'Insidious: Out of the Further's Stars Promise "There's Much More to This Franchise"

• Perri Nemiroff chats with the team behind Insidious: Out of the Further.
• Stars Lin Shaye, Amelia Eve, and Brandon Perea share their favorite scares, the most challenging scenes, and backstory reveals you won't see in the movie, plus ideas for the franchise's future!
• Co-writer and director Jacob Chase discusses introducing new villains, bringing back Insidious icons, and joining the Blumhouse family.

It’s time to return to Blumhouse’s most iconic universe this summer with Insidious: Out of the Further. What began as James Wan’s haunted house horror has since expanded its lore beyond The Further, where tortured souls lie in wait for their chance to escape. Now, the franchise’s newest installment introduces a dangerous power that leaves our world vulnerable to these demonic entities. Before Out of the Further hits theaters, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff had the pleasure of chatting with two of the movie’s newest faces, Amelia Eve (The Haunting of Bly Manor) and Brandon Perea (Nope), and the heart and soul of the franchise, Lin Shaye, who plays Elise Rainier.

In the movie, Eve plays Gemma, a young mother living in her childhood home with her daughter, Maya (Island Austin). When she begins having ghoulish nightmares, Gemma discovers she has the power to travel into The Further, but not only that, she’s also able to bring whatever lives there back to our world. It’s not long before the demons lurking in the darkness begin to take advantage of this ability, blurring the line between reality and what lies beyond.

Don’t miss the full conversation in the video above, with Eve and Perea, who plays Nick in the movie, and Shaye, who reprises her iconic role as the astral-projecting psychic Elise. The duo fan out about joining the Insidious family, share their favorite scares, and which scenes challenged them the most. Shaye also reveals new backstory details about Elise that you won’t see on screen, plus just a few of her many ideas that the franchise could explore in the future (hint: “Evil Elise”!).

This Iconic 'Insidious' Scene Still Gives Brandon Perea Chills

"It's ingrained in my soul."

Image via FilmDistrict

PERRI NEMIROFF: Brandon, I was reading that you're a big Insidious fan, so it made me want to ask you this, is there a scene from a past movie that made you go, “My god, that is so cool, and I would love to do that as an actor one day?”

BRANDON PEREA: Oh my God, I mean, everyone's favorite moment is the reveal of Lipstick. I think that's just ingrained in horror cinema, so that's the first thing that pops up. There are so many good scares. In the first one, as well, where Rose Byrne's character goes upstairs and then sees just the guy pacing back and forth.

LIN SHAYE: That’s good. I like that, too.

PEREA: Through that little film, see-through curtain, it's just like, “What is going on?!” And that's the first time you're watching this. You don't know it's about to become an iconic franchise, and you're just freaked out. So, I think those scares really hooked me into this.

Iconic. And also, the music stingers are iconic!

PEREA: 100%, yeah.

I just want someone to randomly do the piano stinger and see me jump out of my skin one day.

PEREA: And the title card! The title card sound is insane.

I look forward to it every single film.

PEREA: It’s ingrained in my soul.

Going from past scares to the scares they put you through in this, Amelia. My god, you have your work cut out for you! Going into the filming of this movie, which particular scene did you think was going to be the toughest for you, and ultimately, was it or did a different one catch you by surprise?

AMELIA EVE: Oh, that's a great question. I anticipated the dentist scene was going to be tough — you know specifically which one — and it really was. [Laughs] I’d love to say it wasn’t, but it really was.

I actually think there were lots of other scenes that I thought were going to be way harder, like the very end of the movie, which I won't say, but is climactic, let's say. I was really worried about just the weight of that and what importance it had, and yet actually, I felt so in it by then, and so I knew who this woman was and what she'd been through that that actually was way less scary when I got to it, whereas that I probably thought was going to be scarier.

Lin Shaye Says There's "Much More" to the 'Insidious' Franchise

"Talk to James Wan."

Lin, I'm going to follow up on something that I was reading in our press notes. You mentioned, “I built a whole world for Elise outside of what we've ever seen in the movies.” So, of course, that left me wondering, can you tell me a piece of backstory you came up with for her that maybe we don't see or hear about in any of these films, but we could feel you holding tight to and it informing your performance?

SHAYE: Yes, because I thought for a long time, because they talk about her gift in the first one, and they don't really tell you what the gift is, and I sort of constructed this idea that she, even as a little girl, had a different kind of radio in her head than most people. It does give me chills. She hears things other people don't hear, and her brain is sort of like a two-way radio. So she hears screams, she hears pain, she hears history, and it affects her daily life, but she controls herself because she can't live every day like that.

But when the screams get loud enough, she has to go and help on some level. I'm not even sure she knew at the beginning how she could help, but she shows up and realizes that she has this ability. So she actually recognizes the ability at the same time the audience does, on some level. So, it's through her gift that she's able to perform all these tasks, which are do-good tasks.

She also has the ability to be in jeopardy and have pain. I mean, she's not impervious to any negativity around her. She absorbs it, as a matter of fact. And I think there's a story there for me. I've thought about that, too, that she's absorbed the pain of either a demon — ooh, that gives me chills too — of some demon or some person she's helped. And there may be this sort of mixture that changes her, and maybe we see a whole different side to Elise.

That tees up my follow-up question nicely. I am a very big believer that the creative possibilities for the Insidious franchise are especially endless. That's my personal opinion. People want to hear you talk about that though! So, in your opinion, why does the Insidious franchise have the ability to continue on and on, maybe even more so than some other iconic horror franchises out there?

SHAYE: I think the love of the characters — the red-faced demon. There are certain staples now in the franchise, and dare I say they love Elise. I represent some kind of heroic everyman, and she's funny. There are times she's silly. There are times she does stupid things, just like Lin. [Laughs]

Just like everybody!

SHAYE: Just like everybody, yeah. And that there be some quality there that can be manifested into other elements. The idea of the Further and her having some connection to that. I'd love to see a film in the Further. I had this one thought about her looking for the women that she's lost in her life, that there may be a mother connection that we don't know about, or a child connection we don't know about. I don't know if she could maybe be my child, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's all kinds of familial gold that I think lies in other stories for her.

I love how you've got all these ideas. Keep saying them, and then hopefully speaking them into existence.

SHAYE: Talk to James Wan, especially.

I will happily shout all of this to him!

SHAYE: There are good ideas there. There's much more to this franchise than what we've created, and all these people, there's room for all of us to be back there at some level.

"Evil Elise" Might Be the 'Insidious' Franchise's "Exciting Next Steps"

The trio teases what's left on their horror bucket lists!

Image via Sony Pictures, courtesy Everett Collection

I will lean on that for my final question, too, and broaden it to anything in the horror genre. For each of you, can you tell me one thing that still remains on your horror movie-making bucket list?

PEREA: I just played an antagonist, so that was something that I wanted to do, but yeah, just to play even more of a psycho. That'd be cool to do in a horror movie.

Come back to the Insidious franchise, but this time you're in the makeup and the prosthetics and all that fun stuff.

PEREA: Oh, yeah! Yeah, I would love to be a crazy villain in a horror movie. That'd be amazing.

SHAYE: I'd like to play evil. The other side of Elise. I think that there's a story there, too. Who knows?

PEREA: We're all crazy! [Laughs]

I don’t know if my fragile heart could handle it.

EVE: Right?

PEREA: Not Evil Elise! We need to write you a new movie.

SHAYE: Well, I mean, there's room for saviors. There's room for self-recognition and the idea that we pick things that can destroy us that we don't even know are destructive. I think the character has such a base to her, well-written and hopefully well-performed, that I think they could be really exciting next steps in the franchise.

If you're pitching it, I'll be open-minded to it, but I will be sensitive.

EVE: Yeah, it’ll hurt. [Laughs] Some form of possession. I think what Inde [Navarette] did recently is just so… I feel like for any actor, it’s just so tantalizing, the idea of getting to perform something that's just behind the eyes, that is just a little off-key.

PEREA: I see it already.

EVE: You know what I mean? [Laughs]

PEREA: You did that a little too good.

[Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Insidious: Out of the Further]

'Out of the Further' Director Balances Iconic 'Insidious' Demons With New Villains

"I’m coming into this franchise as a fan first."

Insidious: Out of the Further may be your introduction to co-writer and director Jacob Chase (Come Play), but Jason Blum and Blumhouse had every confidence in the filmmaker after years of collaboration when it came to choosing the visionary for the franchise's sixth film. In Out of the Further, Eve’s character Gemma adds a whole new layer to Wan’s twisted nightmare world, providing a way for the demons to escape The Further. For this, Chase was determined to craft brand-new entities to terrorize audiences, while balancing just the right amount of Insidious’s iconic characters.

"Look, I'm coming into this franchise as a fan first. I've loved these movies from the beginning, and so when I was writing this and figuring out, “Okay, what entities are we going to see first and foremost,” I wanted to create new entities, new villains, new people that you've never seen before that feel in line with what you do know about The Further. But then I knew that myself, if I was watching this movie, I'd want to see some of those favorites that I had from other films. And so it really was this balancing act of, like, how much are they sort of Easter eggs or just quick moments? How much do you just see a hand at first and you know who that is if you're a big fan of the franchise?

And it was honestly something we played with in post a lot. I did shoot more with the Lipstick Demon, for instance, and we just kept finding, like, “Okay, just a little bit goes a long way.” You really want to have those moments land, and I think it's all about the buildup more than the actual reveal usually. So yeah, it was just honestly following my gut instincts as a fan of what I wanted to see in the movie."

Check out the full conversation in the video above, with time codes provided below, where Nemiroff chats with Chase about that disturbing dentist sequence, and the very real, very painful inspiration behind it, plus how Sam Spruell (Fargo) brought just the right amount of allure and “sexiness” to Out of the Further’s cult leader, Cyrus.

Image via Sony Pictures, courtesy Everett Collection

• 00:24 - Jacob Chase Turned His Fear of the Dentist Into One of the Most Terrifying Scenes
• 01:38 - Insidious Fan Favorites Collide With All-New Unforgettable Villains
• 03:03 - Sam Spruell Transformed Chase’s Vision for Cyrus
• 04:06 - Bringing Insidious: Out of the Further’s Acolytes to Life
• 05:15 - How Years of Failed Blumhouse Projects Led to Insidious: Out of the Further

Insidious: Out of the Further opens in theaters on August 21.

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  Elise Rainier

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  Amelia Eve

  Gemma

• Island Austin

  Maya

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  Sam Spruell

  Cyrus