Last month FEARnet paid a visit to historic (and reportedly haunted) L.A. landmark Linda Vista Hospital, where director James Wan and his cast and crew filmed several key scenes for the highly-anticipated sequel to Insidious. Last night we returned to that spooky locale for an advance screening of the trailer for Insidious: Chapter 2, hosted by the director himself.
First, we did a creepy walk-through down the hospital's dark and dusty corridors, including several locations used in the film.
One in particular was the darkened hallway shown above, where my camera captured some trails that may have been floating specks of dust... but then again, there was no breeze blowing in the corridor at the time. I'll let you fill in the rest with your imagination.
It's also an interesting challenge to try and figure out which of the many oddities encountered in Linda Vista's halls are just leftover set-dressing from the many movies and TV shows shot there, such as these newly-added false doors in the morgue...
...and which are genuine artifacts from the hospital's eerie past.
Then we gathered in the hospital's crumbling chapel for a suitably Gothic presentation of the trailer (which you can watch now via iTunes). It's got all the creeps and jumps you've come to expect, including the return of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” now joined by an ominous version of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” and a chilling, repeated phrase uttered by a new psychic character.
Wan followed the preview with a fun Q&A, in which he answered questions from fans and press alike and shared a few tantalizing clues about the sequel.
For instance, he revealed that another psychic with unique talents comes into play in this film; where part 1 had Lin Shaye donning a gas mask to contact other planes of existence, the next chapter features a medium who uses lettered blocks to spell out messages from beyond. Wan also revealed that where the first film delved heavily into the concept of astral projection, the sequel will touch on time travel.
The director described Chapter 2 as more of a family-in-crisis tale with supernatural overtones than the original's haunted house-style scenario, and compared the mood to that of The Shining:“In many ways, The Shining is a domestic thriller,” he explained, “where the supernatural element of the hotel accelerates the character's spiral into this crazy world... and our story takes place in a similar realm.”
In response to a fan question, Wan then told of his own apparent brush with the supernatural, which occurred just a couple of years ago in a New York hotel room. “I sensed an energy, something peculiar in the room,” he said. “That night, I woke up hearing this crying sound, this whimpering next to my bed... so I opened my eyes and looked... and I think I saw a person standing there in the dark, against the wall. I couldn't see their face. In my head I was saying calmly to myself, 'I think I'm seeing an actual ghost here.' I tried to process it very rationally, and told myself 'Now I'm going to reach over to the lamp and pull the switch.'” That's when his experience at telling scary stories backfired on him: “I was getting really terrified,” he said, “that if I turned away, then looked back, that thing's gonna be right in my face!”
The trailer for Insidious: Chapter 2 is coming soon. The film itself premieres on Friday, September 13th.