Sony Pictures Releasing International e Stage 6 Films
presentano uno spettacolo
ENTERTAINMENT ONE
una produzione
Blumhouse Production e Oren Peli Production
Un film di James Wan
OLTRE I CONFINI DEL MALE
INSIDIUOS 2
Patrick Wilson
Rose Byrne
Lin Shaye
Ty Simpkins
e Barbara Hershey
Executive Producers: Steven Schneider, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Charles
Layton, Peter Schlessel, Lia Buman e Xacier Marchand
Prodotto da: Jason Blum e Oren Peli
Basato sui personaggi create da: Leigh Whannell
Soggetto di: James Wan & Leigh Whannell
Diretto da: James Wan
Data d’uscita: 10 ottobre 2013
Distribuzione: Warner Bros. Pictures Italia
Durata: 1 ora e 45 minuti
Materiali stampa:
www.cristianacaimmi.com/materialiinsidious2.zip
OLTRI I CONFINI DEL MALE: INSIDIOUS 2
Sinossi
Oltre i confini del male: Insidious 2, l’ultimo horror carico di suspense del regista James
Wan e dello sceneggiatore Leigh Whannell (Saw - L’enigmista, Insidious) racconta le vicende di una
famiglia che cerca di scoprire il segreto terribile che l’ha lasciata pericolosamente collegata al mondo
degli spiriti. Prodotto da Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) e da Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity,
Insidious), il sequel riunisce il cast del primo film, tra cui l’attore Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Watchmen,
Little Children), Rose Byrne (X-Men: L’inizio, Le amiche della sposa, 28 settimane dopo), Barbara Hershey (Il
cigno nero, Ritratto di signora), Lin Shaye (Tutti pazzi per Mary, Scemo & Più sccemo) e Ty Simpkins (Iron
Man 3).
Insidious: Chapter 2 , una produzione FilmDistrict e Blumhouse è interpretato da Patrick
Wilson (Hard Candy, Watchmen, Little Children), Rose Byrne (X-Men: L’inizio, Le amiche della sposa, 28
settimane dopo), Barbara Hershey (Il cigno nero, Ritratto di signora), Ty Simpkins (Iron Man 3), Andrew
Astor (Una notte da leoni), Lin Shaye (Tutti pazzi per Mary, Scemo & Più sccemo), Leigh Whannell (SawL’enigmista) ed Angus Sampson (Mad Max: Fury Road).
Insidious: Chapter 2 è diretto da James Wan, regista di Saw-L’enigmista, Dead Silence e The
Conjuring-L’evocazione. La sceneggiatura è di Leigh Whannell (Insidious, Saw-L’enigmista) ed il film è
tratto da una storia di Wan e Whannell. I produttori sono Jason Blum (Insidious, Paranormal Activity,
Sinister) e Oren Peli (Insidious, Paranormal Activity). I produttori esecutivi sono Steven Schneider
(Insidious, Paranormal Activity), Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Insidious, Sinister), Charles Layton (Sinister, Dark
Skies-Oscure presenze), Peter Schlessel (Drive, La casa) Lia Buman (The Last Word) e Xavier Marchand
(The Woman in Black).
Il gruppo dei cineasti comprende il direttore della fotografia John Leonetti (Insidious, Il re
scorpione), la scenografa Jennifer Spence (Paranormal Activity 2, 3 & 4), il montatore Kirk M. Morri
(Insidious, The Conjuring-L’evocazione), la costumista Kristin M. Burke (Insidious, The ConjuringL’evocazione) ed il compositore Joseph Bishara (Insidious, Dark Skies-Oscure presenze, The ConjuringL’evocazione).
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
“We’re a family again. Nothing is going to bother us anymore. I promise.”
~ Josh Lambert
Working individually and collectively, director James Wan, screenwriter Leigh Whannell and
producer Jason Blum have been responsible for some of the most influential, commercially
successful and flat-out terrifying horror thrillers of the past decade.
In 2004 Wan and Whannell unleashed the groundbreaking and hugely popular Saw, which
spawned a blockbuster franchise on which Whannell continued to serve as a writer (Saw II and III)
and executive producer. Wan most recently helmed the acclaimed haunted-house tale The Conjuring,
while Blum has shepherded such blood-curdling hits as Paranormal Activity and Sinister to the screen.
Together, the trio collaborated on the disturbing and original 2011 psychological horror thriller
Insidious, a micro-budgeted film that became the most profitable theatrical release that year.
Now all three filmmakers are back—along with the entire cast of Insidious—with Insidious:
Chapter 2, which continues the story of the Lambert family’s life-and-death struggle with malignant
spirits bent on destroying their lives.
“We’re super excited at the chance to continue telling the story we started in the first film,”
says Wan, who makes his sequel-directing debut. “I love the characters we created in the first film,
and it’s great to come back to work with the same cast and crew. It’s like coming home to a family.
But it’s also very scary because the success of the first film took us all by surprise.”
Insidious centers on the troubles of the Lamberts, a suburban family who leave their haunted
house for a new home, only to learn it’s not their house that is haunted—it’s their eldest son.
Insidious: Chapter 2 rejoins the family as they try to put their recent troubles behind them, but
discover that the spirits that have tormented them are far from finished.
Wan and Whannell took the unusual step of calling the film Insidious: Chapter 2 because it
picks up right where the first film ends. “Not too many sequels try that, but we loved the idea of
creating back-to-back stories,” says Whannell. “You could almost watch them as one movie, or as
chapters in the same story. We see Josh murder Elise, but Renai doesn’t see it and she’s not quite sure
what’s going on. So at the start of the second film, everything seems back to normal, but slowly you
realize something is terribly wrong.”
Blum says his primary objective as producer was to ensure that the indie spirit Wan and
Whannell brought to the first film was not diluted, despite the fact that Insidious: Chapter 2 had a
slightly larger budget.
“The first film had a single vision—James and Leigh’s—pushing it forward without any kind
of interference or creative compromises,” the producer says. “I believe that’s one reason the film did
so well, so we didn’t want James or Leigh to make any creative compromises with the sequel either.”
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The filmmaking duo, whose creative partnership goes back to their college days in
Melbourne, Australia, say their inspiration has always come from trading ghost stories with one
another. Even during the filming process, they constantly bounce around ideas and concepts that
they then incorporate into the film.
“If you have enough similarities, or if the same stories excite you, then it’s really easy to work
together,” says Whannell. “James and I are pretty in sync that way, especially when it comes to
horror.”
Or as Wan puts it: “We’ve always tried to scare the crap out of each other. And then one day
we said, ‘We should put this in a movie!’ And that’s literally what we did for Insidious. We took all the
scares, all the great ghost stories we’d heard, and put them in the film.”
The film hit a nerve, connecting with audiences domestically and abroad.
“When you deal with themes of the supernatural, I think it’s universal,” Wan says. “Different
cultures have different ways of exploring these themes, but I think they pretty much come from the
same place. That’s why I think these kinds of movies play really well internationally; people all
around the world get them.”
Whannell concurs: “Countries that have a lot of folklore tend to have a really strong
tradition of bogeymen and ghost stories. When James and I were living in Melbourne, he would tell
me a lot of Malaysian and Chinese ghost stories that came from his side of the family. People have
been telling these sorts of stories for thousands of years. They have a long history of it.”
In addition to picking up the tale of the Lambert family where the original left off,
Insidious: Chapter 2 explores a larger mythology and backstory for the characters, says Wan. “It’s
really a bigger movie,” he says. “When we were making the first film, we had plans and ideas for a
follow-up, but we didn’t push it all the way. We thought, ‘We’ll see. We’ll play with it and see how it
goes. There may be a potential second storyline.’ And sure enough, when the first film did well, we
could actually go back and pull out that second storyline and continue it.”
Insidious revolves around young Dalton Lambert, who has the ability to travel out of his
physical body—a gift he inherits from his father, Josh. As a result of this ability, he is haunted by the
spirit of a mysterious old woman and a red-faced demon who seek to possess his physical body. It’s
also revealed that, as a boy, Josh was terrified by an old woman who would visit him at night. But his
memories of that event were intentionally suppressed. Insidious: Chapter 2 opens up the possibility
that Josh was never actually healed—and that the old woman never left.
“We’re big fans of the metaphysical world and we thought it would be really cool to use
astral projection in a film,” Wan says. “It’s a cool concept—the idea that, when you’re asleep at night,
the soul or spirit leaves your physical body and goes floating off. We wanted to do a haunted-house
film, but we also wanted to do something that was a bit different. So we melded the two together.”
“It’s a perfect conceit for a horror film,” adds Whannell. “We kept saying, ‘Why hasn’t
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anyone used astral projection?’ That’s something that really gets us excited—an idea or concept that
we feel has not been used before—and we hadn’t seen astral projection in any other film.”
Wan and Whannell also folded in another, more familiar concept—albeit one seldom seen in
the horror genre: time travel. The film ventures 25 years into the past to reveal the sinister events at
the root of the evil that is haunting the Lamberts, tying up the unresolved mysteries of the first film
and delving deeper inside the dark netherworld known as The Further.
“Because the first film was such a stylized and fantastical world, the time traveling aspect
actually fit perfectly into the second film,” Wan says.
The filmmakers used the concept in an original way to bridge both films so that they could
be viewed as two parts of a whole. In one instance, they show the back-story of coma-ward patient
Parker Crane—a newly introduced character. But instead of using the traditional flashback method,
the filmmakers reveal Crane’s troubled past via a journey back through time within The Further—a
void-like area beyond time and space.
“I said to Leigh, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if Chapter 2 actually visits the first film in some way?
How awesome would that be?” Wan recalls. “So we started thinking how we could show elements of
the first movie where you’re not quite sure what happened, and then in Chapter 2 you see them
again but from a different perspective. We love stuff like that.”
Whannell was equally excited by introducing the characters’ ability to visit past events that
took place in Insidious. “That’s probably my favorite part of the sequel—the elements of time travel
where the second film visits the first film. We also liked the idea that the first film focuses on an
external ghost that’s haunting the family, but in the second film the ghost is internal. It’s one of the
family members. In the first film, Dalton’s being threatened by outside forces, but the second film
tells the story of what happens when the ghosts get in, if you aren’t successful in stopping them.”
The filmmaking duo sees Insidious: Chapter 2 as more of a psychological thriller than a
horror film. While Insidious was infused with haunted-house-film archetypes, Wan says Chapter 2
focuses less on gore and CGI effects than on tapping into audiences’ most basic childhood fears.
“I would describe it as a domestic thriller with a supernatural edge to it,” Wan says. “The
ghouls are coming back, but this film isn’t about that as much. I feel like I’ve already established the
characters, so now I can get into them without being too gimmicky, while still keeping those elements
that people love. The first one was a lot more straightforward, which is great for a first movie, but in
a sequel you want to expand on the mythology. You want to show people more of the world you’ve
created, and that’s what we did with Chapter 2.”
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BRINGING BACK THE LAMBERTS
About the Casting
Insidious: Chapter 2 features a multi-generational family dealing with ghosts—from
grandmother and parents all the way down to young children and a baby. Even the film’s ghost
hunters span older and younger generations.
The father of the family is Josh Lambert, played once again by Patrick Wilson, who marks
his third collaboration with Wan. In addition to Insidious, Wilson also starred in Wan’s recently
released The Conjuring, which is based on a true story of a family that encounters spirits in their New
England farmhouse.
The Josh Lambert of Chapter 2 is hardly the same person he was in Insidious, however,
according to Wilson. “He’s literally vacant because he’s possessed. We know that he’s possessed, but
will Renai find out? It’s structured like a murder mystery with this husband and wife not getting along
and her trying to figure out why that is. She wants to believe her husband, but he’s acting bizarrely.”
In fact, Wilson’s character is so different that it’s essentially a new role for the actor, says
Whannell. “Patrick had such a good role and a good time because he’s actually not playing Josh
Lambert from the first film, and he really took to that. He ate it up. He couldn’t get enough of it and
he really contributed so much to making the film work with his character.”
Indeed, Wilson says he relished playing the Lambert father under the control of a sinister
spirit. “For me, those moments when I’m ‘possessed Josh’ and mowing through doors and walls are
the most fun,” he recalls. “It’s a great release.”
Wilson says he was never a big fan of horror films that reveled in gore, but has always
responded to those that focus on more human elements. “It was those films that didn’t rely on a lot
of tricks that terrified me as a kid,” he remembers. “They were human stories. And that’s what
interested me with this film. It feels like an adult drama played out as a horror movie, and it also has
humorous elements. For me, whether it’s a horror movie, an action movie, a comedy, whatever, you
have to care about the people. And specifically in a horror movie you have to be rooting for people,
especially when they’re a family in peril.”
The actor praises Wan for his ability to move beyond genre tropes and create a characterdriven horror film.
“He can construct these scares and knows this genre better than anyone,” Wilson says. “He’s
just one of the most creative filmmakers we have. I wouldn’t work with him so much if I didn’t feel
that, and I’m lucky that he wants to work with me. Most of all, he understands that in order for
people to get invested in these characters you have to let them breathe; you have to hear their story.”
Australian native Rose Byrne (X-Men: First Class, Bridesmaids, 28 Weeks Later) reprises her role
as Josh’s wife, Renai. At the start of Chapter 2, her character is still shaken by the events that
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transpired in the first film and is spiraling into depression.
“It’s literally a day later and she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” Byrne explains.
“She’s thrown into action and, because of the events around her, that takes all her energy—she’s just
trying to keep it together.”
In the first film, Byrne notes, Renai and Josh are united in their fight against the demons that
are haunting their family. But that’s not the case in Insidious: Chapter 2.
“Josh is the one who is possessed in this film, but in the first few scenes it’s sort of played
down,” the actress says. “He’s kind of acting strange and dismissing Renai’s neuroses and her nervous
breakdown, and then he slowly starts to unravel during the second half of the film. This time I’m
really by myself.”
Byrne says she was initially attracted to the project by the complexity of the story and the
characters. “I saw it as a family drama that turns into a thriller and, for me as an actor, that is
definitely the way you can empathize with the situation and make a reality of it. It’s definitely more
sophisticated than just a simple horror film.”
Byrne also knew how skilled Wan is at delivering onscreen scares. “The first time I saw
Insidious, I was just terrified,” she recalls. “I couldn’t even watch it at night; I had to watch it in the
middle of the day, and even though I knew what was going to happen, I was still terrified.”
The filmmakers brought back Academy Award®-nominee Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, The
Portrait of a Lady) to portray Josh’s mother and the Lambert family matriarch, Lorraine Lambert. The
actress notes it’s the first time in her distinguished career that she has been cast in a sequel to one of
her own films (the same is also true for Wilson and Byrne).
“Coming back is definitely easy because we all know each other and are relaxed with each
other now,” says Hershey, who also played a woman tormented by a demon in the 1982 classic The
Entity. “I really think having good actors and a good script allows audience members to get more
involved with and identify with the characters.”
“I’ve always thought that if you care about people and you care about what happens to
them, then you get really frightened for them,” she says. “I just think it heightens everything. And the
fact that James was doing a character-oriented film made it seem like a great project to do.”
In Chapter 2, Hershey notes, the action gets off to a running start, with things already on
edge and her character taking an active role in solving the mystery.
“Lorraine is now part of the gang, especially as she joins Specs and Tucker on their
explorations into the supernatural,” she says, referring to the film’s two untested ghost hunters. “In
this film, the death of Elise is like the elephant in the room; it informs the whole film and permeates
every scene. They all loved Elise. Lorraine was her friend. And Carl, the psychic, who’s from my past,
also has a connection to her.”
The return of character actress Lin Shaye (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb & Dumber) in
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the role of hypnotist and supernatural expert Elise Rainier may come as a surprise to Insidious fans,
given that her character was mysteriously killed at the end of the original.
“During the first movie, James was going back and forth about having me killed at the end
because he wanted me back if there was a sequel,” Shaye recalls. “And then he remembered that
because we were making a ghost movie, of course there was a place for me to come back in The
Further.”
Shaye says she wasn’t surprised by the success of the first film and is pleased to be back for
the second installment.
“James was paying homage to the genre—to Hitchcock and some of the early horror
thrillers like Poltergeist—in terms of building characters and the feeling of the film,” she says. “And
the first film looked so beautiful. It drew you right in.”
The actress says the appeal of the film stemmed in large measure from Wan’s awareness of
the power of exploiting basic childhood fears.
“He talked about using really human elements of comfort that we all have—our family, our
bedroom, our children, our front door, our piano; things that give you joy—and then kind of turning
them on their heads,” Shaye says. “So it was clear from the start; we knew he was going to lure
people in. You kind of fall in love with the family a little bit and worry about them. So he achieved
what he set out to do, and I think that’s one of the reasons it appealed to everybody.”
Shaye predicts audiences will find Insidious: Chapter 2 even more chilling than its
predecessor, in part because of the deterioration of Wilson’s Josh into a possessed person capable of
murder.
“It’s scary on a whole different kind of level, and it’s completely realized by an actor of his
caliber,” she says. “But what’s also a factor is that these are already beloved characters that the
audience has embraced, so they’re going to come to the movie already rooting for them.”
Shaye says her character posed some interesting challenges for Wan, given that she has
dwelled primarily in The Further when we meet her in Chapter 2. Shaye and the director had several
discussions about how Elise would have changed in the interim.
“You still want to keep the elements that attracted people to Elise, which are her humanity
and love of what she does,” Shaye notes. “She’s a nurturer and she’s there to help and to solve the
problems the Lamberts are having. Because she’s in The Further, I wanted to include a bit of
sadness, but also a delight in being there. The bottom line is that we’re all going to end up dead
someday anyway and we’re all going to end up passing through this place. And we hope some energy
continues.”
Whannell, an actor as well as a screenwriter, reprises his Insidious role as Specs—one half of
the ghost-hunting duo that frequently assists Elise. The other half is Tucker, played by Angus
Sampson. Sampson met the filmmakers when they were in college in Melbourne. They ended up
8
casting him in a promotional spot for a short film they were making and the trio have remained
friends ever since.
“I guess you could say we’re the comic relief, but it’s a fine line to walk,” Whannell says of
Specs and Tucker, who take over Elise’s paranormal-activity business after she dies at the end of the
first film.
Sampson agrees: “James did not want our characters to be comical. If they’re both coming in
and being scared in the same way, it can be kind of ho-hum. They both need to be scared—to share
that same destination—but they must get there in different ways.”
To research the role, Whannell and Sampson spent time with a team of actual ghost hunters
whose outings included a visit to Linda Vista Community Hospital in the Los Angeles neighborhood
of Boyle Heights. The building, which serves as one of the film’s most spine-tingling locations, has
earned a degree of notoriety in the paranormal community as a real-life haunted hospital.
For the role of the Lambert’s eldest son, Dalton—who was the main subject of Insidious—
the filmmakers brought back Ty Simpkins (Iron Man 3). As often happens with young actors, there
was some concern about how much Simpkins and the actor playing his younger brother, Andrew
Astor (The Hangover), would have grown since completing Insidious.
“The fact that the story picks up directly from the first one was difficult,” Wan confesses.
“Luckily, at their young ages, they still hadn’t changed too much.”
Wilson concurs, joking, “We added a couple of inches to their pajamas and they were good
to go!”
Interestingly, it’s the third time Simpkins has played Wilson’s son in a film (the first time was
in director Todd Field’s critically acclaimed 2006 drama, Little Children). For Simpkins, returning to
the role after three years was made easier by the genuine emotions evoked on set.
“I basically play myself, but with a little twist,” says Simpkins. “Even when we’re not filming
and the ghosts are around, I start getting scared. But when they say ‘action,’ that’s when I get really
scared. So it’s kind of easy for me to get into character.”
One of a handful of new characters introduced in Insidious: Chapter 2 is Carl Stanaway, a
soft-spoken psychic and former friend and colleague of Elise. For that part, the filmmakers cast
Steve Coulter (The Hunger Games), an Atlanta-based actor and writer who also co-stars in The
Conjuring.
“Carl is a reluctant semi-hero,” Coulter says of his character. “He has a gift for
communicating with spirits, but I don’t think he’s really happy about that. He doesn’t want to do any
of this. Even the first time he’s communing with the spirits, it doesn’t work very well. So he’s not
very confident. His skills are kind of like a curse to him.”
Carl uses his psychic skills to communicate with Elise in The Further and to help Josh, who
is in the midst of battling the demon attempting to possess him. His main means of connecting with
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the spirit world is a set of lettered ivory dice that he carries in a leather pouch.
“Basically, he asks questions and he gets answers through the dice,” Coulter says. “It’s his
only skill. It’s the only thing he’s good at.”
The filmmakers had the challenge of casting younger versions of several of the film’s
characters—a requirement stemming from the decision to have portions of the film take place in
1986 in order to reveal the origins of the entity that is haunting Josh.
For the young Josh Lambert, the filmmakers cast a relative newcomer, 13-year-old Garrett
Ryan (Trust). For the role of Young Lorraine Lambert, a single mother and nurse, they cast Jocelin
Donahue (The House of the Devil); for the part of Young Elise Rainier, they cast Lindsay Seim (NBC’s
“The Event”); and for the young version of Carl Stanaway, they cast Hank Harris (Pumpkin).
Although Donahue doesn’t act in any scenes with Hershey, she says she met with the
acclaimed actress and studied her various film performances in order to portray the younger version
of her character.
“Hopefully I captured some of her mannerisms,” says Donahue, who won the 2009
Screamfest Award for Best Actress for her part in Ti West’s 2009 cult horror film, The House of the
Devil. “But she is one of a kind.”
Two other notable character additions in Insidious: Chapter 2 are Parker Crane, a comaward patient with a troubled past, and his mother, Michelle, a flamboyant and evil woman guilty of
horrendously abusing her son. Veteran character actor Tom Fitzpatrick (The Salton Sea) plays Parker,
while Tyler James Griffin (Golden Winter) plays him as a boy. Danielle Bisutti (upcoming Curse of
Chucky, Nickelodeon’s True Jackson, VP) plays Michelle.
Although the mysterious red-faced demon from the first film (portrayed by Insidious
composer Joseph Bishara) is not featured in Insidious: Chapter 2, there is a visit by the character
known as the Long Haired Fiend—the demon who stalks Baby Cali—once again played by actor J.
LaRose.
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A LANTERN IN THE DARKNESS
About the Cinematography
“Is there something wrong with Daddy, Mom?”
~ Dalton Lambert
Insidious: Chapter 2 reteams Wan with most of the filmmakers he collaborated with on
Insidious, including his most frequent collaborator, director of photography John Leonetti (Scorpion
King), who also shot Wan’s most recent film, The Conjuring.
“James is an all-around filmmaker who has a keen visual sense,” says Leonetti, who very early
in his career was a first-assistant cameraman on the seminal haunted-house film Poltergeist. “I love
collaborating with him to tell a story visually. His understanding of the technical aspects of
photography and lighting is quite extensive, which allows us to speak and understand the same visual
language. This is my fifth movie in a row with James and most of my crew too. We are a family and I
love that.”
Thanks to Leonetti’s camera and lighting skills, both Insidious films feature dynamic visuals
and striking color palettes that belie their modest budgets.
“The approach to the tone of Insidious was to capture a very natural and realistic image that
we could further manipulate,” Leonetti explains. “The first film started off very realistic and rapidly
was manipulated in color and contrast. As it ramped up its ‘creep factor,’ the saturation was slowly
sucked out and the image became cooler and cooler. By the end of the movie it was almost a cold
shade of black and white.”
Leonetti says he approached Chapter 2 in a similar way, but left the color more saturated
than in the first movie. “We retained a bit more color this time because the locations in their natural
state are fairly creepy to begin with.”
With much of the film shot in tight interior locations, Leonetti had to figure out a way to
make it look larger and more cinematic for big screen audiences. To do so, he embraced wide lenses
and a moving camera to tell the story. He used a 14mm lens as his workhorse, progressively covering
the scenes with tighter lenses.
Leonetti also had to develop a look for the shadowy region known as The Further. In
Insidious, the cinematographer says he used blue and green lanterns as the only light source for scenes
depicting the great inky space of the afterworld.
He notes that in the new film, The Further has two aspects, one being the Black Void, the
other being ‘real-life’ locations within The Further. “The Black Void is exactly that—a big space
made of black floor, ceiling and walls. The floor is layered with ground fog, Josh carries a lantern,
and we move around and with him and his lantern. In post, we control the contrast and the black and
create an infinity that goes further and further. In the practical locations in The Further, we still use
the ground fog and the lantern, and we remove all the ‘lived in’ set dressing and just wander
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throughout those homes.”
In addition to traditional lighting, the film features several scenes that take place in dark
rooms and hallways where the actors use video-camera lights and flashlights as the principal light
source.
“The key to making this all work photographically was to pick the cameras and camera lights
and flashlights in prep and test them,” Leonetti says. “I like to mix up the color of the flashlights and
designate them to the actors to help guide the audience as to who is pointing at what. The realism of
using flashlight lighting can be very creepy, but you have to know what you’re doing.”
Leonetti says Wan is a master at using the various camera techniques the horror genre can
exploit to maximum effect. “He loves to push and pull the actors throughout a scene with the camera
handheld and then do their POV as well. The decision of whether to use handheld, put the camera
on the dolly or use Steadicam is very important, and it is that understanding that separates the men
from the boys in shooting horror. Taking the audience along for the ride is what this is all about, and
enabling them to be a fly on the wall, right behind or in front of the characters, and how to edit all
of that is James’s forte.”
Whereas the primary camera in Insidious was the RED Mysterium X, Leonetti says that on
Insidious: Chapter 2 he chose the Arri Alexa for its considerable contrast range and ability to work
in extreme low-light conditions. “Digital cameras have finally taken us to a different zone
photographically, and James and I have taken full advantage of that,” Leonetti says.
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CREATING A HOUSE WHERE SPIRITS FEEL AT HOME
About the Production Design
For the design of Insidious: Chapter 2, Wan once again teamed with Jennifer Spence
(Paranormal Activity 2, 3 & 4), who was elevated to production designer on the film, having worked as
art director on Insidious under production designer Aaron Sims.
“On the first film, Aaron gave me carte blanche on the design of most of the homes that
were featured,” Spence says. “James wanted the Lambert’s home to feel like an average house, but
with a twist—a little bit darker and with a bigger sense of depth.”
In choosing the décor for the various homes and rooms in the film’s locations, Spence says
she spent a lot of time combing the Long Beach antique market for original, unique items—personal
things such as old teddy bears or an 1800s reclining wheelchair. “I preferred this to going to prop
houses where the objects have been used a thousand times before,” she says.
After the events of the first film, the Lambert family moves into the home of Josh’s mother,
Lorraine. For that house, the filmmakers found a grand old Victorian in the Highland Park
neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles, though they made a point of not playing up the California
setting too much.
“What drew me to the house was the wallpaper and the red doors,” Spence recalls. “That was
really prominent. One of James’s favorite colors is red and he tries to use it whenever it works.”
The color red is also prominently featured on the mysterious red door that leads in and out
of The Further. It stands out among the film’s color palette of earthy greens, blacks and softer reds,
and contributes to the overall look of the house.
“I wanted the house to have a lot of antiques,” Spence says. “I wanted it to feel like a lot of
the pieces came with it, but to also feel homey. In 1986 it’s a little more sparse, but when we get into
the now, it’s much busier. It’s the place where it all began for Josh.”
The Further, by contrast, is sparse and characterized by the color blue.
“It’s devoid of all your personal stuff or connections,” Spence explains. “We strip all that
out. Sometimes rooms are completely empty, with just the bare bones remaining. We fill it with low
light and thick fog. We strip it of all detail.”
Given Wan’s penchant for gadgetry in Saw, it should come as no surprise that props play an
important role in Insidious: Chapter 2. Prop master Thom Spence, who art-directed Insidious with
his wife Jennifer, had a field day both bringing back some of the iconic gadgets he used for the first
film and creating some entirely new ones.
“Originality was paramount, and trying to keep it playful,” he says, citing discussions with
Wan. “It was more or less MacGyver meets Frankenstein.”
Forced by budgetary limitations to be creative, Insidious made common objects iconic—
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among them, the old Coleman camping lantern that Josh carries to light his way through The
Further, and a gas mask used by Elise. Add to these the ghost-hunting accessories used by Specs and
Tucker, such as their tri-field meter for picking up supernatural activity and a customized ViewMaster toy infused with different colored filters for ultra-violet and infrared ghost detection.
Perhaps most notable among the new props joining the iconography in Insidious: Chapter
2 is youngest daughter Cali’s baby-walker.
“This is a baby-walker that becomes possessed and comes alive,” says Spence. “We had to
make it remote-controllable so we could move it around and control all the lights and bells and
whistles that go off on it. We had super fun working on it.”
Other key props are the supernatural dice used by the character of Carl Stanaway. Spence
says he made them out of custom-cut blocks of plastic. “We carved out the symbols or letters, then
threw fissures and imperfections into the dice to make them look more authentic and aged,” he says.
“They’re kind of his runes. As he throws them, they spell out a message that’s coming from the other
side.”
And then there’s the tin-can telephone that is repurposed in the film as a portal for young
Dalton Lambert to access the netherworld. “It’s such an iconic thing from one’s own childhood that
to see it revived in this way is exciting,” Spence observes.
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DRESSING THE LIVING—AND THE DEAD
About the Costumes
While Insidious: Chapter 2’s main characters are dressed in clothing fit for a contemporary
suburban California family, costume designer Kristin M. Burke also had to fashion the wardrobe for
a host of apparitions and ghouls that populate the film, as well as to recreate the fashions of the mid1980s for the flashback scenes to Josh Lambert’s childhood.
“This movie takes place immediately after the first one ends and so we need to carry on that
world seamlessly,” says Burke, who designed the clothes for Insidious, as well as two other films Wan
directed: Death Sentence and The Conjuring. “We have characters in the film from 2010, because the
original movie was shot then. But we also have characters that are in The Further from the 1840s and
1860s, as well as our flashback scenes of our main cast from 1986. So we have a wide span of eras
represented, which was awesome because I got to build characters into those time periods.”
Burke clothed Josh Lambert, a schoolteacher, in a mixture of work and casual outfits. “He
had school clothes and suits, and in his off time we had him in a lot of plaids and natural kinds of
things,” Burke says. “When he goes into The Further, we wanted him in red plaid because Dalton, his
son, is in red plaid, and I wanted father and son to be bonded on a visual level.”
For much of the film, she adds, Josh’s wardrobe palette is dark because “he’s not being
himself.”
For the character of Renai Lambert, Burke says the goal was to emphasize her vulnerability
after the harrowing experiences she has come through. “We used delicate shirts and a delicate silk
knit sweater, and it’s all very fragile,” Burke says. “So when you amp up the textures that are
associated with the character you really start to feel that about them. By the end of the movie she’s in
very soft, very tactile, feminine clothes to up the ante on her sense of peril.”
By contrast, the character of Lorraine Lambert is dark and imposing. “Ultimately, she is the
strong one in this movie,” Burke observes. “We used darker colors to emphasize her strength, and we
gave her a green trench coat that adds a layer to her that’s almost like armor. So when you see her
with Rose and she’s wearing the trench coat, she’s the one in charge.”
Burke gave ghost hunters Specs and Tucker distinctive ghost hunting attire consisting of
white dress shirts and black ties.
“What we were going for was a cross between the Geek Squad and Mormon missionaries,”
she says with a laugh. “But they also wear their normal street clothes. For that, we have one who is
really neat, clean and fastidious—obviously Specs—and the other who is kind of messy and
sloppy—Tucker.”
Burke was also responsible for the wardrobe of a multitude of spirits and apparitions. In one
scene, a group of young female ghouls who were serial-killer victims between 1970 and 1986 terrify
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Dalton Lambert in his attic bedroom. Some are wrapped in sheets, some in regular clothes, but all of
them are dead.
“They are all dressed in the clothes they wore when they were murdered and entered The
Further,” explains Burke, adding she dressed each in appropriate vintage wardrobe from those eras
and even devised back-stories for them. “Those storylines helped us to dress them properly, and it
also helped the hair and makeup people give them a little bit more character and flesh them out to
make it look more real.”
For the flamboyantly evil character of Michelle, whose look was influenced by stars of 1930s
films such as Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo, Burke created a custom white silk-and-lace dress.
“James wanted her to be like a sort of classic horror-movie, scary old ghost figure—her hair,
makeup, costume, everything,” Burke recalls. “Since we cast a very beautiful woman in the role
(Danielle Bisutti), I thought, let’s make her beautiful-scary—a little bit of Baby Jane styling. And we
tried to keep all of the noise, costume-wise, away from her face because she has such a powerful
look.”
In addition to the serial-killer victims, the film features a collection of nearly 20 ghouls—
men and women of all ages and ethnicities who are dead but live on in The Further to torment living
souls. Outfitted in costumes spanning over a hundred years from the 19th and 20th centuries, they
included diverse characters such as mobsters, a milkmaid, a World War II-era Marine and characters
from Dickens’ England. For their wardrobe, Burke used cold, gray tones, as well as creating
comprehensive back-stories for each of them—to give the actors playing them “a sense of purpose”
during their performances.
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FINDING THE HOUSE ON THE HILL
About the Locations
Filmed entirely in practical locations in Los Angeles, the 26-day shoot on Insidious:
Chapter 2 began in January 2013 at the historic Smith Estate, perched on a hilltop in the Highland
Park neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles. This well-preserved Queen Anne-Victorian house
serves as the home of Lorraine Lambert—and a temporary refuge for her son Josh and his family
after the events at the conclusion of Insidious.
Built in 1887, the two-story home is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
and was also declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Originally the home of a judge
who wrote books on occultism, it featured as a shooting location in Jack Hill’s 1968 black comedy
horror film Spider Baby, or The Maddest Story Ever Told, starring Lon Chaney, and the 1979 horrorthriller The Silent Scream.
“This was an amazing location,” Wan says. “It’s really cool because the house is situated on
the top of a mountain and the surrounding neighborhood houses are literally underneath it, so it is
an amazing vantage point for views around Los Angeles.”
According to Rose Byrne, the locations helped her performance because of their
authenticity. “These places they find are very eerie and weird, and dark and low-ceilinged, and that
for me is very scary,” she says “I just think, ‘How could you live in this house?’ It’s just my sensibility;
I’m just way too sensitive for it. Even more than the ghosts and all those sequences, it’s the houses
that get me.”
Another old Highland Park house served for a week as the quirky home of Elise Rainier.
Most of the action in those scenes took place in the living room and basement of the 1908 two-story
Craftsman. The large basement was divided in two, serving both as the basement of Lorraine
Lambert’s home and as Elise’s reading room, where Specs and Tucker discover the old tape of Elise
hypnotizing Young Josh.
A third house—this one a 1910 Craftsman-style mansion in the historic Adams-Normandie
district in mid-city Los Angeles, serves as the home of the Parker Crane character. The uninhabited
home, a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument known as the Beckett Residence, has been
featured in many films, television shows and music videos over the years, including Rob Zombie’s
Halloween. It also serves as a popular Halloween haunted house.
But the huge, run-down mansion was a major challenge for the art department team to dress,
says Jennifer Spence. “Parker is a tortured soul,” she says. “His mother wanted him to be a little girl
instead of boy. She’s forced him to do evil things. I wanted to make it feel like the house has taken
him to a dark place where he’s done horrible things that he’s hidden away.”
The film’s final location was Linda Vista Community Hospital in the Boyle Heights
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neighborhood east of downtown Los Angeles. Originally opened in the 1920s, the hospital has
served as a location for countless films, TV shows and music videos since it closed its doors in 1991.
Notable films shot there include Pearl Harbor, End of Days, Outbreak, LA Confidential and Conspiracy
Theory. Today, the property is slated to be turned into low-income senior housing, making Insidious:
Chapter 2 among the last movies to be filmed there.
In the film, the location serves as Our Lady of Angels Hospital—the place where, in 1986,
young Lorraine Lambert works as a nurse and, with her son, has a memorable encounter with Parker
Crane. Filming took place on two floors—one for the flashback scenes, the other set in the present.
The hospital was large enough for the crew to do other builds as well—including a police station,
Lorraine’s dining room, Cali’s bedroom and The Further.
The hospital is rumored to be haunted in real life, too. During shooting, Wan recalls the crew
was moving equipment between floors and one of the grips had a spooky experience while he was
standing alone.
“He said he felt a little hand come up and grab and hold his hand,” the director says. “Then
he looked down, because thought maybe a bug or something had landed on his hand, but there was
nothing there.”
To prepare for their roles as the ghost-hunting duo Specs and Tucker, actors Whannell and
Sampson also toured the facility and even took part in a nighttime ghost-hunting trip there with a
group of amateur ghost hunters.
“The mental games you can play with yourself in a place like that are scary,” Sampson says.
“We went down into the basement, past the incinerator, and I found myself sitting in the morgue in
the corner wondering, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen to me now?’ It’s probably why that
location resonates with so many people.”
On another occasion, Whannell returned to the hospital for a ghost-hunting tour with his
wife. He says nothing dramatic happened during either of the visits, which involved a lot of sitting
around in dark places and asking for spirits to show themselves. However, he says his wife
subsequently saw a psychic who asked her if she had recently visited a place with white, arched
ceilings.
“She said, ‘Maybe this hospital?’ and the psychic said, ‘Yeah, that’s the place. You can never
go back there. You came this close to taking something home with you,’” Whannell recalls. “When I
told James that story, the first thing he said was, ‘God, that’s going to make a great scene.’
Immediately anytime anyone tells us a ghost story, we start trying to work it into a film or figure out
how it could be a cool scene.”
For Wan, such experiences are the stuff of inspiration. “There are too many stories like this
to just blow it off,” he says. “I think that’s part of the reason people find our films as effective as they
do—because they come from a real place to begin with.”
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Wan says he was surprised at the challenges making a worthy follow-up to Insidious presented,
but it will be worth it if fans of the original respond positively. “Sequels are usually very hard to do
right. I hope the people that loved the first one come back and watch the second one and can see the
love that went into making it—that we didn’t just haphazardly throw it together—because we put a
lot of thought into it. We just hope they really enjoy it.”
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ABOUT THE CAST
PATRICK WILSON (Josh Lambert) is a critically acclaimed and award-winning actor
who has quickly become well known for his film, television and stage work. He was most recently
seen on the big screen in James Wan’s new horror film The Conjuring, alongside Vera Farmiga and Lili
Taylor. Up next for Wilson are Space Station 76, costarring Liv Tyler; North of Hell, opposite Katherine
Heigl; and Ward’s Wife, alongside Amy Acker. He is currently filming Joe Carnahan’s Stretch, costarring Chris Pine, Brooklyn Decker and James Badge Dale.
In February 2013 Wilson guest-starred on the Golden Globe®-winning HBO comedy
“Girls.” Previously he starred in James Wan’s Insidious, the highest-grossing horror film of 2011.
Wilson received praise for his work in the critically acclaimed drama Little Children, in which
he starred with Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley under the direction of Todd Field. His motionpicture work also includes Prometheus, Young Adult, The Ledge, Morning Glory, The Switch, Barry Munday,
The A-Team, Watchmen, Evening, Lakeview Terrace, Passengers, Life in Flight, Purple Violets, Running with
Scissors, Hard Candy, The Phantom of the Opera and The Alamo.
On the small screen, Wilson received Emmy Award® and Golden Globe Award nominations
for his portrayal of the morally conflicted Joe Pitt in the HBO miniseries “Angels in America,” the
much-honored 2003 adaptation of Tony Kushner’s award-winning plays “Angels in America:
Millennium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika.” Wilson recently wrapped production
as the star of the CBS medical drama, “A Gifted Man,” which premiered in September 2011.
Wilson was honored with two Tony Award® nominations for Best Actor in a Musical, the
most recent coming for his performance as Curly in the successful 2002 Broadway revival of
“Oklahoma!” for which he also received a Drama Desk Award nomination. He earned his first Tony
nomination for his work in the 2001 Broadway hit “The Full Monty,” for which he won a Drama
League Award and garnered Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle award nominations.
In 2006 Wilson returned to Broadway to star in the revival of the Neil Simon comedy
“Barefoot in the Park,” opposite Amanda Peet. His most recent Broadway credit is the revival of
Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” with John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Katie Holmes.
In 1999 Wilson starred Off Broadway in “Bright Lights, Big City,” winning a Drama League
Award and receiving a Drama Desk Award nomination. That same year, he made his Broadway debut
in “Gershwin’s Fascinating Rhythm,” for which he won another Drama League Award.
Born in Virginia and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Wilson received his Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Starting his career on the stage, he earned applause in
the national tours of “Miss Saigon” and “Carousel.”
Wilson lives in New Jersey with his family.
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ROSE BYRNE (Renai Lambert) is a rising star who commands the attention of
filmgoers and television viewers with her beauty, talent, versatility and poise.
For two consecutive years, Byrne was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Ellen
Parsons on the critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated FX series “Damages.” She also received
Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series,
Miniseries or TV Motion Picture in 2008 and 2010.
Byrne was recently seen in the hit comedy The Internship alongside Vince Vaughn and Owen
Wilson. Vaughn and Wilson play men in their 40s who have been laid off and find work as interns at
Google. Byrne plays a manager with a wandering eye.
She will next be seen starring opposite Anna Faris in the romantic comedy I Give it a Year,
the tale of two newlywed couples trying to make it through their first year of marriage.
Byrne starred in the surprise hit Insidious, a paranormal thriller co-starring Patrick Wilson.
The film was directed by James Wan (Saw) and produced by Jason Blum and Oren Peli (Paranormal
Activity). It screened at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and was released April 1, 2011.
Byrne also appeared in the hit comedy Bridesmaids, which was written by and co-stars Kristen
Wiig (“Saturday Night Live”). Bridesmaids marked Byrne’s second collaboration with comedy producer
Judd Apatow and Universal Pictures. Byrne and Wiig portray rival bridesmaids in the film, which was
released on May 13, 2011. The film won multiple awards including AFI Movie of the Year, Best
Ensemble at the 2011 New York Online Film Critics Awards and Favorite Comedy Movie at the
2012 People’s Choice Awards. Bridesmaids was Oscar®-nominated for Best Original Screenplay and
received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 2012 Screen
Actors Guild Awards. It also received nominations for Favorite Ensemble Movie Cast (2012 People’s
Choice Awards), Best Acting Ensemble and Best Comedy (2011 Broadcast Film Critics Association
Awards), Best Picture: Comedy or Musical (2011 Golden Globes), Best Picture (2011 Producers
Guild of America Awards) and Best Acting Ensemble (2012 Critics’ Choice Awards).
Byrne also starred as CIA agent Moira MacTaggert in the prequel to the X-Men franchise, X
Men: First Class. The latest film in the franchise provides the origin story and foundation for the
series. Co-starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, January Jones, Kevin Bacon and Jennifer
Lawrence, the film was released on June 3, 2011, and brought in over $50 million at the box office in
its opening weekend.
Byrne starred in producer Judd Apatow’s 2010 film, Get Him to the Greek. Written by the
film’s director Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel, Get Him to the Greek is a spin-off of the 2008 hit
Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Russell Brand reprises his role as Aldous Snow, the rocker ex-boyfriend of
Byrne’s Jackie Q, an outrageous pop star. Jonah Hill and Sean Combs also star. Universal Pictures
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released the film on June 4, 2010.
Illustrating her inimitable range and versatility, Byrne co-starred alongside Nicolas Cage in
the mega-thriller Knowing. The film was released by Summit Entertainment on March 20, 2009, and
came in No. 1 at the box office on its opening weekend.
That same year, Byrne co-starred alongside Hugh Dancy and Peter Gallagher in Adam, a
unique love story set against the backdrop of Manhattan. The film was purchased by Fox Searchlight
at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and released on July 29, 2009.
Other credits include Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, the sci-fi thrillers 28 Weeks Later and
Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, critically acclaimed indie The Dead Girl, Wolfgang Peterson’s epic Troy, Paul
McGuigan’s thriller Wicker Park, the acclaimed I Capture the Castle, the BBC drama “Casanova” and
Danny Green’s The Tenants, opposite Dylan McDermott.
Byrne’s fame in Australia began with her role in the gritty crime comedy Two Hands, opposite
Heath Ledger. She went on to star in Clara Law’s The Goddess of 1967 in a performance that garnered
her the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Byrne currently divides her time between New York, Los Angeles and Sydney.
BARBARA HERSHEY (Lorraine Lambert) is a multi-award-winning actress who has
showcased her talents in some of Hollywood’s most memorable films, television movies, miniseries
and drama series. Hershey won an Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in
a Miniseries or Special for “A Killing in a Small Town,” alongside Brian Dennehy and Hal Holbrook.
She garnered unprecedented back-to-back Best Actress Awards at the Cannes Film Festival for her
performances in Shy People and A World Apart, as well as Academy Award and Golden Globe
nominations for The Portrait of a Lady, starring Nicole Kidman, and a BAFTA nomination for Black
Swan, opposite Natalie Portman.
Hershey was most recently seen as Cora, mother to Lana Parilla’s Regina Mills/Evil Queen
in the second season of the ABC hit series “Once Upon a Time.” In late 2012 Hershey was seen in
“Left to Die,” a telefilm for Lifetime directed by Leon Ichaso (a multi-award winner for Piñero).
Based on true events, the film stars Hershey as Sandra Chase, an innocent woman who is imprisoned
in Ecuador after being arrested for drug trafficking.
Previously, Hershey co-starred opposite Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson in James Wan’s
Insidious, the story of a family beset by vengeful spirits from another realm. The film premiered at the
Toronto Film Festival and went on to become one of the year’s most profitable films.
After early supporting roles in The Baby Maker and Boxcar Bertha, the Hollywood native
catapulted to headline status. She starred in The Stunt Man, with Peter O’Toole; The Right Stuff, with
Ed Harris, Sam Shepard and Scott Glenn; The Natural, with Robert Redford and Robert Duvall;
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Hannah and Her Sisters, with Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest and Michael Caine; Hoosiers,
with Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper; Tin Men, with Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito; Shy
People, with Jill Clayburgh; The Last Temptation of Christ, with Willem Dafoe and Harvey Keitel; Beaches,
with Bette Midler and John Heard; and A World Apart, with Tim Roth.
Hershey also enjoyed a string of television successes, including her portrayal of Clara Allen
in the miniseries “Return to Lonesome Dove,” alongside Jon Voight and Louis Gossett, Jr., and in
her role as Dr. Francesca Alberghetti in David E. Kelly’s “Chicago Hope” on CBS.
During the same period, Hershey remained active in feature films. She starred in MerchantIvory’s A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries in addition to the award-winning mystery Lantana, from
acclaimed Australian director Ray Lawrence.
In 2007 Hershey starred in both The Bird Can’t Fly, directed by Threes Anna, and Love Comes
Lately, directed by Jan Schütte. The films premiered to critical acclaim at the San Sebastian and
Toronto film festivals, respectively.
Hershey again returned to television to star with Shirley McClaine in Kevin Sullivan’s “Anne
of Green Gables: A New Beginning” for PBS, for which she received a Gemini Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries.
Next, Hershey co-starred opposite Jeroen Krabbé as Helene in Albert Schweitzer, Gavin
Millar’s biopic about the Nobel Peace Prize-winning physician, philosopher and theologian. In
December 2009 she co-starred as the iconic Mrs. Hubbard in the new film adaptation of Agatha
Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, part of the new “Poirot” film series.
Hershey resides in Los Angeles.
LEIGH WHANNELL (Specks, Writer) has steadily gained recognition for his
contributions to film through his writing and acting. He co-created the highly successful horror film
Insidious, which, after premiering to rave reviews at the Toronto Film Festival, was released in April
2011 and went on to become the most profitable film of the year.
Whannell will next appear in the Australian feature The Mule, currently in post-production,
and is getting ready to star in the horror-comedy Cooties, which he co-wrote with Ian Brennan
(“Glee”). As a writer, Whannell has an animated family feature in development with Animal Logic
(Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians).
Other acting credits include Matrix Reloaded, Death Sentence, The Pardon, Crush and the
Australian feature Dying Breed, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. He also provided a
character voice in Legend of the Guardians.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Whannell began his career as an actor in acclaimed Australian
series such as “Neighbours” and “Blue Heelers.” He was also the presenter on the cult hit
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“Recovery,” which he went on to host for two seasons. As a film critic on “Recovery,” Whannell
interviewed such superstars as George Clooney, Jackie Chan and Tim Burton.
Whannell studied film at the prestigious Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he
met filmmaker James Wan. They started developing ideas together, including the 2004 Lionsgate
release Saw, which Whannell wrote and starred in. In addition to his work on the screenplay for Saw
II, Whannell wrote and starred in Saw III and is an executive producer on the franchise. He is also a
creative consultant on the Saw video game. In 2010 the Saw franchise was named the Most Successful
Horror Movie Series by the Guinness World Records.
Whannell’s other writing credits include the Universal release Dead Silence and the comedy
short Doggie Heaven for XBox, in which he also starred.
In 2004 Whannell received the Greg Tepper Award, a prestigious honor for outstanding
achievement in film.
ANGUS SAMPSON (Tucker) is a charismatic Australian actor equally comfortable
working in films and television. He played Tucker in the original Insidious and his other horror credits
include Darkness Falls and 100 Bloody Acres. Sampson will next be seen in Mad Max: Fury Road,
George Miller’s return to the classic post-apocalyptic action franchise that launched his directorial
career.
Previously, Sampson voiced the character of Jutt in Zack Snyder’s Legends of the Guardians:
The Owls of Ga’Hoole and played the Bull in Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are. Additional film
credits include Blinder, Come for Me, Summer Coda, The Wake and Rats and Cats.
He also directed and starred in the short film The Last Supper.
On the small screen, Sampson has been seen in the TV miniseries “Paper Giants: Magazine
Wars” and “Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War,” the TV movies “Beaconsfield” and “The King” as well as
the series “Spirited,” “Wilfred,” “The Librarians” and “Time Trackers.”
LIN SHAYE (Elise Rainier) is a talented and versatile actress who has undoubtedly
become one of the industry’s greatest chameleons. The Farrelly brothers cast Shaye in a series of
memorable roles beginning with their 1994 hit comedy Dumb and Dumber. They went on to cast her
as the infamous landlady in Kingpin, opposite Woody Harrelson, and then as Magda, the sun-withered
neighbor of Cameron Diaz, in their blockbuster There’s Something About Mary. She has continued her
relationship with the Farrelly brothers, most recently appearing in a cameo in The Three Stooges.
Shaye was recently seen in the comedy feature FDR: American Badass and just completed a
role opposite Richard Dreyfuss in the upcoming feature Killing Winston Jones. Additionally, she just
completed shooting the features The Signal, opposite Laurence Fishburne, and Grace.
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Shaye made her film debut in Hester Street, portraying a Polish prostitute in New York (much
to her mother’s chagrin). Shortly thereafter, she flew to Los Angeles after hearing that Jack Nicholson
was interested in meeting her. Her airline ticket proved to be a worthwhile investment when she was
cast in his film Goin’ South.
Upon her move to Los Angeles in 1982, her love of theater inspired her and 12 other actors
to put together a theater company called the Los Angeles Theater Unit, which lasted for a decade and
earned many awards. Shaye’s most memorable performance was in “Better Days,” which earned her a
Drama-Logue Award for Best Actress.
Shaye has appeared in a plethora of horror films that have made her a cult favorite. She
recently starred in the blockbuster hit Insidious, directed by James Wan. She has worked on a trio of
movies with director Tim Sullivan: Chillerama, 2001 Maniacs and 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams, starring
opposite Robert Englund.
Other horror-film credits include Hood of Horror, Dead End and Killer By Nature. Shaye also
starred in the comedic thriller Snakes on a Plane, opposite Samuel L. Jackson.
Shaye was unforgettable as the KISS-hating mom in Detroit Rock City and as Sonia, the tough
German/Swedish coach in Boat Trip, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. In a dramatic change of pace, she
received critical acclaim as the alcoholic mother in The Hillside Strangler, alongside Nick Turturro and
C. Thomas Howell. She also appeared in Nick Cassavetes’ film My Sister’s Keeper.
A constant supporter of independent film, Shaye has appeared in various indies including
Chronic Town, Kush, Asylum, American Cowslip, Small Town Saturday Night, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, The
Land of the Astronauts, Penthouse, Dark Moon Rising and Losing Control. Shaye’s upcoming independent
films include 3 Days of Normal, Long Time Gone and Jewtopia.
Shaye has a solid resume in television as well, making guest appearances on “Crossing
Jordan,” “My Name is Earl,” “Frasier,” “Becker,” “Arliss,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and the final episode
of “ER.” She most recently starred in the Hallmark film “Matchmaker Santa” and guest-starred on
“Private Practice.”
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Shaye has always known that she was destined to act.
She performed in plays in college at the University of Michigan and then was accepted into
Columbia University’s Master of Fine Arts program in acting.
After graduation, she honed her skills by acting in plays with the best and brightest in New
York theater, including directors Joseph Papp and Des Macanuff. Highlights include “Tartuffe” (at
the New York Shakespeare Festival), “The Tempest” and “The Taking of Miss Janie” (at Lincoln
Center), which won the Drama Critics Award.
The actress currently resides in Los Angeles.
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TY SIMPKINS (Dalton Lambert) has literally been acting since he was born, first
appearing as an infant on the iconic soap opera “One Life to Live.” Simpkins recently co-starred in
Marvel’s summer blockbuster Iron Man 3, opposite Robert Downey Jr. He will soon be seen in the
indie film Conversations with Andy, for director Rotimi Rainwater.
Simpkins made his feature debut in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, starring Tom Cruise
and Dakota Fanning. Last year, Simpkins starred in the psychological horror flick Insidious, which
grossed nearly $100 million worldwide. Previously, he was featured in such films as the awardwinning drama Revolutionary Road, with Leonardo Di Caprio; Pride and Glory, opposite Colin Farrell
and Edward Norton; and Little Children, starring Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson.
Simpkins currently resides with his family in Los Angeles.
STEVE COULTER (Carl) has appeared in The Hunger Games, opposite Jennifer Lawrence;
The Odd Life of Timothy Green, with Jennifer Garner; Jayne Mansfield’s Car, opposite Robert Duvall;
Arthur Newman, with Colin Firth and Emily Blunt; What to Expect When You’re Expecting, alongside
Cameron Diaz; and Flight, with Denzel Washington.
Coulter appears in A.C.O.D., with Adam Scott, Jessica Alba and Amy Poehler, which
premiered recently at the Sundance Film Festival. He can be seen this summer in James Wan’s The
Conjuring and then in Anchorman 2 this Christmas. Coulter is currently in production on the crimedrama Kill the Messenger, starring Jeremy Renner and Rosemarie DeWitt.
On the small screen, Coulter was seen in Hallmark Hall of Fame’s “Firelight,” opposite
Cuba Gooding Jr., and has a regular role in the Cinemax series “Banshee.”
Coulter was the head writer and executive story editor for both of Tyler Perry’s television
series on TBS, “House of Payne” and “Meet the Browns.” He supervised more than 100 episodes
and won two consecutive NAACP Image Awards for Best Comedy Series.
Coulter wrote and directed the award-winning short film The Etiquette Man, selected by the
Sundance Channel and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. His screenplay Keesha’s House won
the $100,000 Southeastern Media Award at the Atlanta Film Festival. Coulter is currently developing
an original TV series with producer and casting director Shay Bentley-Griffin, “The Land We Love.”
JOCELIN DONAHUE (Young Lorraine) garnered critical acclaim for her lead role in
The House of the Devil (2009), playing an ’80s-era babysitter fighting for her life. She won the award for
Best Actress at the L.A. Screamfest. More recently Donahue was part of the ensemble cast of Free
Samples, alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Jess Weixler and Jason Ritter.
She can now be seen in Mark Webber’s The End of Love, which premiered at the 2012
Sundance Film Festival. Donahue will also appear in the Terrence Malick film Knight of Cups, slated to
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premiere later this year.
Originally from Connecticut, Donahue graduated summa cum laude from New York
University with a degree in sociology.
She currently resides in Los Angeles.
LINDSAY SEIM (Young Elise) has worked frequently with Academy Award-winning
cinematographer and director Janusz Kaminski (Lincoln), including roles on the NBC drama “The
Event” and in his forthcoming film American Dream.
She co-starred in the independent family comedy Out of Omaha (aka California Dreaming),
with Dave Foley and Lea Thompson, and in the BAFTA Award-winning short The Sunday Man, with
Annie Potts.
Seim stars in the upcoming family drama Time to Shine, directed by Jim Valdez (Guys Night)
and is set to appear in his next thriller, Rock Island. Additional independent film roles include rapper
Sticky Fingaz’ Caught on Tape, opposite Cedric the Entertainer, and Ted Lange’s family drama For Love
of Amy.
Seim’s extensive theater credits include an L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award-nominated
turn in “Salsa Saved the Girls” and The Hudson Guild Theatre’s debut production of “It’s Good 2
Be Crazy.”
A Nebraska native, Seim is proud to have been honored as a Distinguished Young Alumnus
of the University of Nebraska’s Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.
GARRETT RYAN (Young Josh) is a promising young actor who recently landed a lead
role in Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer as Rocky, friend of the title character.
Already a veteran TV actor, Ryan was seen in more than 50 episodes of the long-running
soap “The Young and the Restless.” He has appeared on such episodic shows as “Criminal Minds,”
“CSI: NY,” “Heroes,” “The Middle” and “Franklin & Bash.” He also had guest spots in “Dog With a
Blog,” “The Haunting Hour” and “Scent of the Missing.”
Ryan continues to expand his acting repertoire, landing roles on film projects as well. His
movie credits include “Sweet Nothing in My Ear,” a TV movie, as well as the feature films Dark
House and Trust.
Ryan was born in Newport Beach, California, and began acting at the age of 5 when he
booked his first job, a national Clorox commercial. Soon thereafter, Ryan booked additional
commercial work and landed his first television role on the CBS drama “Cold Case.”
In his spare time, Ryan enjoys singing, dancing, playing piano and sports such as baseball,
tennis and basketball.
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DANIELLE BISUTTI (Michelle) has made a name for herself in the entertainment
business with diverse characters brought to life in television and film. Her film credits include Tropix,
Venice Underground (with Eric Mabius), The Neighbor (opposite Matthew Modine) and No Greater Love.
She is a member of the comedic ensemble cast in Michael Rosenbaum’s directorial debut, Back in the
Day (in theaters February 2014), and stars in the September 2013 DVD release, Curse of Chucky.
Bisutti has appeared on many top-rated series, including recurring guest-star roles on CBS’s
“NCIS” and “CSI: Miami,” NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” ABC’s “Last Man Standing” and TNT’s
“Raising the Bar.” She may best known for her starring role as the uptight but lovable fashion diva
“Amanda Cantwell” opposite Keke Palmer on the Nickelodeon series “True Jackson, VP.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bisutti attended California State University, Fullerton, where
she earned a B.A. in acting and musical theater. While attending CSUF, she was nominated several
times for Best Actress in the Irene Ryan Competition and took runner up at The Lincoln Center
Theater in NYC.
Michael Butler (the original Broadway producer of “Hair,” 1968) fell in love with Bisutti’s
talent when he saw her performing the role of Sheila in a California production of “Hair.” Butler
brought the cast to Chicago to perform at the Democratic National Convention along with a fiveweek run at the Athenaeum Theatre.
Other stage credits include Reno Sweeney in “Anything Goes,” Maggie in “Boys’ Life,”
Yelena in “Uncle Vanya,” Victoria/Jane in Noel Coward’s “Tonight at 8:30,” Fastranda in “Pippin”
and Ophelia in “Hamlet.”
TOM FITZPATRICK (Parker Crane) is a veteran actor who has been active on stages
around the country for 53 years. He’s appeared at The Mark Taper Forum (understudying Kelsey
Grammer as Richard II), The La Jolla Playhouse, The Pasadena Playhouse, The New Mexico Rep,
Baltimore’s Center Stage, Boston’s Charles Playhouse and The Provincetown Playhouse. Film
audiences saw Fitzpatrick doing a cover of Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” as Karaoke
Joe in The Salton Sea and giving Leonardo DiCaprio his first screen kiss as the john who picks up
DiCaprio’s character in the subway in Basketball Diaries.
Fitzpatrick started his acting career as a kid carrying spears on Broadway in the APAPhoenix production of “War and Peace.” Fitzpatrick has never stopped working on the stage but he
is proudest of the years he spent from 1985 to 1995 as a member of Dar A Luz, the acting company
formed by the late avant-garde wunderkind Reza Abdoh. Fitzpatrick created roles in 10 of Abdoh’s
ground-breaking spectacles, starting first at the downtown Los Angeles Theater Center, then Off
Off Broadway and finally on several European tours, where the company garnered critical acclaim
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and played to sold-out houses everywhere they performed.
With Abdoh’s death in 1995, Fitzpatrick branched out into TV and film. He had a
memorable guest spot on “Designing Women,” as well as appearances on “America’s Most Wanted,”
“Highway to Heaven,” “Ben And Kate,” “Comedy Bang! Bang!” and “Eagleheart,” to name a few.
Fitzpatrick is very proud that he has attained immortality, of a sort, in the art world. In 2006
he was the subject of a piece created by the world-class video artist Bill Viola called “Six Heads,” in
which the actor, in six close-ups, goes through the full gamut of every human emotion in elegant
slow motion. The effect is mesmerizing and astoundingly beautiful, which has led the piece being
added to the permanent collections of many museums around the world.
HANK HARRIS (Young Carl) has appeared in such films as Pumpkin, Mercury Rising and
Extreme Movie. In addition to more than 100 national commercials, Harris has guest-starred in such
shows as “Castle,” “Bones,” “CSI: NY,” “The X-Files,” “Nip/Tuck” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.”
Harris most recently starred in the Emmy-winning web series “Dirty Work.”
Harris grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 16 to pursue
acting. He lives in Hollywood with wife, architect Elizabeth Timme, and their new daughter.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
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JAMES WAN (Director, Story by) is one of the most intelligent and creative filmmakers
working today. Wan’s newest project is the supernatural thriller The Conjuring, starring Vera Farmiga
and Patrick Wilson. The film is based on the story of husband-and-wife psychic investigators who
come across a horrific case involving the hauntings of a Rhode Island farmhouse.
Wan will soon begin production on the seventh installment of the Fast & Furious franchise,
currently titled Fast & Furious 7. Universal will release the film in July 2014.
Wan recently wrapped production on House of Horror, starring Maria Bello and produced
under his banner James Wan Presents. The film, which is set to be released by Dimension Films, is
the first in an eight-picture deal Wan inked with Icon Entertainment International.
Wan is the co-creator of the Saw franchise, the most successful horror-film series of all time.
In addition to directing the first Saw film, which premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, he
served as executive producer for the entire franchise. Wan’s other credits include the horror film Dead
Silence and the revenge thriller Death Sentence, starring Kevin Bacon and Garrett Hedlund.
Subsequently Wan was asked to co-create, produce and direct the comedy short film Doggie
Heaven as part of a slate of original programming, which premiered on XBox Live Marketplace.
Additionally, he was a creative consultant on the “Saw” video game and co-creator and director of
“Loved Ones,” a trailer for EA’s hit game “Dead Space.”
Wan received the Greg Tepper Award in 2004, a prestigious award for outstanding
achievement in film.
Wan is an Australian citizen and U.S. resident.
LEIGH WHANNELL (Specks, Screenplay by, Story by) “Bio is in the cast section
above”
JASON BLUM (Producer) is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, a
multimedia production company that has pioneered a new model of studio filmmaking by producing
high-quality, micro-budget films for wide release. Since its launch in 2000, Blumhouse has produced
more than 30 feature films, including the highly profitable Paranormal Activity franchise and hits
Sinister, Insidious and The Purge.
The Purge was Blum’s most recent production to follow his proven model and the first film
released under Blumhouse’s first-look deal with Universal Studios. The $3-million budgeted
suspenser, produced with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, grossed more than $34 million in its
opening weekend.
Blumhouse has three micro-budget films scheduled for wide release over the next few
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months including Paranormal Activity 5, for Paramount (October 25, 2013), and Jessabelle, for Lionsgate
(January 10, 2014).
Blumhouse is a director-driven company that helps filmmakers like James DeMonaco, Scott
Derrickson and James Wan tell genre stories that they are passionate about. In the past two years, the
company has produced eight movies that far out-grossed their budgets on opening weekend.
Blum’s model began with the original Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000,
released by Paramount Pictures, and grossed close to $200 million worldwide, making it the most
profitable film in the history of Hollywood. Blumhouse also produced the phenomenally successful
sequels Paranormal Activity 2, Paranormal Activity 3 and Paranormal Activity 4.
Blumhouse’s franchises include James Wan’s Insidious, which had a budget of $1.5m and
grossed close to $100m worldwide, and Sinister, directed and co-written by Scott Derrickson and
starring Ethan Hawke. Released by Lionsgate/Summit, Sinister grossed over $87 million worldwide
on a $3 million budget.
For Halloween 2012, Blumhouse built “The Blumhouse of Horrors,” an innovative and
frightening haunted house experience in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Blumhouse’s Los
Angeles-based film production team used its expertise in horror-film production, storytelling and set
design to transform the Variety Arts Theater into a fully immersive and chillingly intense Halloween
attraction.
Blumhouse has a first-look television deal with Lionsgate and is working on both scripted
and non-scripted projects. Blumhouse executive-produced “The River” for ABC and “Stranded” for
SyFy. He is currently in production on HBO’s “The Normal Heart,” directed by Ryan Murphy.
Blumhouse is also working on projects with MTV.
Previously Blumhouse has had deals with Paramount Pictures, Alliance, Miramax and HBO
Films. From 1995 to 2000, Blum served as co-head of the Acquisitions and Co-Productions
department at Miramax Films in New York. At Miramax he was instrumental in acquiring more than
50 films including The Others, Smoke Signals, A Walk on the Moon and The House of Yes.
Additional credits include The Tooth Fairy, starring Dwayne Johnson; The Reader, for which
Kate Winslet won an Academy Award; “Hysterical Blindness,” starring Uma Thurman, which aired
on HBO and garnered Thurman a Golden Globe Award; and Hamlet, starring Ethan Hawke, Bill
Murray, Sam Shepard and Kyle MacLachlan.
Blum began his career as the producing director of the Malaparte Theater Company, which
was founded by Ethan Hawke. He currently serves on the board of directors of the New Group
Theater in New York City.
OREN PELI (Producer) is one of the most successful filmmaker/producers of our time.
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Paranormal Activity, which he wrote, directed and produced, was his first film and launched a hit
franchise. Since then, he produced three highly successful sequels and Insidious. He is also the
producer of the horror film The Bay, from director Barry Levinson, and Lords of Salem, by writer and
director Rob Zombie. Peli wrote and produced Chernobyl Diaries.
Peli was the co-creator and executive producer of ABC’s “The River,” from executive
producer Steven Spielberg.
A native of Israel, Peli dropped out of high school at age 16 to write a highly commercial
painting program. He became a full-time software designer, using his skills to create animation
programs and game software. Peli came to the U.S. at the age of 19.
STEVEN SCHNEIDER (Executive Producer) – Insidious, Paranormal Activity
[INSERT BIO]
BRIAN KAVANAUGH-JONES (Executive Producer) is currently the president of
Automatik, a Los Angeles-based production and financing company.
Kavanaugh-Jones executive-produced James Wan’s Insidious, 2011’s most profitable film, as
well as Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter and the Strause brothers’ Skyline.
Automatik films released in 2012 include Safe, starring Jason Statham, directed by Boaz
Yakin; The Bay, directed by Barry Levinson; The Lords of Salem, directed by Rob Zombie; Sinister,
starring Ethan Hawke and directed by Scott Derrickson; and The Babymakers, starring Paul Schneider
and Olivia Munn, directed by Jay Chandrasekhar.
Automatik’s 2013 releases include Bullet to the Head, starring Sylvester Stallone, directed by
Walter Hill; Welcome to the Punch, starring James McAvoy and Mark Strong, directed by Eran Creevy;
Dead Man Down, starring Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace, directed by Niels Arden Oplev;
Hummingbird, starring Jason Statham, directed by Steven Knight; A Haunted House, written by and
starring Marlon Wayans, directed by Michael Tiddes; and Dark Skies, written and directed by Scott
Stewart, starring Keri Russell. Automatik is also in post-production on Angry Little God, directed by
Daniel Stamm, and The Signal, starring Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne, directed by Will
Eubank.
Before founding Automatik, Kavanaugh-Jones was an agent at CAA in the film-finance
department. He is a native of California and graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1999 with a Bachelor
of Fine Arts.
JOHN R. LEONETTI, ASC (Director of Photography) lensed James Wan’s
supernatural thriller Insidious, for which he is credited as both co-producer and cinematographer.
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His follow-up project with Wan, this summer’s The Conjuring, has been hailed as a return to
genuinely spooky filmmaking and a modern horror classic. Reviews cite Leonetti’s deft and deliberate
camerawork in relation to the film’s atmosphere, intensity and expertly crafted suspense.
Leonetti is now developing independent films and episodic television, which he plans to
direct and produce.
In 2011 he went to Puerto Rico to shoot the pilot for “The River,” a television series
produced by DreamWorks and ABC Television. Seven different types of digital cameras were used
on the show, creating long-form dramatic “found footage” sci-fi.
In the summer of 2009 Leonetti shot Piranha 3D at Lake Havasu for Dimension Pictures
and director Alex Aja. In 2010 he shot the inspirational drama Soul Surfer, the Bethany Hamilton
story, directed by Sean McNamara.
Leonetti started working in the business at age 13 in the manufacturing and rental
departments at Leonetti Cine Rentals. Frank M. Leonetti, John’s father, started the equipment
business in the mid-1950s to service Hollywood as it ventured out of the studios and onto locations.
Frank Leonetti was the gaffer on Singin’ in the Rain and one of the top gaffers of his day.
The younger Leonetti’s experience at Leonetti Cine Rentals was well rounded in grip,
electrical and camera. His exposure to lighting techniques came from his dad as well as his brother,
Matthew F. Leonetti ASC. This was invaluable to his future career as a lighting cameraman.
Leonetti began his career as an assistant cameraman and camera operator. Coming up in
these crafts, Leonetti worked for brilliant cinematographers such as Vittorio Storaro and great
directors such as Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Leonetti was also director of
photography on a music video directed by James Cameron.
In 1989 Walter Hill asked Leonetti to be the director of photography on one of HBO’s first
“Tales from the Crypt” episodes, “The Man Who Was Death.” This earned Leonetti a nomination
for a CableACE Award for Best Cinematography.
Leonetti subsequently worked from 1989 to 1993 with many “Tales” directors including
Peter Medak, Tom Hanks and John Frankenheimer. He received three more CableACE Award
nominations for his work on the show.
Leonetti proceeded to collaborate with John Frankenheimer on the HBO film “Against the
Wall,” for which Frankenheimer won an Emmy. They teamed up again to shoot HBO’s “The
Burning Season,” which won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Leonetti recognizes Frankenheimer
as his mentor as well as an eternal friend.
In 1994 Leonetti was picked to shoot the New Line hit The Mask and went on to shoot
Mortal Kombat as well. These films were so successful that in 1995 New Line hired Leonetti to direct
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. It opened No. 1 at the box office, bringing in $17.5 million the first
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weekend.
While pursuing a career in directing and development, Leonetti shot Detroit Rock City and Joe
Dirt in 1999 and 2000. After shooting and directing the television series “Providence,” he went back
to the feature world and shot two films in a row for Universal Pictures: The Scorpion King, produced by
Sean Daniel and Jim Jax, and Honey, produced by Marc Platt.
In 2003 Leonetti teamed up with Hillary Duff ’s family and shot two films with her: Raise
Your Voice, for New Line, and The Perfect Man, for Universal. He then jumped into the independent
scene and collaborated on a film directed by Lucky McKee, The Woods. Soon thereafter, Leonetti
teamed up with another young and very talented director, James Wan (Saw) to shoot horror film Dead
Silence in 2006.
Also in 2006 a producer with Film Engine, AJ Dix, asked Leonetti to direct the sequel to The
Butterfly Effect. Leonetti developed the script with Film Engine and the movie was released by New
Line.
Leonetti teamed up with James Wan again for Death Sentence, a revenge drama with Kevin
Bacon. He then shot I Know Who Killed Me, starring Lindsay Lohan, produced by Frank Mancuso Jr.
and directed by Chris Severtson.
In 2008 Leonetti shot Ca$h, an independent film starring Sean Bean, and another
independent film, Super Hybrid. The latter film was the first Canadian production to use the Red One
HD camera. He has now completed three films using the Genesis Camera, the F23 and the Red One.
JENNIFER SPENCE (Production Designer) has amassed credits as a production
designer that include Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem, Bryan Bertino’s Mockingbird, Paranormal Activity 2,
3 and 4, I Will Follow, Stolen and Splinter. Her credits as art director include James Wan’s Insidious and
Default.
Spence was born in Northern Ontario, Canada, and moved to British Columbia with her
mother and sister when she was 9 years old. She moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s and began
working in the industry alongside her husband, prop master Thomas Spence. A self-taught artist
specializing in painting, Spence has worked her way through all aspects of the art department.
KRISTIN M. BURKE (Costume Designer) has designed costumes for more than 40
feature films including The Conjuring, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Insidious, Paranormal
Activity 2, Crossing Over, Running Scared, The Cooler, The Slaughter Rule and Star Maps. She has also
designed costumes for music videos, commercials and two television series.
Burke is an internationally exhibited artist specializing in collage and mail art with her first
solo exhibition taking place in Los Angeles in 2001. She has also authored two books: Costuming for
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Film: The Art and the Craft, co-written with Holly Cole for Silman James Press, and Going
Hollywood: How to Get Started, Keep Going, and Not Turn into a Sleaze.
RAY McINTYRE JR. (Visual Effects Supervisor) is a partner in Pixel Magic and
oversees all creative operations at their facilities in Hollywood and Lafayette, Louisiana. He is hired
by movie studios as an on-set visual-effects supervisor to design, shoot and execute the director’s
vision.
Pixel Magic has been in the business of visual effects and 3-D stereo conversion since 1985.
Since opening their office in Louisiana in 2009, McIntyre and Pixel Magic Lafayette have worked on
movies such as The Conjuring, Beautiful Creatures, Gangster Squad, Secretariat, Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows – Parts 1 & 2, The Help and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.
McIntyre was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1996 for HBO’s acclaimed “Tuskegee
Airmen.” In 2004 he won the Visual Effects Society Award for Outstanding Visual Effects for his
work on The Last Samurai. He also won an International Monitor Award in 1998 for his work on
Casper Meets Wendy.
JOSEPH BISHARA (Composer) is a composer and music producer of a darker flavor.
Having written numerous horror-film scores, his path has taken him from industrial metal bands to
sound design for multimedia performance art. 2010 brought the opportunity to score as well as
perform the role of the demon in James Wan’s Insidious. More recently he scored Wan’s latest chiller,
The Conjuring.
Previous works include Dark Skies and production of the soundtrack for the cult film Repo!
The Genetic Opera.
KIRK M. MORRI (Editor) continues his collaboration with director James Wan after
having edited the films Insidious and The Conjuring. As a film editor, Morri’s credits include Detour,
Freelancers, Piranha 3DD, All Things Fall Apart, Gun, The Hills Have Eyes II, Pulse and Feast.
Previously Morri served as editor on several horror releases such as Feast III: The Happy
Finish, Pulse 2: Afterlife and Pulse 3, The Prophecy: Forsaken, The Prophecy: Uprising, Mimic: Sentinel,
Hellraiser: Hellseeker and Children of the Corn: Revelation.
For his work on the DVDs for Mimic 2 and Hellraiser: Inferno, Morri earned Video Premiere
Award nominations for Best Editing at the DVD Exclusive Awards.
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