Insidious 6 Makes 1 Key Change To The Further, Reveals Out Of The Further Director

EXCLUSIVE: Jacob Chase's Insidious: Out of the Further is shaking things up a bit.

The latest installment in James Wan and Leigh Whannell's horror franchise shifts its focus to Gemma, a young single mother who suddenly realizes she has the ability to travel into the eponymous realm, as well as the ability to bring its demons and souls back to life, putting her and everyone she loves in danger. Come Play's Jacob Chase is taking on the reins for the new Insidious, having also penned the script and developed the story with Conjuring Universe vet David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick.

Ahead of the film's August 21 release, ScreenRant's Brandon Zachary interviewed Jacob Chase to discuss Insidious: Out of the Further. When asked about coming onboard the horror franchise, the writer/director began by describing it as "an absolute dream come true," expressing having been a fan since its 2011 launch and having gone to "opening night to see them all." The opportunity even proved "scary at first" for Chase, as he then had to find his own new approach into the world:

Jacob Chase: But once I got Leigh Whannell and James Wan's blessing to make the movie my own, that's really where the fear drifted away. It was like, "Oh, I can make an original film within the Insidious Universe." It was an amazing dream come true, and I really tried to tap into what scared me, and also just what made these characters tick emotionally. For me, I don't think you can scare people unless you care deeply about the characters, and so that was what I focused on.

Looking at his mix of established Insidious franchise lore and new elements, Chase acknowledged that because the "Lambert [family] story is done" after The Red Door's ending, that opened him and the creative team up to looking at other ways of branching out the franchise. Even with this freedom from Wan, Whannell and Jason Blum to "make the movie that I wanted to make," he ultimately sought to "[stick] to the things that I loved most as a fan."

One thing he particularly found himself focusing on in production was bringing The Further to life, as Chase wanted it to "look how it looked in the first movie." As a filmmaker who also got his start in low-budget production, he was wowed by the fact that, in the original Insidious, the otherworldly realm looked as though "they threw up tarps and were in the dark with flashlights," yet still found a way to make it terrifying.

With his title, Chase actually revealed that he made one key change to The Further for Insidious: Out of the Further, in that he expanded on the broad rule that there "was no light" in the purgatory-like dimension. In order to still pull this off, he found unique ways to give his characters means of traversing the realm:

Jacob Chase: I wanted to treat it like it's a low-budget version, where it is just big black rooms, and we've got a flashlight. My big rule was no light in the Further unless a character has a torch or a headlamp, or something like Elise's lantern. I would write into the script a reason why everyone always had a light, and that was the main thing that I kept from the other films. Then I got to branch out from there and create whole new set pieces.

Since its introduction in the original film, The Further has proven to be one of the more consistent elements of the Insidious franchise when it comes to the rules behind its connection to the real world. In addition to characters generally needing to be asleep and have an innate ability to astral project, the spirits there could only physically cross over into the real world if they were in possession of a character, or said character's spirit was disconnected enough from their body.

Interestingly, as Chase alludes to above, the inclusion of light in The Further has generally been attributed to that of some version of a lantern being wielded by those who enter the realm, particularly Lin Shaye's Elise, Patrick Wilson's Josh and Ty Simpkins' Dalton. The few exceptions in the previous Insidious movies have been that of the Lipstick-Face Demon's lair, which has a mix of active lightbulbs and cameras, and a faint blue glow that permeates solely around a character's immediate vicinity.

Chase's decision to change how his protagonist finds light in Insidious: Out of the Further makes sense for a few different reasons. Though Elise does return at some point in the new film, Gemma entering the realm multiple times without her help likely means she'll find a way to get a light source in there on her own. The trailers for the sequel have already teased her utilizing everything from a proper flashlight to a headlamp and a finger light, the latter of which fits well with her dental office profession.

Moreover, it also paves the way for other filmmakers after Insidious: Out of the Further to get to experiment with the haunting dimension. Gemma's ability to bring entities into the real world as their own physical beings is one of the biggest changes yet to the horror franchise's formula, and with something as simple as light also playing into Chase's approach, others could follow suit and tweak things big and small.