Case Study of director James Wan

1. James Wan was born on the 27th of
February 1977 and is an Australian film
director, producer and screen writer. He
has directed and produced many well
known and generally quite successful
movies. He is most known for his work in
the horror genre as many of the films he’s
worked on are horror based. These include
the Insidious series, The Conjuring, the
original Saw and Dead Silence. Although
recently he has also directed the 7th
instalment of the fast and furious franchise.

3. Overall he is quite a modern director with many different and
new ideas which link very well to the conventions of the
horror genre. Examples of his work include the iconic Clown
Puppet known as “Jigsaw” from the Saw Franchise, “Billy”
the puppet in Dead Silence, and the well known “Annabelle”
Doll in the Conjuring. All these uses of puppets and dolls are
examples of James Wan’s idea of using somewhat inanimate
objects and putting a twist on them making and giving them a
deadly and generally quite scary feel, very much like the
“Chucky Doll” that was used in the 1988 movie Childs Play.
This is a rather unique turn compared to the typical use of
scary monsters or masked serial killers that old horror films
tend to use. Altogether the use of these dolls are what makes
much of his movies very memorable as they are very unique
in their style and really evoke certain fears and ideas that
weren’t as explored yet.

4. Across all his movies James Wan uses a whole range of
techniques and styles to really engage the audience into the film
they’re watching. Specially in his horror films he uses a wide range
of camera shots and cuts to really grab the audience and immerse
them into the movie. Examples of this are the constant close ups
on character’s faces to really get and see the emotion of the
character at that current moment. This really gets the audience to
in many way empathise with the character, making them feel their
fright and fear. Also the use of rapid sequencing in many of his
films as tension builds up within the narrative really makes the
audience feel on edge.
Specifically in “The Conjuring” James really liked the idea of
having a horror movie be based on a true story with real life events
that happened to people that are still around today. This is why
during the Conjuring he set out to make it as scary but also as
realistic as possible so he worked alongside Lorraine Warren, a
supernatural investigator and the person who the film is based on.
This really helped him recreate the events of her story but also add
the intensity and conventions that the horror genre is known for.