Insidious stars Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell on new film The Last Key, the horror franchise’s success – and its uncertain future
The fourth instalment in the Insidious series could be the last for writer and executive producer Whannell, while ageing scream queen Shaye explains she never felt her gender should dictate the way she acts
“I like horror; it’s been very good to me,” says veteran actress Lin Shaye, 74. It is perhaps the understatement of her recent visit to Hong Kong to promote Insidious: The Last Key, the fourth chapter in the successful horror film franchise.
Shaye reprises her role as paranormal investigator Elise Rainier, who takes centre stage in this prequel to the original film from 2010. When a case takes Rainier back to her childhood home, disturbing memories resurface from her own troubled past.
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“She had a very difficult relationship with her father,” Shaye says of her character, who has appeared in every Insidious film to date and has increasingly become the focus of the series. “The emotionality was really difficult, because she has visited some very dark places and your body doesn’t know you’re pretending.”
For Leigh Whannell – who not only wrote and produced all four films but directed the third and stars alongside Shaye as her sidekick Specs – anchoring his franchise on an elderly woman was a no-brainer. “The audience loves Lin,” he says. “Putting Lin front and centre was less a bold choice, and more just giving the audience what they want. Almost pandering, if you will.”
The 40-year-old from Melbourne has become a horror movie mogul after creating both the Saw and Insidious franchises with Malaysian-born director James Wan (who has in turn branched out with The Conjuring franchise).
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Throughout our conversation, Whannell enthuses about his favourite new horror films – name-checking Under the Skin, The Babadook and The Witch – while singing the praises of Blumhouse, the production company behind the Insidious series and Jordan Peele’s smash hit Get Out . “They don’t have huge studio budgets, but what they offer in exchange is creative freedom,” he says.