

LEIGH: Right.

DERMOT: That’s the goal. It’s true. So I’ve been to a lot of them. I saw EVIL DEAD 3 at midnight on a Thursday night. You know, I’m the carpool. So I’ve been dragged in to being a fan.

LEIGH: I remember you saying to me when we first met up, like, “You know, I’ve never done one of these before.”

DERMOT: Yeah. I’d never actually been in one.

LEIGH: So I just loved, again with Stefanie I loved that.

DERMOT: You know what, recently I’ve stumbled into a couple of projects that would fall into, STOKER was a great movie last year.

LEIGH: Sure.

DERMOT: It was just a small part but it was great to be involved with something that had those elements to it, the sort of Gothic feel and the tension that a horror movie has. And THE RAMBLERS UNSEEN, but that had elements of that, too, big-time. And of course, THE GREY. You know, it really is a horror movie in the way that JAWS is a horror movie. So in the last two or three years, this is really my fourth, if you want to count them. But it’s the one that will be the most mainstream. And any time I get a lead in anything, I’m taking it.
(LAUGHTER)

DERMOT: It looks like it’s easy to get these parts, but it’s actually not, yet.

JAMIE: Awesome.

DERMOT: You know what I mean? You’ve got to, like, really get them.

QUESTION: Leigh, can you talk about the creation of the demon this time, without giving too much away? Where he came from?

LEIGH: Well, I was trying to think about him symbolically. As with Jigsaw, with Saw I was trying to think about what this guy represented, and this idea of sickness and that you might have this clock on your life. And so with this guy, I was thinking about — you know, really, with INSIDIOUS 3, I started from what’s the film about? And I came to the conclusion that every ghost movie is really about death and loss. Like, that’s what ghost movies are all about at their very core. And so I think I deal with that in a more literal way. Like the idea of grief and loss, and how do you deal with it when someone’s just not around anymore? What if there’s a chance to still talk to them? And when I came at it from that angle, I thought that for me the guy in this film is the living embodiment of cancer. Like, if cancer was a person, it would be this guy. And so it’s amazing, once you have a concept like that, like sort of a fortune cookie concept that you can hold in your hand, it’s amazing how quickly the visuals of that occur to you. Like, if you just think of what would cancer look like if it was a person, I just instantly thought of this guy and the way he looks, you know. And we ended up getting the guy from SEVEN. I actually said to Fracture Effects, I was like, “You know, the guy Sloth from SEVEN, that he tied to the bed and kept him there for a year?” And so that’s who we got, that guy, Michael MacKay, the actual guy who was tied to the bed. You know, he’s a couple of years older now, but he’s that guy. And he just is so great in the role.

DERMOT: Do you see the kind of thrill Leigh gets from getting the guy that was the actual guy?

LEIGH: Yes.

LIN: The guy that was tied to the bed.

LEIGH: It was so exciting. He’s such a nice guy. That’s another funny thing.

DERMOT: He enjoys these movies as much as you do, too. And it’s contagious. It’s been the most incredible thing for me. Sorry to interrupt. But it’s been so fun, because his enthusiasm is really spilling over.

LEIGH: Exactly. As Angus was saying earlier, oh, it’s amazing how fun it is. But you guys all know from doing your job that horror sets are the most fun sets, always. You know, what’s happening on screen is horrifying and terrifying, but as soon as cut gets called, you’re basically having lunch with the person who’s had their arm hacked off. There’s blood everywhere. Like, horror films sets are always the most fun sets, I find. So it is interesting to be standing around and we’re talking, and then Michael will come over just looking horrifying and he’ll be like, “Hey, guys.”

LIN: He’s the sweetest guy on the planet.

LEE: He’s a nice guy, so it’s just interesting to sit at the lunch table with these people. It’s great.

QUESTION: Leigh, what has it been like not having James around for this film, because you’ve been so used to collaborating with him? Has it been freeing in a way? Has it been scary?

LEIGH: It was definitely scary at first. I think it was going through different stages. I think when James went off to do FAST AND FURIOUS, I was like, it was tough. It was almost like a grieving period. It was like we were together for so long we were a band, and now he’s splitting off and doing a solo project, and I was like, oh, man, it was like a breakup. I was like, what am I going to do without James, you know? He’d sort of gone off to this other place. And I sort of had to think about what I would do, you know, if I wasn’t working with him. And then when this opportunity came up, I think there was a two-minute window where I was like, I don’t want to direct PART 3 of anything. Like, and not even THE GODFATHER made a decent PART 3. And then after That two-minute window passed, I was like, shut up, you’re an idiot, you have to do this. And I realized what an awesome opportunity it was. Because you don’t understand, that was before I had written it. So all I had was the vague concept of INSIDIOUS 3. And then once I started writing it, I fell in love with it. And it was scary without James being there at first. And then I just started working through it, like, all right, you can’t dwell on this. You’ve just got to do the best you can. And, you know, if you have a problem, you can always talk to him. But he’s definitely the master. Like, he just has an innate skill at constructing a scare scene. I think that that’s something you can’t be taught. He’s just born with this ability to go, to know exactly where the camera should be, and at what moment this person should enter frame for it to be scary. Coming up against that is pretty scary. But the thing is, when you’re talking to me right now, I still don’t know if I’ve succeeded. If you ask me that question in ten months’ time, I might be like, I failed. But I’m trying my best to live up to what James did with the first two.

JASON: Because James is going to do five more horror movies for us, which is great.

LEIGH: Right! Exactly.

JASON: No, Leigh is forgetting. He’s having dementia. What happened with directing this movie is, we were begging him to direct, begging him, and he was being super coy, and in a truthful way I think he really was on the fence about it. He said, “You know what, I’m just going to write the script.” And then he wrote the script. And then he was like, “This is pretty good. Okay, I’ll direct it.”

LEIGH: I do remember saying something like, “I don’t know if I want someone else to fuck this up. I want to fuck it up.”

JASON: Yeah, yeah. All right.

QUESTION: I just want to invite anybody on the panel, any of our performers or filmmakers, is there anything you wanted to add?

JASON: Did we leave anything out?

DERMOT: I know, I was talking to Angus about this, the type of scenes that we’re doing in this movie had a different effect on me than I’ve ever had in another film. And it was that I was scared. Which I’ve never had before. You read a scene where you’re having dinner at a dining room table and you have a family, you know that’s going to feel like having dinner. When you’re acting it out, it really feels like the real thing. I didn’t expect that with this. I thought there’d be that element of putting forward of yourself, that you have to put on that it’s a scary thing. But even if it’s something as simple as we don’t know where she is in this scene, because the video is moving mysteriously, and so we’re creeping down the hall, the three of us, Angus and Leigh and myself, with one flashlight. The lights have gone off. I’m giving away like the whole middle section. We’re not supposed to do this. But I’m freaked out, is what happened. And I really didn’t expect that.

LEIGH: That was great.

DERMOT: The environment he created is actually as real as a scene like where you’d be at a dining room table. It felt just as real, which I really didn’t expect to have it get in under my skin as much as it has.

LIN: It’s been a little bit of a challenge for me, as well, knowing there’s expectations for my character from the first two, and keeping her real and as much in the new dilemma as she’s in, without trying to sort of repeat, because there’s some digestion of having those two movies under my belt and knowing how people have responded, which has been awesome for me. So that’s been a little bit of a challenge. But Leigh has, again, through his knowledge of what he’s created and the breadth that he’s created Elise with, he’s really, I think, given me a lot to work with.

LEIGH: I also think that if I don’t really know anything yet, as William Goldman said, but if I’ve learned anything from twenty or so days of directing, it’s that if you cast it well, and you get a great crew, your directing is just being a traffic cop. Like, these guys are so good. If you just put the camera on them and let them do the scenes, they give you so much more than you could have ever hoped for. All these guys, they’re so committed, so great, so up for it. And they’re so awesome, and the crew is so awesome. They’re all so talented, I’m actually in awe of them. I’m in awe of the grips.

LIN: They’re really amazing.

LEIGH: You know, I love them. And so I’m finding that I’m just sitting back and I don’t want to get in the way and interrupt what they’re doing. So I genuinely mean that. If I just get out of these guys’ way, I think, it’s just awesome every time. So, yeah. Hopefully I don’t mess up their good work.

JASON: You know, after this panel, the movie better be good.
(LAUGHTER)

LEIGH: I know, that’s the truth. Thanks for coming and talking to us. We really appreciate it.

DERMOT: Yeah, thank you very much.

LEIGH: And you guys are a large reason why people are interested in these films, and we knew that.

DERMOT: Yeah, smart questions, too. Thanks a lot.

“The newest chapter in the terrifying horror series is written and directed by franchise co-creator Leigh Whannell. This chilling prequel, set before the haunting of the Lambert family, reveals how gifted psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) reluctantly agrees to use her ability to contact the dead in order to help a teenage girl (Stefanie Scott) who has been targeted by a dangerous supernatural entity.”