James Wan Quotes

That's the problem: when you make movies, I find that I never have time to go to the movies and enjoy movies like I used to because I'm so movied out, right? I'm so filmed out that the last thing that I wanna do is, with the little spare time that I have, is stick in a dark room and watch more stuff on the screen.

- James Wan

I love what I did in 'Death Sentence,' but that was a low budget action film.

- James Wan

I think crafting a new, effective horror movie is not just about when night falls and things get scary. It's about setting a tone and mood that permeates throughout the entire movie. So even during the daytime, things are never quite safe-feeling.

- James Wan

I cannot state enough how important post-production is for the success of a horror movie. You bring so much to it with the way you edit it, the way it is sound-designed, and the way the music works with it.

- James Wan

Making a movie with people of all different ethnicity, all different skin color and different backgrounds, meant that the movie can literally play all around the world. It's not just a blanket whitewash film like most Hollywood films tend to be.

- James Wan

I'd love to be a filmmaker and look back and be like, 'Ah, man, we were part of that whole '80s video nasty thing!'

- James Wan

'Saw' was good and bad. It was good in that it gave me a career start, but it was also negative in that it really marginalized me as a filmmaker.

- James Wan

A lot of these types of films - the vigilante or revenge drama - were so popular in the '70s because there was a feeling in the culture of loss of control.

- James Wan

'Fast and Furious' is the only franchise that I've directed that I did not create from scratch. So it definitely was an eye-opening experience for me coming to that world. I had to be respectful of the roles that had been established by the filmmakers before me, and I was cool with that.

- James Wan

Isn't it crazy to think that we've explored space more than we have explored the depths of our ocean? That just fires up my imagination about potential sea monsters and cool creatures, that kind of stuff.

- James Wan

I think you cannot be too complacent. I think that's dangerous, and you cannot take anything for granted.

- James Wan

With 'Insidious 2,' I wanted to push a potential franchise in the direction I thought it should go in.

- James Wan

You know what's funny is, when I made 'Saw,' I got accused of being a fascist; when I made 'Insidious,' I got accused of being godless, and now I made the 'Conjuring' films, and I'm accused of being too much God.

- James Wan

'Insidious' is independent. It's like the 'Clerks' of horror films, you know?

- James Wan

'Insidious 2' is a direct continuation of the first movie. We literally pick up from where we left off at the end of the first film. And whereas the first movie is a twist on the haunted house genre, the second movie is a twist on the classic domestic thriller.

- James Wan

I come from a very straight and adjusted suburban background.

- James Wan

I loved 'Jaws.' I think that is not really a horror film, but it made me afraid of the ocean for a very long time.

- James Wan

The thing that ultimately pushed me more towards 'Aquaman' is I love the possibility of creating a whole new world. I've always wanted to do a world creation story and visually create this amazing, incredible, magical kingdom.

- James Wan

It's very difficult to get an audience to be terrified of what's going on. Think about it: You're in a room with so many other people, so for them to be terrified and to care about what's going on on-screen takes a lot of work.

- James Wan

I wasn't delusional at all when I signed on to do 'Furious 7,' that it wasn't my creation. It's the seventh movie in a series, for goodness sake!

- James Wan

It doesn't matter how big or small your film is: you still don't have enough money. You don't have enough time to shoot it.

- James Wan

It's actually smarter to make a dumb film.

- James Wan

I'm a big movie fan, and I want to make movies in every genre. I want to make my romantic comedy one day.

- James Wan

When I'm making a big movie, I miss and appreciate all the subtleties that come with making a smaller film that is more intimate, more personal.

- James Wan

I think that the first 'Saw' was really more of a psychological film about two people stuck in a room, and the traps and games that fans seem to embrace so much now were quite a small portion of the film.

- James Wan

To some degree, this re-release is to let people remember what the first 'Saw' film was, and let them know there was a time in the 'Saw' history where it wasn't all about blood and traps.

- James Wan

I don't think action alone is enough to sustain a film franchise. There are tons of action movies out there that come and go and people don't care about.

- James Wan

I guess, deep down, there's a dark side to us. I guess that's why movie fans really love the revenge drama. We like to go into dark movie theaters and fantasize.

- James Wan

It's good to be finally able to afford food for a change. It's good to move on from potatoes and tin soup.

- James Wan

The very first movie that I ever saw in a theater was 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.'

- James Wan

I think I'm a very sentimental person. Conscious or not, that's what draws me to the kind of films I want to make.

- James Wan

'Death Sentence' really is a throwback to the '70s style revenge drama with moments of action. It's like a contemporary 'Death Wish' with a much more thriller style storyline, but the action scenes I shot very much in the style of '70s films like 'The French Connection.'

- James Wan

I love the idea of being the underdog, coming in with a take on this underdog character and completely blow people's expectations away. Like, 'Oh, you thought he was going to be a wimpy character? No no no.'

- James Wan

The key is to constantly keep the audience surprised. If they feel like something is going to happen, or they think from an educational standpoint that something is about to happen because of all the moving parts, it is your job to break that expectation and show the audience something different.

- James Wan

What's funny is, when I made 'Saw,' I got accused of being a fascist, when I made 'Insidious,' I got accused of being godless, and now I made the 'Conjuring' films, and I'm accused of being too much God.

- James Wan

My first film out of the gate was financially so successful that I guess, being in Hollywood, you get kind of put into a certain box.

- James Wan

Science fiction is a big, big love of mine. I would love to get into that at some point.

- James Wan

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to watch Bollywood films. There's a lot of colour and vibrancy to the Indian films.

- James Wan

I grew up loving X-Men, Spider-Man and Batman.

- James Wan

I think, like most people, we are familiar with Aquaman. We grew up reading or watching this character on the peripheral. I was never so in depth with Aquaman as, let's say, I was with X-Men.

- James Wan

I grew up loving X-Men, Spider-Man and Batman. Those are obviously the key big ones, but there's always something kind of cool about Aquaman still, the idea of creating a huge world that is on our planet.

- James Wan

I always say it's very difficult when you're tackling something like 'Spider-Man' or 'Batman' that has been done so many times before.

- James Wan

I love a ghost story. I think they affect me more than other people that are much more skeptical than I am. I think that it's good that I do buy into them to some degree.

- James Wan

I'm a big John Woo fan.

- James Wan

I use myself as the barometer to gauge what is scary. I like to think if something scares me, then there's a very good chance an audience will feel the same way.

- James Wan

I like to think if something scares me, then there's a very good chance an audience will feel the same way. The key is creating scenarios that people can relate to.

- James Wan

I always say, what is cool for me with 'The Conjuring', is it's not just another scary set piece or another scary case; it's more about what I can do with the characters of Ed and Lorraine Warren.

- James Wan

There's two aspects of film crafting that I'm very strict about, and that's how I move my camera and where I cut the film.

- James Wan

I kind of joke that creating franchises is a lot like directing pilot episodes of TV series. You set a look and feel and kind of pass it on.

- James Wan

'Saw' really came from that want, the aspiration to make a feature film on our own.

- James Wan

Still one of my favorite movies is the original 'The Haunting.' I love that style.

- James Wan

I hope people will like 'The Conjuring 2' because I think it is a very natural and organic progression of the first movie.

- James Wan

I use myself as a measuring yardstick, and so if I come up with an idea that really scares me, then I'd like to think that people out there would feel the same way as well.

- James Wan

What I realized is that it doesn't matter how big or small your film is. The actual filmmaking process, the actual storytelling, it's still the same thing. It's still all about creating characters that you like and creating moments that get you excited or get you tense.

- James Wan

We think craft is important, and the irony has always been that horror may be disregarded by critics, but often they are the best-made movies you're going to find in terms of craft. You can't scare people if they see the seams.

- James Wan

People are so used to seeing John Goodman as a lovable dad or the quirky characters he played in the Coen Brothers films.

- James Wan

You can never have too much good blessing.

- James Wan

I'm a big fan of the 'Fast' franchise. I remember when I met Neal Moritz early on, I joked if Justin Lin ever left the franchise, I would be the perfect guy to slip right in and take over, and no one would know the difference.

- James Wan

I am my own worst critic, and I look at 'Death Sentence' now, and I go, 'Oh wow, I have really come a long way.' In terms of a filmmaker, I feel like my filmmaking language has really matured.

- James Wan

I love to be scared in the safety of a movie theater. It is like a thrill ride; like a roller-coaster ride.

- James Wan

I'm a big fan of cel animation, I'm a big fan of computer animation, and, most of all, I'm a big fan of stop-motion animation.

- James Wan

The great thing about the 'Fast and Furious' world is everything is up for speculation. Yes, anything is a possibility.

- James Wan

I try to pull my inspirations from everyday life. If I came across a situation that is like, 'Oh, that's going to be scary, that's going to be frightening,' that's when I get inspired, and I put that into my films.

- James Wan

If you come down to it, there's only a handful of worlds that action films live in. You have your car chases, your gun fights, and your fights.

- James Wan

I always try to better myself with every movie I make. I don't take anything sitting back, and so I try to learn from every film I make and carry that onto the next movie because I think it's important as a filmmaker to keep growing with each film, and I think I am growing with each movie.

- James Wan

I'm terrified of the supernatural things, which is why I'm very grateful that I don't see things like that. Because if I did see things of the paranormal persuasion, I don't think I'd be able to continue making scary movies.

- James Wan

For me, the sound design and the musical score is a big part of what makes scary movies work.

- James Wan

I love Carpenter, I love Craven - these are all the classics - the Romeros of the world, but I think the biggest influence on me as a storyteller and as a filmmaker is actually Steven Spielberg. I love that even though Steven isn't known for being a horror director, he started out his career making scary movies.

- James Wan

'Poltergeist' was really the film that really scarred, but fascinated, me with puppets and dolls, clowns and stuff like that.

- James Wan

'Poltergeist' was the film that scarred me for life. I saw it at such a young age - 5 or 6 years old - and it has one of the creepiest doll sequences with the clown, and ever since then, I've just been fascinated by dolls.

- James Wan

'Poltergeist' was really the film that really scarred but fascinated me with puppets and dolls, clowns, and stuff like that. I've always been afraid of clowns, and then my fear of puppets came around, and 'Poltergeist' was the perfect combination to scare me with a clown doll.

- James Wan

I definitely love to be scared. It draws the primal side out of you.

- James Wan

I love high concept movies, but they can only work if the source of inspiration is really human - if they're driven by pain and strong emotions. Once you connect the audience with that, then I swear you can take them on the craziest journey, and they'll come along.

- James Wan

If I have free time, I want to go to the beach, walk around a shopping mall, go grocery shopping. Live a little bit of life.

- James Wan

I always felt that what is scary is actually hearing someone tell you what they think they see. That sense of invisibility makes things a lot scarier, since your imagination tends to fill in the gaps.

- James Wan

When you conceive the scene, you go, 'That is scary, right?' When you shoot it, a lot of times you're not quite sure. Hopefully what you can shoot is what your conception is.

- James Wan

For me and my films, I want my audience to experience cinema in its full glory. It's not just visual, it's audio as well. It's emotional, and I want you to be engaged with not just the scene but with the characters.

- James Wan

Not many people realize this, but I'm a really squeamish guy. When I watch other horror films that are really over-the-top with their blood and guts, I cannot watch it.

- James Wan

Ask anyone, and they'll tell you that most of the good horror films made in the U.S. are indie films. You might get 'The Ring' or 'The Others,' but most are independently produced.

- James Wan

No one pretty much tells me what kind of horror films to make.

- James Wan

People used to always complain that horror films have no stories, that it's all just about kills and stuff like that.

- James Wan

The kind of filmmaker that I am, even my darker horror films generally are still very fun. And I think that's important for me and the kind of films I make.

- James Wan

I want to start off making the kinds of films that I loved growing up as a kid. Fun horror films that are scary but at the same time, after you finish the movie, it leaves you excited to see more.

- James Wan

I thought the marketing was really smart and really clever and unique at the time. It positioned 'Saw' as a horror film that was different from the other horror films that were in the crowded marketplace.

- James Wan

Having such a diverse cast and crew is what makes the 'Fast & Furious' films so unique to all the other studio tent pole films that just have a very singular look to them.

- James Wan

Our culture today that we live in is getting so diverse, yet in Hollywood, there's not a lot of diversity.

- James Wan

With 'The Conjuring,' I really wanted to create classical cinema-style film-making, pure cinema as it were.

- James Wan

I think before 'Saw' came along, there really wasn't a movie franchise that actually went out there and said, 'We're going to come out with one every year during Halloween and make that our trademark.'

- James Wan

The size of the budget doesn't make that much of a difference because the kind of issues I have on a low budget film I I have on a big budget film as well, but they're just much bigger.

- James Wan

The size of the budget doesn't make that much of a difference because the kind of issues I have on a low budget film I have on a big budget film as well, but they're just much bigger.

- James Wan

If I can get the audience to connect with the characters emotionally - and they love who they are, they love the larger-than-life situation that they're in, but most of all get the audience invested in the characters - then I always feel like I can sort of put them in the most outrageous circumstances, and the audience is okay to go with that.

- James Wan

I'm very heavily involved in the editorial post-production process, and the camera - it's just such a big part of my storytelling language. I like creating the tension; I like creating the emotion through the movement of my camera, or the lack of movement through my camera, depending on what fits the scene best.

- James Wan

If I have to point to something specific with the way I move my camera, I love to do it with a wide lens. I like to show you as much of the space as I can, even if I'm following a character.

- James Wan

My low-budget films, more than anything, taught me that you've got to create cool, likable characters and great stories because, if you don't, it doesn't matter how cool it might look - no one is going to care about it.

- James Wan

I believe in spirits. I believe in faith. I believe in spirituality. I believe in aliens as well.

- James Wan

That's the thing about Aquaman that's cool is he's not an alien, right? He's from our planet, and he's from a society that we're not privy to in the context of the story.

- James Wan

The 'Saw' sequels went in a direction I wouldn't have gone in. With 'Insidious 2,' I wanted to push a potential franchise in the direction I thought it should go in.

- James Wan

I guess I have a fascination with the idea of puppeteering. I think, in a lot of ways, directing is puppeteering. I guess I see a lot of analogies between what puppeteers and filmmakers do.

- James Wan

I think, in a lot of ways, directing is puppeteering. I guess I see a lot of analogies between what puppeteers and filmmakers do. There's something about creating life out of things that have no life.

- James Wan

Just because I make movies in the scary world doesn't mean I want to visit scary worlds.

- James Wan

I think the 'Saw' universe, the 'Saw' brand, is too big to just let it just sit there on a shelf.

- James Wan

I remembered a long time ago when 'A League of Their Own' came out, and they had the opening sequence with an older Geena Davis. We all just thought it was amazing, but you find out it actually wasn't Geena Davis; it wasn't makeup. It was basically finding an actress that looked like her, and then Geena just dubbed her voice.

- James Wan

For me, what usually makes a horror sequence scary is the journey not the destination.

- James Wan

I use myself as the barometer to gauge what is scary.

- James Wan

I can make any kind of movies. I can put up with any kind of situation. And I can tackle them.

- James Wan

We all live in some kind of home, so the idea that our home could be invested with a supernatural entity is kind of frightening, I think.

- James Wan

I took a break from horror; I made three ghost movies back-to-back-to-back.

- James Wan

With all the crap that's going on around the world, you kind of want to do what you can to protect the ones you love.

- James Wan

I think a lot of the Disney cartoons are scary when you watch them at a young age.

- James Wan

People are so used to seeing John Goodman as a loveable dad or the quirky characters he played in the Coen Brothers films.

- James Wan

As a filmmaker, you aspire to want to make movies that can hopefully stand the test of time, but you never know when that will happen or if that will happen.

- James Wan

I feel like, with most filmmakers of my generation, I like the over-the-top stuff. I like to be wacky and really in your face.

- James Wan

I think Mel Gibson could make 'Passion of the Christ' because he really believed in it and gave it his all.

- James Wan

Not many people remember this, but in the first 'Death Wish' film, Charles Bronson doesn't actually go after the people that hurt his family: he just goes after every punk. He just blows them all away.

- James Wan

I've always wanted to do a world creation story and visually create this amazing, incredible, magical kingdom.

- James Wan

I try to keep the number of projects I'm involved in down to one per year.

- James Wan

The flack I got for 'Saw' is why I wanted to direct 'Insidious 2.'

- James Wan

The stuff I'm designing, I want my action scenes to be intense.

- James Wan

Supernatural movies generally have a much more brooding pace. If you look at films like 'The Sixth Sense' or 'The Others,' it's more building up the characters and building up the situation as opposed to just opening with a big action set piece.

- James Wan

We all agreed that violence begets violence, and you can't solve issues with more violence.

- James Wan

You may not quite understand the cinematic tricks that go behind the making of a film, but as long as you feel it, I think that's the important thing.

- James Wan

I've always loved action movies. The first films I fell in love with were 'Star Wars' and Steven Spielberg films.

- James Wan

Geoff Johns is super talented, super smart.

- James Wan

Geoff Johns is super talented, super smart. Part of what got me excited about the Aquaman character is his re-envisioning of Aquaman, the character, with 'The New 52.'

- James Wan

I've always said if I had to pinpoint what's more important in a scary movie, the soundscape or the visuals, I'd pick the sound.

- James Wan

'The Exorcist' is one of the finest movies ever made, and it just so happens to be a scary movie.

- James Wan

It kind of irks me that the studio films still have to be so safe even though they don't really cost as much to make.

- James Wan

As we all know, Aquaman is somewhat the butt of the joke in the superhero world.

- James Wan

I joke and I say, 'I need to go back to make a supernatural horror film just to so that I can make a movie that's grounded again.'

- James Wan

I'm such an action movie junkie that as an action fan, because action scenes are so heightened, we could never really picture ourselves in that scene. So when you're watching an action movie, you experience an action movie more outside of the aquarium: you know you're out of the aquarium looking in at all the swimming fish that are in there.

- James Wan

I'm always excited when I can discover new filmmakers.

- James Wan

I'm a student of cinema in general, not just of one particular genre. So it was very important to me and to my soul to go out and do something different.

- James Wan

I am a student of cinema, and I love filmmaking of all kinds.

- James Wan

What the Internet has done is made it easier to stay in touch with people, and social networking has helped me career-wise by helping me keep in touch with my fans.

- James Wan

I think, when you're a director, you get sucked into your project whether you like it or not, right?

- James Wan

When I am making a sequel, it needs to be different from what you have already seen. Yet, it needs to maintain a certain discipline so that people still associate it with the prequel.

- James Wan

'The Conjuring' was a massive success, and honestly, it set the bar quite high. So I was nervous about making the sequel, and I wasn't sure if it will still have the same impact as the first one did. But that's what moved me to make the sequel.

- James Wan

It all comes down to what is best for those particular genres, and if you believe in the stories that you're telling and the characters that you like that you want to tell those stories with, you can pretty much apply it to any genre.

- James Wan

As a director you're always so busy - you're go, go, go, you're always moving, moving, moving - so I'm not actually privy to all the weird stuff that's happening around me, but for a lot of the cast and crew, that's what I hear stories from them about weird stuff happening.

- James Wan

I think what 'Saw' did was really open up a huge branch of lots of these other movies that ultimately retroactively gave the first 'Saw' somewhat of a negative reputation.

- James Wan

The Internet is one of the biggest advances ever in our world.

- James Wan

If you don't do the suspense correctly, then your jump scares are not going to work.

- James Wan

Language-wise, my mom and dad's dialect, they're pretty obscure. It's Chinese, but not your traditional Chinese, like Cantonese or Mandarin. It wasn't something that I got to use very much growing up. We eventually just spoke English around the house.

- James Wan

I like to think we're not the only thing that exists on the plane of existence. I like to think that just because we don't see it doesn't mean it's not there.

- James Wan

When you create those characters that people love and care about and put them in a dark hallway, already the audience is on edge, and they feel empathy for that character. Then it's up to me to decide what jumps out in that hallway. So I think laying that foundation of strong characters and strong story is the most important thing in a horror film.

- James Wan

Critics tend to be very hard on the horror genre.

- James Wan

I love my genre films, but I think when I get older, the way I tell it will be very different to how I told it when I was in my mid-twenties, which is how old I was when I made the first 'Saw.'

- James Wan

There's a reason why Smellovision has never really taken off. And I think it's a good thing.

- James Wan

Whether it's a popcorn movie or some really intellectual sociopolitical movie, I think to some degree they're all influenced by the social climate that we're living in.

- James Wan

One of the things I learned very early on is you need to cast the kids for the characters you want them to play. They need to be who they are, right? If you want a loud, boisterous kid character, you need to find that kid.

- James Wan

Favorite movie of all time? I hate being asked... that's like being asked, 'What's your favorite song?'

- James Wan

No one knows how much we went through to finish 'Furious 7.'

- James Wan

I never realized how much I cherished having creative freedom.

- James Wan

I'm a big fan of suspense and tension filmmaking, and that was my goal with 'The Conjuring.'

- James Wan

There are expectations with sequels, and people want them to be bigger and better than the prequel.

- James Wan

What I would like with the Internet is to have it go faster.

- James Wan

I think you kind of need to acknowledge that the reason why sequels do well is because people that loved the first one come back.

- James Wan

When you're making a bigger movie, you have much bigger set pieces that require more time and more effort and more people.

- James Wan

I didn't direct any of the 'Saw' sequels, but people thought I did.

- James Wan

It's pretty scary to know how quickly time flies.

- James Wan

There's something very cool about that indie spirit that I try to hang on to even now with the bigger films that I'm working on.

- James Wan

'Saw' really was like a student film for me; we expected it to go straight to video. I never expected anyone to see that film, and then it becomes one of the most successful horror franchises.

- James Wan

If you care about the characters, then whatever scary thing happens to them, you feel it even more.

- James Wan

The deep sea is a scary world.

- James Wan

I've made one action movie. But nobody saw it, so I guess that doesn't count for most people.

- James Wan

All my movies are about people with some ideology, but guess what? It never works out.

- James Wan

I don't have anything against CGI.

- James Wan

I think, ultimately, if you create characters that people like and can relate to, your characters are grounded on a human level even if your cars are not.

- James Wan

Up until 'Fast and Furious 7,' every movie I've made has been a film that I've created, franchises that I've created.

- James Wan

I think I try to look at all my films and break them down because, at the end of the day, it's about creating characters that you like.

- James Wan

I love Sam Peckinpah.

- James Wan

You can only go by the instinct that you have.

- James Wan

'Saw,' in many ways, was like my student film. The first crappy student film you don't really want people to see.

- James Wan

I have a tendency to overcut my movies.

- James Wan

I see my actors as my collaborators.

- James Wan

So many movies get made, and so many go to VOD, which is a market I admire.

- James Wan

Whatever it is that makes your movie unique is something you should embrace.

- James Wan

I think I should have made 'Dead Silence' as an independent movie.

- James Wan

If people want to watch a CG movie, there's plenty out there.

- James Wan

I like the 'Twilight' films.

- James Wan