Demons, Ghosts, Flying Cars and Sharks: Ranking James Wan’s Filmography
No one can overstate James Wan’s impact on 21st-century horror. In 2004, Wan directed Saw, which ushered in a wave of grimy and gory films that picked up on that film’s cruel streak, if not its dense plotting. In 2010 and 2013, Wan introduced the worlds of Insidious and The Conjuring, giving new life to the jump-scare-centric “something goes bump in the night” horror subgenre.
Add to the influence (and the many, many sequels and spinoffs) of those films that Wan also directed the highest-grossing films in both the Fast & Furious and DC Extended Universe franchises, and Wan's impact becomes clear: he's one of the most important living filmmakers.
Importance, however, doesn’t mean infallibility, and Wan’s filmography includes just as many lows as highs. In fact, some of his most influential films are his most disappointing. With spooky season underway and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on the horizon, the time has come to separate Wan’s best from his worst. Find here a ranking of every James Wan film, including the shorts that he’s made thus far. For the record, we've excluded his unreleased film Stygian, as it remains unseen and likely always will.
1. Malignant (2021)
Malignant combines everything James Wan has mastered over the last twenty years into a veritable cult classic masterpiece. The film follows a young woman who begins to witness murders in real time through what she thinks are her dreams. When she investigates her connection to the murdered people, she discovers something terrifying about her past and herself.
The film moves between horror, mystery, and action film, highlighting Wan’s skill with each genre and melding them into something unique. In Malignant, Wan shows off his usual talent for moving the camera through space to make its horror sequences more horrifying and action sequences more impactful. and an incredible control over tone that allows the film to function as both a comedy and a straight-faced horror movie.
2. Saw (2003)
Before the feature version of Saw took the world by storm, Wan and his frequent collaborator (and talented director in his own right) Leigh Whannell made a ten-minute short with the same name that introduced Jigsaw and his clown puppet Billy. The short centers on David (Whannell), an orderly at a hospital who gets kidnapped and placed in the now-famous reverse bear trap because he has no respect for his life.
In ten minutes, the short presents Jigsaw’s twisted morality, a memorable horror set piece, and, perhaps most importantly, for fans of the now long-running series, the original version of Billy, who wears an adorable little bowler hat. It’s one of the most effective horror shorts ever made and has a combination of brevity and intensity that makes it better than the feature.
3. Saw (2004)
To be clear, the feature version of Saw is also great. It’s the best of Wan’s franchise-spawning films and the most different from the franchise it spawned. The first Saw film doesn’t feature much torture and functions more like a hard-edged mystery film than a horror movie.
The film centers on two men who wake up in the bathroom of an abandoned building chained to pipes. The pair must choose to either cut off their chained limbs or die in the bathroom. Outside the bathroom, Saw tracks the investigation of two detectives on the trail of the “Jigsaw killer” (so named because he removes a jigsaw-puzzle-piece-shaped piece of flesh from each of his victims).
The dirty and disturbing film uses suggestion more than explicit gore to make its audience squirm and tops off its many exciting jerks and turns with one of the most iconic twist endings in horror history.
4. Furious 7 (2015)
Wan’s first foray into big-budget blockbusters proved a winning gamble for the studio executives who hired the horror director for the seventh installment of a major action franchise. Furious 7 became the first film in the Fast & Furious series to top one billion dollars at the global box office and remains the highest-grossing film in the series.
The film follows the Fast crew as an ex-special forces operative targets them, seeking revenge. The United States government also recruits them to steal a hacking program to ensure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Furious 7 continues the evolution, begun in Fast & Furious 6, of the crew from street racers into globetrotting superspies capable of saving the world.
It’s an over-the-top movie with many over-the-top scenes, including a Bugatti flying between high-rises in Abu Dhabi and cars (with their drivers in them) air-dropped into enemy territory. That ridiculousness makes Furious 7 such a delight, and James Wan shows that his talent for geography lends itself to an action movie about cars.
5. Dead Silence (2007)
Wan and Whannell followed up Saw with the mostly forgotten Dead Silence, a film that deserves a reappraisal in a post-Malignant world. Dead Silence is about a murderous ventriloquist dummy (once again named Billy; Wan really liked the name “Billy” in the 2000s) and the young man investigating how the dummy killed his wife. Add Donnie Wahlberg giving a huge performance as a capital Character Cop who constantly uses his portable electric razor for a film aware of its silliness. But, like Malignant, Dead Silence doesn’t play that silliness with a wink and a nod.
Dead Silence has genuinely scary moments, courtesy of the eerie dolls and some fantastic makeup effects, alongside scenes of utter ridiculousness. But that combination of horror and silliness makes it a fun and distinctly James Wan film.
6. Aquaman (2018)
Wan’s second major blockbuster followed the first by becoming its franchise’s first (and as of now, only) film to pass the one billion dollar mark. Aquaman inverts the often criticized grimness of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and delivers a bright, Indiana Jones-inspired adventure film more interested in fun than anything else.
The film follows Jason Momoa’s Aquaman as he battles his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) for the title of king of Atlantis and to stop Orm from declaring war on the surface world. But before he can claim the throne, Aquaman must go on an adventure to find a mythical trident. All of these plot points come standard blockbusters in blockbusters. But Wan’s energetic action filmmaking makes Aquaman stand out, as does the cartoonish production design. The movie features a huge octopus playing drums with all eight limbs, characters riding giant seahorses, and sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads.
7. Death Sentence (2007)
A few months after the release of Dead Silence in 2007, Wan followed it up with the somewhat similarly titled Death Sentence. But while Dead Silence is a silly movie about a scary ventriloquist dummy, Death Sentence takes a more grounded movie with realistic villains. The film follows a man who seeks revenge for the murder of his son by a local gang (led by a character once again named “Billy”), but things aren’t as simple as a death for a death, and the violence continues to escalate.
Genre fans will have seen this kind of story before. But James Wan makes the most of the simple premise and delivers a hard-hitting vigilante thriller with some bravura action filmmaking. One scene in particular sees Kevin Bacon’s character trying to escape the gang in a multi-level parking garage. It remains one of the most remarkable action sequences in Wan’s career, as it plays in a single, long take.
8. The Conjuring (2013)
The best of James Wan’s jump-scare factory films, The Conjuring made a more of an impression for its box office haul than as a film. It launched a franchise akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and currently holds the Guinness World Record for “Most successful horror film series.” At the time of this writing, it has made more than two billion dollars at the global box office.
The Conjuring tells the story of a family haunted by a demonic spirit who seek the aid of “demonologists” Ed (Wan’s muse, Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga). The Conjuring stands above Wan’s other 2010s demon movies because he creates an atmosphere that imbues the film with a sense of real, dangerous evil. Even so, that atmosphere doesn't lift the movie above an effective, but not particularly special, jump-scare-laden haunted house story.
9. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Considering that James Wan made Insidious as a stand-alone film with no planned sequels, it’s shocking that Insidious: Chapter 2 is one of Wan’s better demonic horror movies. Insidious: Chapter 2 builds on the first film’s mythology, involving a dimension called “The Further,” a way station between life and death home to several demonic entities who attempt to enter the world of the living.
A fast pace makes Insidious: Chapter 2 stand above its predecessor and Wan’s other sequel. The film spends little time with things going bump in the night and instead introduces a new mystery for the characters to investigate. The film includes some awkward storytelling but moves along so quickly that it’s hard to complain about narrative issues. Complaints about loud sound cues and ineffective jump scares, on the other hand, all feel warranted.
10. The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Insidious: Chapter 2 lands higher than the original film in this ranking because of its quick pacing. A two-hour runtime and a repeated structure of the first film, however, bog down The Conjuring 2. Instead of a house in Rhode Island where a family begins to experience strange and threatening supernatural occurrences, The Conjuring 2 shows the same thing happening in a house in London.
The Conjuring 2 isn’t exactly bad; it’s just not as good as its predecessor and feels like more of the same.
11. Doggie Heaven (2008)
After the box office disappointments of Dead Silence and Death Sentence, James Wan and Whannell (who acted in but did not write Death Sentence) made Doggie Heaven for an Xbox Live series. The show saw horror filmmakers take on comedy and proved that the two Aussies should stick to horror.
The film follows a man (Whannell, who also wrote the short) after he accidentally kills a dog. Whannell's character then gets killed by the dog's owner. An afterlife clerical error lands Whannell in the doggie heaven. He spends time with the animals, and the short has some cute moments, but things take a turn when a Bernese Mountain Dog sexually assaults him. Wan and Whannell mean it as an absurd joke. Viewers find it upsetting and unfunny, overshadowing any redeeming qualities of the short.
12. Insidious (2010)
Rounding out the list, Wan’s worst film to date also brought him back into Hollywood’s good graces. Made for a modest $1.5 million after the financial failure of Dead Silence and Death Sentence, Insidious made over $100 million at the global box office. The success set Wan on the path to making the haunted house and demonic horror films that make up most of his 2010s output.
Like most of the other demonic horror movies Wan has made, Insidious centers on jump-scares and a long build-up of spooky phenomena in a family home–tried and true stuff for the horror genre. Insidious, however, has a painfully slow setup and fails to make any of its horror sequences scary. Even one moment that’s become iconic plays as more surprising than terrifying. Fans may have Insidious to thank for James Wan’s comeback after two financial misses, but Insidious is far from his best work.
