CraveOnline: Does this film answer any questions you had from the first movie about your characters?
Lin Shaye: It opens up a whole bunch of new questions. Can Elise go shopping in The Further? There was something that James and I touched on which we haven’t really completely solves and I’m not sure we will, but is there anything different about Elise in The Further than she is when she’s in the real world. I’ve been sort of thinking about that and investigating it in my own way. Actually tonight we filmed the scene where you first see me back because it’s the first time you see me, so I’m wondering what moments there might be between me and Patrick. What has freed Elise and I have an idea, which I don’t know if I should really talk about because I haven’t even talked to James about it yet. I do have a thought about what might have happened that makes her a little bit different. It’s a very freeing universe in a way too because there are no real rules yet that have been set up, so it’s kind of up to us to define it. I love the character. I’m thrilled that people have also embraced her.
Leigh Whannell: One of the interesting things about the first film was just the reaction from people. The first half of the film kind of sets up fairly traditionally it’s a haunted house film and it’s really well done and paced and James did such a good job with it, and then it starts to go into The Further and these more outlandish concepts. James and I noticed that in some ways, the film was kind of polarizing. You get a lot of “Well, the film was great up until this point.” We always said when we were doing press for the first film, “Yeah, but that’s what we wanted to do.” We kind of throw in everything but the kitchen sink. We want to have these crazy moments, so we couldn’t have made the first half of the film for the whole movie. We liked the fact that it sort of descended into chaos. What’s interesting about the sequel is that no everyone knows that about the first movie. Things like The Further, these kind of crazy ideas that maybe some people had trouble with in the first one, now that’s already established.
Jason Blum: Or you and Angus.
Leigh Whannell: Yes, some people were like, “The movie was great until the Ghostbusters showed up.”
Jason Blum: That was me.
Leigh Whannell: That wasn’t bloggers, that was mostly Jason.
Jason Blum: Leigh, the movie’s great but you have to cut yourself down.
Leigh Whannell: But in the sequel, we’re starting with that. All that stuff from the very start, my character and Angus and The Further and this crazy idea, the world has been set and we’re continuing in that world.
How much more of the film does Chapter 2 spend in The Further?
Leigh Whannell: Um, well, it’s hard to say without ruining it but I would say it spends a little more time. In the end [of the first film], we just follow Patrick’s character in there. I think this film is more starting from a point where you have knowledge of this place. As we’ve been shooting with these guys, even just watching what these guys are doing, I feel like everybody’s trying to live in this world and treat it very seriously. Nobody’s trying to turn it into camp, like, “Let’s have this crazy thing happen.” Everybody’s reacted to “How can we make this more real, more real?” Hopefully the second film, even though it does include these crazy ideas like The Further, we’re trying to keep it really firmly based in reality so it still has that same through line of reality the first film had.
Barbara Hershey: We start with Elise has just died. We start at a high point really. Elise’s death is like the elephant in the room and in every scene permeates this film. So we’re already starting on edge. There’s no buildup to that.
Leigh Whannell: We came up with something that could scare the family anew, something that could turn it around. Obviously we can’t talk about it but I think it’s a different angle. It almost take it, without spoiling anything, almost into a different genre, this film.
James, your first movie spawned a lucrative franchise but this is the first time you’ve come back to do the sequel. What was your decision to continue with this?
James Wan: I had such a fun time working with these guys on the first one and I felt like Leigh and I always joke that the first Saw film, when we shut the door with Jigsaw, that was the end of that film, but this one we had other plans and ideas on this even though we didn’t really push it all the way. We thought we’ll play with it, see how Insidious goes, and if there may be a potential second storyline. Sure enough when it did well, we could actually go back and pull out the second storyline to continue.
Leigh Whannell: Also, when Jigsaw shut that door, it turns out it wasn’t the end. They opened the door back up again, literally, they opened the door in the sequels.
How much of Chapter 2 was entirely in those thoughts you had on the first one, and how much more developed?
James Wan: Leigh and I had some ideas that we batted back and forth. It’s a tricky on to talk about without giving it away. What did you say, Leigh?
Leigh Whannell: I said it was a continuation. It picks up from the end of the first film.
James Wan: That’s the reason why we didn’t want to call it Part 2 or Roman Numeral. It’s literally chapter two. That was one of the things for us, we love the idea that it’s kind of like a book. It’s in chapters. We just thought it was a cool sequel title. There are things that we’re doing, without giving too much away, where the second movie visits the first movie. That’s all I’ll say.
Is this a tighter production than the first one, in 25 days?
Jason Blum: This is like Transformers compared to the first movie. We have a little bit more leeway. The first movie was 19 or 21. So this movie we have a few more resources but not many. I have a very firm belief, which most people know, that the more money you take, the more you give up creative control. The reason the first movie was special was because 100% of everyone on the stage, these guys made the movie and these guys acted in the movie. It was a very single voice, James and Leigh pushing it forward without any interference or creative compromises. That’s my theory of why I personally like the movie and this movie’s very similar. I was kidding about Transformers but if you say, “Now we’re making a sequel, we want $20 million to make the movie,” you have to make a lot of creative compromises which I do not want James and Leigh to make.
James Wan: It definitely still has that same indie spirit of the first film. I think keeping it in line with the first one is the right spirit.
James, obviously there’s a business component to this but what keeps you coming back to horror with this and The Conjuring? Are there other genres you’re looking to get into, like your action movie Death Sentence?
James Wan: Yeah, I guess I’ve had a lot of success in this particular genre that I didn’t really ask for. I just sort of fell into it just because my first film out of the gate was financially so successful, I guess in Hollywood you get put into a certain box. I definitely want to do something different and I think this could be my last horror film.
Jason Blum: James!
James Wan: Maybe. But I definitely want to try something different.
Jason Blum: I’m psyched for him to do anything.
Does that statement mean you’re closing this off to Chapter 3?
Jason Blum: We can’t think that far. We can only think to the end. We’re not even done with Chapter 2 yet.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
