Aug 17, 2026 7:00pm IST
‘Insidious: Out Of The Further’ Director Jacob Chase On Turning Phobias Into Horror: ‘I Had A Deep Fear About Becoming A Dad’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Fear hits differently when it originates from the quiet anxieties of real life. For Jacob Chase, the writer-director of "Insidious: Out of the Further," that releases this week, the scariest horrors are the ones rooted in love and everyday vulnerability. Director Jacob Chase tapped directly into his own personal life while crafting the story, admitting, “When I was writing ‘Insidious: Out of the Further,’ my wife was pregnant, and I had a deep fear about becoming a dad.” Tapping into that, he says, “was a great opportunity to start an Insidious movie from a real, personal place.”
That emotional core drives the terrifying new entry, which stars Amelia Eve as Gemma, a dental hygienist and young mother raising her daughter in her childhood home. Gemma possesses the ability to travel into The Further, the shadow realm at the heart of the universe. However, she soon discovers a game-changing power that turns our world into a playground for spirits: she can bring whatever lives in that world back to reality with her. Featuring the return of Lin Shaye as the iconic Elise Rainier, the film opens across India on August 21, 2026.
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To heighten the tension, Chase weaponized his own real-world phobias against normal, safe routines. "I find claustrophobic spaces absolutely terrifying. Even if I just have to reach under my bed, I feel closed in," he says. "And the idea of a pillow fort becoming a nightmare… what’s the worst possible thing that could happen with that very normal, innocuous thing?" That fear translates to a scene where a harmless pillow fort turns into an inescapable labyrinth. He applies the same logic to a visit to the dentist, placing Gemma in the patient chair: “It's the same with the dentist. It’s terrifying to ever sit in that chair. So, it was important to me to put Gemma, the hygienist, into the dentist’s chair herself. To have the drill coming toward her is a terrifying moment for me to watch as a filmmaker.”
His passion for crafting these communal scares stems from years spent designing haunted house attractions with friends during high school and his early 20s. He shares, “I have a love of theater, and that translated into making haunted house attractions for years. A haunted house has everything - it’s filmmaking, it’s storytelling, it’s great characters, and most importantly, it’s the communal experience. There’s no better feeling than seeing someone screaming and laughing, whether they’re running out of a haunted house or in a movie theater.”
Ultimately, Chase believes horror works best when audiences care deeply about the people on screen. “They have these amazing scares, obviously, great tension - but at the heart of these movies are warm, family-focused films,” he says. “With the Lambert family, Elise, and the new characters that have been introduced, there are wonderful characters that I felt a relationship with. And then, when those you love are put into peril, that’s when you really feel it in your stomach.”
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