Lin Shaye & Leigh Whannell Talk Insidious: Chapter 3

Next weekend, some brave souls will have the chance to get completely terrified when Insidious: Chapter 3 creeps into the theaters. Of course, sometimes we wonder how these films get so scary or if the actors ever get scared themselves.

ComicBook.com recently had a chance to sit down with Insidious: Chapter 3‘s director, Leigh Whnanell, and the “Godmother of Horror,” (as awarded by Wizard World), Lin Shaye who plays a medium named Elise in the Insidious series.. We asked them all about the movie and more! Check it out below.

I’m a fan of The Walking Dead, I’ve watched the Purge movies, I’ve watched horror movies, but then I watched Insidious: Chapter 3 and I was like a stereotypical movie character covering their eyes when they’re scared. I don’t know whether to thank you or be mad at you!

LW: It’s an interesting position to be in as a horror film director, it’s the only genre of film where you want the audience to look away from the screen. That is your ultimate aim – is to have them not watch the movie!

Great success because I was terrified. I tried to take a picture of the LA skyline in my room last night so I turned off all the lights and I’m not kidding when I say one of the lights flickered back on and I was done.

LW: That’s gonna do it.

LS: It sets you off! It definitely sets you off.

Does anything ever get scary on set? Leigh, do you ever scare people on set or Lin do you get scared filming something like this?

LS: [Pointing to Leigh] He scares me! He could scare anybody. [Laughs] I don’t really… Not really. Because there’s so much going on around you all the time but then there’s… You’ve gotta focus! Elise has a lot of talking, there was actually one time, I got so kind of… overcome…. It was the second day of shooting, we were shooting a very important scene and I, literally, I had so much adrenaline pumping through my system and I was wearing all this flannel closed off stuff and it was very hot in the house – I couldn’t remember a thing. I couldn’t remember where I was, what I was supposed to be doing, and Leigh, his second day of directing goes, “Lin, is there a problem?” Okay, that scared me!

LW: That’s scary! You are really good at tapping into the feeling of whatever…the film where we’re trying to make these ghosts, you’re very good at tapping into that world.

LS: Thank you! I mean it’s become familiar now. It’s really sort of a training process now, too. When I watched that one section when I’m calling out to Lily, I thought if a real psychic was doing this they’d probably take more time. This actually kind of filed through as we were doing it but we’re in movie time. I mean, I can’t take 15 minutes to see if she’s out there! Then we’ve got Jason Blum going like this [pointing to her watch] in the background! That’s scary! But you develop a way of working and start to understand the rhythm of what it is you’re doing and make it feel real enough to make the reality of the film come to life and also keeps Jason and Blumhouse happy!

Wizard World just recently awarded you the Goddess of Horror award—

LS: Godmother!

LW: Goddess is even better! It was actually Godmother of Horror but we’ll go Goddess.

I think Goddess works!

LS: I’ll take all of it!

So, does the Goddess of Horror still get scared by horror films?

LS: Yes! When I saw this film I was totally scared and I knew what was coming! That for me is a huge sign post that this gonna really scare audiences, but again it was the skill that it was built. The story was built so beautifully and you’re brought in to the vulnerability of these three people who are all dealing with loss and grief, so you’re immediately open and the audience is opened. You’re empathetic and sympathetic and that’s when you can wham them! That’s when you can make —

LW: Goosebumps!

Leigh, the fact that you can make this characters so relatable and sympathetic in such an otherwise unbelievable premise is impressive. Good job to you.

LW: Thank you. You know.. It is a lot to do with the actor, not to deflect. Lin is such a beloved character in this franchise and she knows the character better than I do! Sometimes she would look at me and say, ‘Elise wouldn’t do that.’ I believe her! She lives in the skin of Elise, she knows how Elise puts her pants on in the morning, so I had to trust that she knew the character just as well as I did and I really did enjoy building a film around not only Lin as a person but Elise as a character. I think it’s a great opportunity to have Lin do something she rarely gets to do which is be a bad a—! She kind of turns out to be a super hero in this movie!

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Insidious: Chapter 3 hits theaters June 5. Are you going to check out the terrifying Insidious prequel?