One of the biggest highlights of the new Insidious movie, Insidious: The Red Door? It sees the return of the entire Lambert family — Ty Simpkins as Dalton, Patrick Wilson as Josh, Rose Byrne as Renai, and Andrew Astor as Foster, with Juliana Davies stepping in to play Kali. With such a heavy emphasis on the franchise’s core family, it can’t be easy being the Insidious newcomer in film five, but Sinclair Daniel seemingly had no problem seizing that opportunity and making the absolute most of it. Not only does she support Dalton’s journey well by playing his one and only close friend in college, but she also makes her own character, Chris, one of the richest of the bunch, an electric force who’s a blast to watch and root for.

The Red Door takes place well after the events of Insidious: Chapter Two. The memory suppression technique has kept Dalton and Josh safe from the evil entities of The Further, but it came with some side effects. In particular, Josh complains of a foggy feeling, a sensation that contributes to causing a significant rift between him and his family, particularly Dalton. When that shield from The Further starts to crumble while Dalton’s away for his first year of college, they both come to realize that the only way to forge forward is to remember and accept, not forget, and that they must do that together.

With Insidious: The Red Door now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to have a brief chat with Simpkins and Daniel about their journey making the film. Check out what Simpkins had to say about working with Wilson as a co-star and as a director this time around and hear all about Daniel’s experience joining a long-running franchise in the fifth installment in the video at the top of this article or read about it in transcript form below.

Image via Sony

PERRI NEMIROFF: Ty, this is Sinclair’s first major role in a feature film and she’s phenomenal in it. I have high hopes there will be many, many more to come so what is something about her you appreciated as a scene partner that you are excited for more actors to get to experience?

SINCLAIR DANIEL: I love this question!

TY SIMPKINS: You know, especially in this movie, I had to be in a very serious headspace all the time. A lot of the time Dalton’s sad or something like that, so it was really nice to go from that headspace to go back to hanging out where we would just hang out and Sinclair’s there, and just to have a buddy to pal around with and just talk to about stuff. When you’re working on a film set, sometimes you go 12, 13, 14 hours into the day, and you’re tired and delirious, and Sinclair is a very fun person to be around, so we had a lot of fun.

DANIEL: Thanks, Ty!

Sinclair, I’ll ask you to give Ty some compliments too, but first, just so our viewers can get to know you a little bit more, one, what is your favorite scary movie? And two, is there any particular acting influence or movie influence that you think is shaping the performer you are now and will become in the future?

DANIEL: Sure, those are great questions. I think that first, one scary movie that I love and loved my first experience of it is It, like both sides of the disc, all six hours or however long it is. And a performance that’s influencing me now, I’m a huge fan of Emma Thompson. I think that she’s so cool. She does a bunch of different characters and I would love to be able to do that one day.

Some A+ name-dropping right there. I’ve got an It book right above my shoulder, so I very much approve of that reference.

DANIEL: Oh, I see! Very nice.

Image via Sony

Now to highlight Ty’s work in the film, can you give me a specific example of a scene where something he did for you as a scene partner made all the difference?

DANIEL: The way that we worked was pretty unique in the sense that Dalton’s always coming from this place of darkness and Chris always has to come from this place of light. So Ty was actually really generous with those moments of darkness. It was not about him or pushing me away. It felt like I was being invited into it. Which, you know, is maybe a cheesier way to say that I’ve been invited into this Insidious franchise by this person who’s at the helm of it all. So it was really nice working off of you in that way.

SIMPKINS: Thank you.

Ty, you’ve had a lengthy working relationship and friendship with Patrick. Even after all these years of you two knowing each other and working together, what is something that you saw him accomplish on this set as a director that made even you think, “Damn, I never even knew you were capable of that?”

SIMPKINS: Honestly, I think the creativeness of this Insidious film, and just kind of some of the shots that Patrick would describe to me with such enthusiasm. He was so excited to do this movie, make this movie, and he was here for all of it. The way that he would talk about it got you excited about it and got you ready to come to work every day and inspired and ready to go, and that was something that was really cool to experience.

Looking for more on the making of Insidious: The Red Door? Catch my chat with star and director Patrick Wilson below: