3. Saw, 2004
The film that started the whole blood-splattered franchise is also the film that started James Wan’s career – and what a film it is. Saw gained plaudits for its originality and utilization of thrills and smarts in such a confined setting; the film largely takes place within one dingy bathroom as two characters, chained to opposing walls, try to figure out who put them there and why. As opposed to the increasingly desperate sequels, Saw is so much more about the ideas and subtext than the traps set out by Jigsaw; it doesn’t revel in the violence but deploys it as a grave last resort for thoroughly depleted characters. The twist too, somewhat spoiled by now, remains terrific and (at one time) unexpected.
If by any chance you’re yet to see it, don’t be put off by the series’ reputation for gratuitous gore and nastiness: this one is really good.
2. Insidious, 2010
Insidious arrived after a three-year hiatus and, not unlike Matthew McConaughey’s resurgence, re-established James Wan’s credentials in the genre (not that he was ever particularly questioned). Instantly leaping towards the top of this writer’s favourite horror movies list, the unbearable foreboding throughout is something to behold; it’s a film with presence, where evil seeps through the walls and up through the floors, suffocating us like the mist of The Further, and we genuinely believe these entities haunting the Lambert family mean to cause them harm. We don’t know where they’ll come from next, we never feel secure, and it’s this displacement of safety that makes us feel so scared and vulnerable.
There is, admittedly, the odd misstep (the lipstick demon in his workshop is silly and strays a bit too close to the naff second half territory of Jeepers Creepers), but for the most part it remains on the right tracks. Malevolence pulses through the film’s veins, Joseph Bishara’s score is skin-crawling, and it’s brilliantly oppressive – even critics of Wan can’t deny he knows how to create atmosphere.
1. The Conjuring, 2013
Based on a real case of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring is Wan’s highest grossing film to date, and his most well received critically. It probably struck a chord with critics for hearkening back to the heyday of horror and films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Changeling with its retro 70s visuals and soundtrack; it probably struck a chord with audiences for being genuinely scary. The case it’s based on was supposedly so freaky that neither the Warrens nor the Perrons (the family living in the house) had spoken of it for years after. Blimey, if half of what happens in the film actually happened in real life, I don’t blame them.
Witches lurking on wardrobes, cupboards locking people in and games of ‘clap, clap’ going awry are prominent, and with a smashingly good cast of Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor to provide firm grounding, The Conjuring is one of the most enjoyable horror films in recent years.
Furious 7 is out in UK cinemas on April 3rd.
Edward Gardiner – Follow me on Twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONsp_bmDYXc&feature=player_embedded&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published March 21, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
