At that time on speaking about working with Leigh Whannell, James Wan and the cast of the Insidious films she stated: “I hope to keep these people close to my heart and a creative force for a long time.” True to her word and five years on, she returns once again for the fifth entry in the franchise, Insidious: The Red Door which is directed by and stars Patrick Wilson as Josh Lambert. The film sees Josh’s son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) head off to art college to battle literal and metaphorical demons.

We spoke to Shaye about returning to the franchise, reuniting with Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, the importance of family in horror movies and her interest in art…

Was there anything in particular that persuaded you to return to the franchise, or was it an easy decision?

It was a very easy decision! I love Elise. I love the people involved. Knowing Patrick and Rose [Byrne] and Ty were there. I’m in! I would go anywhere with those people, even on a Ferris Wheel! There are so many elements that make you want to do a film or a play or whatever and it usually has to do with story or your character but it also has to do with the people.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do with those guys. Patrick is really a force of nature. He is just really incredible. Watching him, even just in this last film, being the director and giving me some notes about something we were doing… we were doing that very last scene which is an important scene in the film, and just like that he turned on Josh! I got chills watching him. That’s how he is in terms of transformation. He goes from one thing to another with such ease and such commitment. And Rose is like that too. She is just the sweetest human being you would ever meet. Those are prizes to work with.

The Insidious franchise really digs into family dynamics. I think the reason the franchise is so popular is because the films do something similar to Poltergeist by making you care so much about the family aspect that you’re terrified for them – why do you think they are so loved in horror circles?

I think you just said it. It’s because it’s relatable. Everyone has a family, even if it’s a fractured family. Even if it’s a family of friends or family of blood relatives. That community or that pod of security that we all try to gather around ourselves.

We somehow need the pressure of that community to keep us feeling well and I think you seek that. When that’s part of a film or part of a storyline you’re attracted to that in a way, too, because you identify with the needs that they have and to what happens to them.

It was very smart of James [Wan] when he…I don’t even think he thought about it like that because James is a very warm, family person and really a brilliant guy. When he developed that first family, the whole beginning of the film is that the family is in jeopardy. They’ve got a baby and there’s a baby crying… those are all cosmic sounds that penetrate us in a very certain way. I think that’s part of the attraction.

The atmosphere and look of the film is very inspired by classic art, including Saturn Devouring His Son, by Francisco Goya. Are there any pieces of art that strongly speak to you or inspire you in some way?

Yes! I was actually an art history major in college. When you mention Goya and you mention Francis Bacon… there are scenes of horror in particular that are interpreted by great artists that are very powerful. The Scream is a classic. I mean everybody’s afraid of that painting! It evokes things in people that nothing else quite does. I guess that’s great art.

My dad actually started painting when he was in his 50s. I have pieces of his that inspire me so that has a personal connection which is great art also. There’s something that penetrates you visually. I remember going to the Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam and you just can’t walk away. It’s almost unnerving. I’d find myself walking away and then I’d be back. And the same thing with Van Gogh.

That to me is great art – to be able to penetrate anyone and everyone who takes the time to look. And I think that’s the big clue about life; you have to take the time to look and let it enter you.

Insidious: The Red Door will be in cinemas on 7 July.

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M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma, M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to. When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady, Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems—a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.

Produced by Jason Blum and James Wan, M3GAN is directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound), from a screenplay by Akela Cooper (Malignant, The Nun 2) based on a story by Akela Cooper and James Wan. The film stars Allison Williams (Get Out), Violet McGraw (The Haunting of Hill House), Ronny Chieng (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Brian Jordan Alvarez (Will & Grace), Jen Van Epps (Cowboy Bebop), Lori Dungey (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition) and Stephane Garneau-Monten (Straight Forward).

M3GAN will be released in cinemas on 13 January. Watch more trailers at the SciFiNow YouTube channel. 

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After five years away from directing horror, he’s making a return to his roots with a giallo-inspired, Eighites serial killer throwback with shades of Brian De Palma, Dario Argento and Mario Bava.

We spoke to Wan about his return to horror with Malignant…

Eyes of Laura Mars partly inspired Malignant, what was it about that film that struck a chord with you and how did it inform how you approached Malignant?

One of the things I wanted to do was hark back to… there was a particular style of late-Eighties and early-Nineties serial killer stories. It’s that subgenre where you follow the victim or the main character and you follow them through the eyes of the murderer. It’s pretty amazing that it was a genre in its own right.

In that period of time, it was pretty overdone, and I just thought, ‘that’s something really cool that I grew up with, and I really enjoyed it back then and no one really makes anything like that anymore’. So I thought it would be fun to go back to something we’re really familiar with and do my own thing to it, which is to completely flip it on its head. I use that as a starting point for inspiration and then I see where it takes me.

Can you tell us about the look and design of Gabriel, who seems to be some sort of wicked imaginary friend going by the trailer (below). How did you come up with the look and image?

Gabriel is a bit of an enigma character in Madison’s life. I wanted to create a character who you’re not quite sure if he or she is necessarily real, like a real person. Is it an imaginary friend, is it a ghost, or is it the devil? I had to find a way to hide its form. A lot of that stemmed from an idea of trying to hide its form and what it is.

It was a challenge to work out how to create something with a strong presence but yet you can’t really see it most of the time. A lot of the time, he’s just described in the script as a silhouette, a shape, a shadow. When it comes time to shoot it, you don’t quite know what that represents.

Did you have an imaginary friend growing up?

No… to blame my wickedness on? Sadly not! I have no one to blame but myself!

Can you tell us more about the screenwriting process with your co-writers, focusing on the main character Madison (Annabelle Wallis) and how you created her?

I should say, the theme of the movie or one of the themes of the movie is about that sisterly, sibling connection we have, and how close we are. If we’re not necessarily blood-related or adopted – does it mean we don’t have as strong a connection with someone? Or is it the other way around? That it doesn’t really matter whether you’re blood-related or not if you grew up together. It was just one of the themes that we wanted to play with. We felt that it tied nicely to Madison’s journey… she’s trying to discover who she is by finding out where she belongs in this world. Obviously, a lot of that stems from your childhood and the connections you have growing up.

Did Annabelle Wallis say what attracted her to the role, or had you written it with her in mind?

She was attracted to the role due to the sisterly aspect of the story, and also playing a woman who’s trying to overcome a lot of things. At the start of the film she has a bit of a… she comes from a broken home, so to speak, and she’s trying to deal with that, and a horrible husband, and she’s had miscarriages a bunch of times in the past.

She’s really beaten down by all these life situations that were thrown at her. I think Annabelle thought that there was a lot in there for her to chew on, and for her to dive into. On top of that, it’s also a genre film so you get to have a lot of fun with all the crazy stuff that comes along with that!

The poster is giving off big Giallo vibes. Can you tell us more about that aspect of the film, and why you wanted to make this film now?

I’m a big fan of Italian horror films, and Italian pop culture just in general. Whenever I make a big movie, I want to go back and do something smaller and more intimate. And whenever I’ve done that small movie, I want to go back and make a big movie on a big scale with lots of toys to play with. Coming right off the first Aquaman, I just wanted to go back to my roots and do a small horror film that isn’t based on any existing IPs, so that I could make it under the radar between Aquaman one and Aquaman two – which I’m shooting right now in the UK.

I wanted a bit of a palette cleanser. I can’t make two movies that are in the same world back to back, I have to take a break. I thought, why not go back and do a down and dirty, pretty shocking little thriller as something to buffer me?

To us, Giallo is the original ASMR, so can we expect lots of heavy breathing in the sound design? Will the soundtrack fit the classic Giallo mould?

The sound effects and sound design are generally a big part of my films, especially with my horror movies. I’ve also said, you can show very little but your sound design needs to be the thing that creates the imagery. Even if I’m not seeing it, the sound design, the score and the music creates imagery in my head that allows me to project what I think I’m seeing in the darkness or in the shadows. I’ve always held it in a very high regard and it’s no different in this. The killer in this movie speaks with a static, electronically broken voice…

Malignant is in cinemas from 10 September.

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As the eighth addition to The Conjuring franchise, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, has a long and established lineage behind it.

The franchise centres around the cases of real-life paranormal investigating married couple, Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga respectively). The first movie, The Conjuring, was released way back in 2013 and was directed by one James Wan (we wonder what happened to that guy…?), followed by The Conjuring 2 in 2016 (written and directed by Wan). The Devil Made Me Do It is the third movie with the Warrens trying to help a supernatural mystery case.

The franchise also includes a prequel to the first Conjuring film with Annabelle, a story which follows a possessed doll that the Warrens came in contact with in the first film. Annabelle was followed by Annabelle: Creation in 2017 and Annabelle Comes Home in 2019.

That’s not all, another character featured in the main Conjuring films has also had its own spin-off with The Nun, a prequel based on a character introduced in The Conjuring 2 in 2018. The next movie is still in development, which is a spin-off from The Conjuring 2 and entitled The Crooked Man.

Last, but by no means least, The Conjuring franchise also includes a standalone film, The Curse of La Llorona, which was released in April 2019 and directed by Michael Chaves, who also directed The Devil Made Me Do It. We asked Chaves if he thought there were any good characters in his latest movie that could create another deadly branch in The Conjuring tree: “It’s funny because that was literally one of the first things that I asked James [Wan],” he laughs. “I was like ‘okay so what are we going to do? Are we going to be doing a demon this time or demon mannequin?!’. I was of course joking with him at the time, but very seriously, he was like: ‘I think we can do something even cooler…’

“He basically started talking about the trajectory of both the story and things that he wanted to explore in the universe beyond it. This movie is full of surprises and things that are unexpected. Up to this point, The Conjuring movies have become so well known for their iconic characters, for Annabelle, for The Nun, and I think that there is a really interesting door opening to another chapter…”

As a producer on The Conjuring franchise since the very beginning, Peter Safran tells us it’s all down to the character as to whether they get a spin-off. “The truth is when we made the Conjuring 2, we didn’t know that The Nun was going to be the character that people absolutely gravitated towards so strongly, which obviously led to the spin-off of The Nun movie. For us, you kind of never know.

“But I believe there are wonderful characters in this one that we introduce that could easily have their own franchise. I think when you see the movie, you’ll see that there are definitely opportunities for spin off characters within it.”

As The Warrens, Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, are at the very centre of The Conjuring universe and they put their faith firmly in the filmmakers: “I think that’s the genius of James Wan and [writer] David Leslie Johnson[-McGoldrick],” Farmiga tells us. “They work really hard to make sure [they] curate these entities, these demons, these villains. Whether it’s Eugenie Bondurant as The Occultist or the versions of how evil manifests itself in this story… Absolutely, I can see a world where they’re given opportunities to branch off and explore those characterisations.”

For Wilson, he has something a little, erm, calmer in mind: “Lorraine has a solo film where Ed is just sleeping the whole time!” he laughs. “Ed’s at the beach, and she’s making mac and cheese…”

“We joke about it but that that plot point was brought up [haha],” Farmiga laughs.

“I think we should do like they did with the Star Wars, Ewok Special in the Eighties,” Wilson continues. “I think we should do an ‘at home with Ed and Lorraine’. No scares, just a little romantic comedy. You know, like WandaVision but stranger…!”

Well we’d certainly like to see that!

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is available on Digital now and arrives on 4K UHD, Blu-Ray and DVD 6 September. Read our full article on The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It here. 

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“Who are you Gabriel?” Madison asks of the entity that’s been giving her visions of murders in supernatural horror Malignant.

Well, we’re not too sure about that but what we do know is James Wan can direct the hell out of a horror movie (Saw, The Conjuring, Insidious) and he’s back in the directing chair for Malignant, which is due out later this year.

Grab a pillow to hide behind because here’s the trailer…

Malignant follows Madison, who is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities…

Directed by Wan from a screenplay by Akela Cooper (M3GAN, upcoming The Nun 2), with the story by Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Cooper, Malignant stars Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle), Maddie Hasson (Mr. Mercedes), George Young (Containment), Michole Briana White (Dead to Me), Jacqueline McKenzie (Reckoning), Jake Abel (Supernatural) and Ingrid Bisu (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It).

 Malignant will be released nationwide on 8 September 2021 by Warner Bros. Pictures

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