Where would the horror genre be without Leigh Whannell? It may not be a question many ask themselves, but pre-Saw the horror genre was more than a little stagnant. Sure there was that small burst during the late nineties thanks to Kevin Williamson’s scripts for both Scream and I Know what you did Last Summer, but what followed was nothing but cheap rip-offs.
Then in 2004 Leigh Whannell and James Wan came along with Saw. The movie was a horror film like no other, feeling much more like a dectective movie such as Seven than the kind of horror we were used to. The film spawned six sequels of varying success with Whannell and Wan involved in some but not all.
Instead the pair focussed on bringing another long forgotten subset of the horror genre back to life – the haunted house/possession tale. With Insidious audiences got an eerie and timeless chiller about a family tormented by beings trapped in ‘The Further’. Directed by Wan, and scripted by Whannell, the film scored a sequel which unfortunately lost some of the spark of the first film. However, it was still immensely popular and earned itself another outing.
This time around though, Wan left to direct Fast and Furious 7, leaving Whannell to step into the directing role for the first time. We’ve already seen Insidious 3 and can confirm that if you enjoyed the first chapter then you’ll get along with this new instalment, the third chapter (which is actually a prequel).
Leigh Whannell was in town to promote the film and we seized the chance to talk with one of the most famous horror writers of today. In our short time we talked about how he juggles directing, writing, acting, the decision to go in the prequel direction, Dolph Lundgren’s Masters of the Universe, and whether we’ll ever get another Saw movie. We even had a little extra time to squeeze in some of your questions that were submitted via our Facebook and Twitter pages, find out if yours got asked now:
Insidious 3 will be released in UK cinemas this Friday, 5th June, read our review here.
