Going Further As Director

With Insidious Chapter 3, a prequel of sorts to the two chilling supernatural stories he’d penned for Wan to direct, Whannell settles into the director’s chair for the first time.

Set a few years before the events of the first two Insidious films, it follows reluctant psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) as she uses her abilities to communicate with the dead to help teenage Quinn (Stefanie Scott), whose attempts to reach her late mother in the afterlife have attracted the unwelcome attentions of a malevolent spirit in that dank netherworld known as The Further.

"It it was very unsettling for me to have 250-pound grips calling me ‘boss’.”

“In a way, the film chose me,” says Whannell of his decision to direct. “James had gone off to do [Fast &] Furious 7, and I knew films like that can take up two years of your life, so all of a sudden I was alone and I had to think about what I wanted to do on my own.

“Directing was the natural choice, and as I was thinking about that I was offered the job of writing Insidious Chapter 3. During the writing process, I fell in love with the characters and I felt like I couldn’t let it go. I didn’t want anyone else interpreting this script. But it was also a comfortable choice for me because I was already familiar with the characters, having written the first two films. So it was a logical film for me to make.”

He admits that standing on the Insidious Chapter 3 set and calling “Action” for the first time was “surreal”.

“As a screenwriter, you get very used to ceding control. Screenwriting entails giving control over to other people and letting them interpret your ideas. You sit down and write something and you’re essentially directing it in your head but you hand it over and back away. There’s definitely an empowerment that comes with direction, but it was very unsettling for me to have 250-pound grips calling me ‘boss’.” he laughs.

Whannell was happily surprised to discover that directing was a far less stressful experience than he’d imagined.

“I think I anticipated that it would be a lot more combative — there would be pushing and cajoling — but it was actually very collaborative. It felt like a more visceral and fun version of writing... If the job was like getting root-canal surgery, no one would want it. But everyone wants to be a director — it’s the greatest job in the world.”