James Wan possesses a fine pedigree in horror, but he’s been explaining what marks his upcoming film as different from his previous forays into the genre.
In any conversation about directors working in the horror genre at the moment, James Wan’s name would likely get a mention. In terms of birthing style within horror, Wan preceded the grisly torture movies of the 2000s with Saw, reinvigorated the supernatural horror with The Conjuring, not to mention directing Insidious, a film high on the list for many horror fans.
Wan has been chatting about what his return to the genre means, and how his upcoming film, Malignant, is set to challenge his previous work.
Says Wan, “I know people kind of know me as the ghostly, supernatural guy in recent years, and part of the reason why I made Malignant was to break that expectation. I start the movie out with, ‘oh, you think this is what you’re getting from James Wan. No, you’re getting this instead!’ And so it made you ask these questions at the start. Is it a supernatural being? Is it a ghost, or is it a demonic possession movie? Then it became this other thing. And when it became this other thing – obviously it’s body horror – it allowed me to delve into that world and play with practical and makeup effects, which I’m a huge fan of, and this movie really gave me the opportunity to do so”.
Malignant hits UK cinemas on the 10th September, and we’ll be able to figure out for ourselves just what the film is then.
Wan has had a knack for moving the horror genre in new directions, so we’re hoping this film does so again and relies less on the overused jump scare. Instead, we’d like to be treated to some deeply unsettling psychological terror. (But not nightmares. We draw the line at nightmares.)
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