The cast of Blumhouse’s Insidious: Chapter 3 were in attendance at Wondercon in Anaheim, Ca. this past weekend and I got a chance to sit down with them for some round table interviews. Two of the actors from the film who were paired together were Angus Sampson, who is a familiar face to the franchise as Tucker, and the other was Hayley Kiyoko, who is a newcomer to the franchise and you can also see her in the upcoming ‘Jem and the Holograms’ film. The two talked about the film, the belief of the paranormal and if there will be another chapter to the franchise.
Q: Are you a fan of the franchise and what may fans anticipate about this storyline?
Hayley Kiyoko: Well it’s interesting because I’ve never watched horror stories before. Once I shot this film and watched it, I’m just like ‘everyone has to go see it.’ It’s absolutely terrifying. I would say it’s the most terrifying film of the franchise and what’s great about this film is it’s drama based. It’s about this girl who’s lost her mother and there’s lots of loss going on. I think fans of the franchise are not going to be disappointed.
Q: You mentioned you hadn’t watched horror movies before this, now that you’ve seen how terrifying this is, are you kind of ruined for other horror movies?
Kiyoko: Oh yeah! I’m definitely not going to watch any, I’m terrified! (Laughs). But I’m proud to be a part of the most terrifying films, I would say, in a long, long time. I think what’s so great too is that they don’t rely on cgi and all these special tricks, it’s just about the story and that’s just haunting by itself.
Q: Was there any particular moment where you were reading the script and were like ‘I don’t really want to do this’?
Kiyoko: Um…no. The script was incredible and it’s a great storyline. I play Maggie who’s Quinn’s best friend and she brings the light in her life, the positivity. Her dad is not really feeling the loss very well so I’m just kind of there for her. Stefanie Scott and I shot ‘Jem and the Holograms’ together last year, so it’s cool to shoot two movies together, it’s very rare to be able to work with people more than once, our age. I love her, she did an amazing job.
Q: Angus, Tucker and Specs are basically the new Ghostbusters of our generation. Are you guys gonna come up with your own proton packs eventually?
Angus Sampson: (Laughs) We do get a car in this, we have a Spectral Sightings vehicle that we modeled around the A-Team van and taking it a step further, I’ve got a Mr. T haircut for this role which is fun at work but not at home. I really liked the Frog brothers from ‘The Lost Boys,’ growing up but with this one with Leigh [Whannell] stepping up to direct, maybe we weren’t as silly throughout the shoot because they do have to kind of take that sort of juvenile hat off and step into responsibility throughout. We shot most of our stuff towards the end of the shoot. I guess for Leigh logistically, to get his head around directing, writing, producing, acting, we sort of did most of our stuff towards the end. Yeah, there’s a few little nods of little Easter eggs that we tried to put into this chapter. As Hayley said, it’s quite a privilege to work with people more than once…if you like them (laughs) to be able to do it with such a great group of people, then meet Dermot [Mulroney] cause I’ve worked with his wife on ‘Where the Wild Things Are.’ That’s the great thing about doing these films is that everyone is nice and there is no egos.
Q: Other than the Insidious franchise, what is your favorite horror movie?
Sampson: I think ‘The Shinning’ is peerless, I love ‘the Omen’ cause I can watch it but the film I can’t watch, that I hate, which clearly means it’s the best, is ‘It.’ I saw it on a bus once and everyone was asleep and I was sitting in like the third back row and it was night time, pitch black, and driving through the country. I could just see people’s forearms…I hate ‘It’ so much cause I can’t watch it.
Q: Where do you guy stand on beliefs of the paranormal?
Kiyoko: I personally have never experienced anything but I feel like if I had experienced something, I would believe it.
Sampson: Maybe you have.
Kiyoko: Maybe I have but I don’t even know.
Sampson: Yeah. like who’s sitting in that chair right there?
Kiyoko: That’s scary! There was this dummy on set that was sitting in this chair and I thought it was this real person. I would touch the skin and this makeup artist would just jump out and scare the crap out of me, day one of shooting.
Sampson: When we shot the first ‘Insidious,’ I met up withe L.A. Paranormal Association. It was great. We met at some barbecue joint in the valley (laughs). I was like what the hell is this? When we filmed the second chapter, we went around this abandoned hospital at two in the morning and we were in a morgue, we went to where children were born and where animals and humans were incinerated. It’s really sort of rudimentary stuff like just knocking and you’re standing in pitch black, just listening to noise. And there was one moment where we’re in the operating theatre, and there was this noise and everyone freaked out. It was coming from the air condition duct. It took about forty minutes for us to discover that it was a raccoon and it was forty minutes that I was absolutely in belief.
Q: Hayley, how has this first horror movie for you, changed your acting experience?
Kiyoko: It’s interesting because you watch horror films and you go ‘what makes horror films so scary?’ And it’s because the acting is so real and I was on set and watching Leigh direct and it’s the pacing, it’s the timing of things. It’s the slow motion shots and horror films have such air to breathe and I think that’s really interesting and that brings tension and fear. It was really interesting to be able to witness that cause I’m on ‘CSI: Cyber’ which is very different and on ‘Jem and the Holograms,’ there’s always different ways of shooting films but horror is just a skill and I think you have to have a lot of talent to do horror films. It’s amazing.
Q: Is there room for another installment? How many more can we see?
Kiyoko: I don’t know? How many more? How many more?
Sampson: I guess if the audience wants it, then they will discuss it then. The last one did so well, it was like forty something million the first week, and then everyone starts ringing everyone and are like ‘is there anything else to tell?’ But whatever happens, it does need to have Leigh, James [Wan] and Jason [Blum] involved.
Insidious: Chapter 3 will haunt theaters June 5, 2015. The film stars Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whennell (who also directs the film), Lin Shaye and Hayley Kiyoko.
Stay tuned to Nuke the Fridge for more interviews from the cast including: Stefanie Scott, Dermot Mulroney and producer James Blum.