Insidious: Chapter 3 Reveals Its Monster at WonderCon

The independent horror film factory Blumhouse Productions had its own panel presentation at WonderCon 2015 on Saturday, the centerpiece of which was a look at this summer’s Insidious: Chapter 3. Blumhouse’s Ryan Turek hosted a panel featuring president Jason Blum, Insidious: Chapter 3 writer/director/cast member Leigh Whannell, plus stars Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Hayley Kiyoko, Angus Sampson and Lin Shaye.

The panel unveiled two new clips from the movie, the first an atmospheric little scene in which Lin Shaye’s medium Elise Rainier tries to contact the deceased mother of Scott’s character, only to stop in terror and confusion and warn Scott to find another psychic (see below). The second clip found Scott in the hands of the main demonic evil of the film, the Man Who Can’t Breathe, a burned apparition in hospital gown who drags the wheelchair-bound Scott down a corridor and dumps her on the floor of an empty room, only to confront a faceless version of herself crawling on stumps instead of arms and legs.

Both scenes were firmly in the spirit of the two previous entries in the franchise, and Whannell spoke about introducing the Man Who Can’t Breathe as “the living embodiment of cancer -- if cancer were a person, this is what it would look like.” Whanell added, “You don’t know much about him…he symbolizes all the pain and misfortune that can visit people in life.”

The film is a prequel that focuses on Elise, grieving over the loss of her husband, trying to help Scott, who is also suffering from the loss of her mother. “(Loss) is a big theme of the movie,” said Shaye. “I think that in some ways that makes it the scariest film of the three because it deals with something personal to all of us.”

Going back to an earlier stage of Elise’s life and career -- she is now the linchpin of the series, it seems, much to the delight of Shaye -- freed Whannell as a first-time director (after writing the first two) because “we didn’t have to pick up with the old characters.” He added that Chapter 3 works as a “stand-alone film” that doesn’t require the viewer to see the first two. But Whannell, as the writer, also said that he thought he could deliver a solid third entry after the departure of original director James Wan (Furious 7) even though “those are some big shoes to fill.”

On a personal level, I loved the first Insidious but was unimpressed with the second, which failed to find the right balance between chills and weirdness that the first movie successfully maintained. But I’d love to see the series get back on track with Whannell at the helm. Insidious: Chapter 3 is out June 5.