Editorials
James Wan’s 6 Steps to the A-List!!
Insidious: Chapter 2 (my review here) cleaned up at the box office this weekend. Not in the expected “it’ll make 20 million” way (which still have been a big win), but in a “holy sh*t it made like 40 million” way.
With James Wan taking the helm of Universal’s gigantic Fast and Furious franchise (he’s currently filming Fast 7), I figured it would be fun to take a look back at the films that got him there. Even with the great Conjuring and Insidious franchise making huge returns on their initial investments (not to mention
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1: SAW (2004)
It’s easy for a lot of people to forget that Saw was never really a “torture porn” film. Sure, it’s a clever thriller that sees its characters in some harrowingly gory moments, but it’s really about decisions. Tough decisions people have to make in order to determine their own survival.
Made for a reported budget of $1.2 Million, this innovative (and occasionally iffy) film wound up with a $55 million domestic take and an overall worldwide box office haul that topped $100M. While Wan and writer Leigh Whannell were involved as executive producers on all of the film’s sequels (with Whannell also writing the 2nd and 3rd installments), they immediately set about expanding their brand instead of hiding within it.
2: DEAD SILENCE (2007)
It was here that we found out Wan’s interest in dolls didn’t begin and end with the Billy puppet from the Saw franchise. This ventriloquist haunter was Wan’s first studio film (for Universal). Produced on a reported $20M budget the film grossed $16M domestic and $22M worldwide at the box office. Not exactly a slam dunk, financially. This was back before the DVD and Blu market had really eroded so it’s possible that it made its money back at some point, but it was almost certainly a longer trip into the black than Saw.
3: DEATH SENTENCE (2007)
This isn’t the first year to see two James Wan films hit theaters. 5 months after Dead Silence Fox released Wan’s second studio picture, Death Sentence. This underrated Death Wish inspired revenge thriller (starring Kevin Bacon) is actually pretty good and has a league of staunch defenders. However, this may be the first time Wan hit the ropes (in terms of an upwardly mobile career trajectory). Also produced for a reported $20M, the film made $9M at the domestic box office and topped out at $16M worldwide.
Even though the Saw franchise was still going strong it would be three and a half years before Wan’s next directorial effort.
4: INSIDIOUS (2011)
But still, what a comeback. Produced on a reported budget of $1.5 million, this slow burn haunted house film (which evolves into a bizarre jaunt into the astral plane of “The Further”) grossed $54 million domestic and $97 million worldwide, a fantastic return on investment even before the ancillary revenue kicked in. In all likelihood, this helped Wan get his next job – which would turn out to be the most pivotal moment of his career.
5: THE CONJURING (2013)
Wan returned to studio filmmaking with WB’s The Conjuring. Here’s something a lot of people will forget in the coming years – it actually got him the Fast 7 gig before it became a global megahit. Early cuts of the film were testing so high and Universal was so impressed with the footage they saw that the deal was announced several months before the film hit theaters. This is where the meritocracy of the whole thing really balances out – The Conjuring is far and away Wan’s best movie. It’s a downright GREAT supernatural horror film, and its quality fed incredible word of mouth and repeat business.
So with the big $100M (plus) budgeted Fast 7 already booked, The Conjuring‘s $135M domestic take (so far) and $259M worldwide total (so far) cemented the perception that Wan had creatively grown into a filmmaker capable of engaging wide audiences on a repeat basis.
6: INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 2 (2013)
While I don’t like Insidious: Chapter 2 as much as The Conjuring, I think it’s a positive illustration of how much risk success can afford a filmmaker. Success isn’t just about piling money into your account, it’s about being able to do what you want. With a built-in audience for the film and a small budget (reported $5M – 1/4th of the cost of The Conjuring), Leigh Whannell and Wan were allowed to do just about anything they wanted. And they did. Chapter 2 is an incredibly “out there” film and it doesn’t play safe by any stretch of the imagination. Which is why it’s commendable even if though didn’t entirely work for me – it shows us a filmmaker who wants to challenge himself and isn’t content going for the easy reward.
Which is to say, even if you’re not a Fast And Furious fan, that you can expect interesting things from Wan in the future. And if he does return to horror, it will be because he’s found an idea that interests him – the guy doesn’t exactly need a fall back plan at this point.
The 30th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival commences this week in Montreal, running from July 16 through August 2. It’s set to unleash 125 features and 200+ shorts, from new premieres to festival favorites.
That includes screenings of upcoming theatrical releases Buddy, Colony, Her Private Hell, Hot Spot, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, as well as retrospective screenings of Pontypool and Gozu. But so much of the fun of Fantasia is the new film discoveries and surprises, and this year’s fest comes packed with potential.
Here are eight horror movies to keep an eye out for at this year’s fest.
Big Break
New York’s cult comedy darlings Simple Town are carving their way into horror with this comedic feature. In Big Break, Will (Will Niedmann), Caroline (Caro Yost), and Felipe (Felipe Di Poi Tamargo, Blood Barn) reunite with their estranged ex-collaborator Sam (Samuel Lanier) years after their sketch group disbanded, hoping to get in his good graces to appear in the sequel of his hit film. But dark secrets are exposed during their weekend getaway, forcing these washed-up comedians to learn what it really means to kill to get their big break. Art imitating life in a witty horror-comedy sounds like a blast.
Corpus
An invite to a secluded party with his longtime crush and rising film star instead unfurls a strange nightmare of sensual and supernatural proportions. Corrin Evans’ feature debut is set in the summer of 1998, capturing a stylish, transgressive web of seduction and terror. The film stars Jeff Wahlberg (“Euphoria”), Brodie Townsend (“Heartbreak High”), Michael Vlamis (“Pools”), Lily Cowles (Antebellum), Nuha Jes Izman (“Yellowjackets”) and Ching Valdes-Aran (The Equalizer).
Freaks Part II
Final Destination Bloodlines filmmakers Zach Lipovsky & Adam Stein return to their mutant roots with their follow-up to 2018’s Freaks. Picking up several years later, Mary (Amanda Crew, Freaks) and her daughter Chloe (Lorelei Olivia Mote, Riddle of Fire) are on the run from authorities, masking their superpowered abilities and identities. But revenge will complicate matters in a sequel that teases a severe escalation in bloodshed. The Conjuring‘s Lili Taylor also stars.
Junction Row
Canadian horror icon Katharine Isabelle stars as Juno, a recovering addict who leaves a fringe housing compound for a better life, leaving her beloved Ruby behind. When she learns Ruby has gone missing, she discovers Junction Row has been overrun with criminals and something far more horrifying. The creature feature marks the feature debut of director Ashlea Wessel, who co-writes Junction Row with Clown in a Cornfield author Adam Cesare and Matt Serafini.
The Last Temptation of Becky
Becky Hooper (Lulu Wilson) escalates her ultra-violent annihilation of Neo-Nazis with a new CIA mission that sends her to Poland to infiltrate a family of innkeepers who are running a tourist venture at The Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s WWII bunker. To prevent the Fourth Reich, Becky takes matters into her own bloody hands. Jenn Wexler (The Sacrifice Game, The Ranger) directs this trilogy capper from a script she co-wrote with Matt Angel (The Wrath of Becky), from a story by Angel andSuzanne Coote (The Wrath of Becky). Neil Patrick Harris also stars.
Los Vampires
Lost actor Henry Ian Cusick and Spectre actor Thomas Kretschmann lead as uncanny surrogates for Carlos Villarías and Bela Lugosi in this fantastical fictionalized account of the making of George Melford’s classic horror film, one that was shot overnight on the same sets as Tod Browning’s Dracula. The period horror movie is written and directed by Craig Mitchell (Komodo). Daniela Couso (Serial Beauty), Jefferson Mays (Inherent Vice), Oscar Nuñez (“The Office”), and Jorge Diaz (Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones) round out the cast. Watch the intriguing teaser here.
Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson
The wild life and incredible career of SFX wizard Steve Johnson (Fright Night, Poltergeist II, An American Werewolf in London, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) gets the documentary spotlight from director Nick Taylor. Those familiar with Johnson’s two-book saga Rubberhead: Sex, Drugs and Special FX, which serves as the basis for the documentary, will already know that the artist is a candid raconteur as open about his failures as his successes. Linnea Quigley, John Landis, Tom Holland, and Oscar-winner Bill Corso also contribute as talking heads in this illuminating doc.
Unholy Night
Grandma is back from the dead and ready to commit murder in this holiday horror comedy from writer/director Michael Gabriele. The chaos of an Italian Christmas Eve gets dialed up to a zany, violent degree in the first teaser. Marc Bendavid (“Dark Matter”), Shailene Garnett (“Shadowhunters”), Al Sapienza (“The Sopranos”), Ron Lea (“Orphan Black”), Toni Ellwand (“Hannibal”), Cristina Rosato (Mother!), Jacqueline Robbins (“A Series of Unfortunate Events”), and Joe Pingue (Antiviral) star.
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