Before Hollywood handed him billion-dollar franchises, James Wan was just a scrappy horror guy with a twisted little idea and a camcorder.
Now he’s the bridge between two cinematic extremes: the low-budget, high-tension horror flick and the globe-trotting, VFX-stuffed blockbuster. From Saw to Aquaman, Wan’s filmography swings wilder than a possessed doll in a hurricane.
But this list isn’t about the movies he’s produced—that would be a much longer and messier ride. We’re ranking the 12 movies that James Wan personally directed, based on three key things: how well-crafted they are, what kind of impact they left behind, and how much raw fun they deliver. Some are razor-sharp game-changers. Others are… useful reminders that even talented directors sometimes get lost in the fog.
Let’s roll.
12. Stygian (1998)
Stygian follows a couple, Eden (Shaun Goss) and Jonah (Gareth Yuen), who find themselves trapped in a surreal, apocalyptic dream world after a car crash.
What unfolds is a nightmarish journey through a twisted alternate dimension that reflects their own fractured psyches. Reality melts, time bends, and logic is more of a suggestion than a rule. It’s dark, it’s gritty, and it’s absolutely drenched in the earnest ambition of first-time filmmakers with something to prove.
Co-directed by James Wan and Shannon Young, Stygian is pure no-budget indie horror characterized by rough lighting, jagged editing, and experimental storytelling that plays more like a visual mixtape of influences than a cohesive movie.
You can spot the seeds of Wan’s future obsessions: disorientation, shadowy corridors, and deeply personal dread. It’s not polished, by any stretch, and most viewers would struggle to sit through it today without the historical lens. But for a debut, it’s scrappy, strange, and not without its charms.
Aspiring filmmakers could treat Stygian as a time capsule. This is what raw beginnings look like. It’s a reminder that you don’t start with Spielberg’s toolbox—you start with whatever’s in your backpack and whoever’s willing to act for free. That said, it’s also a warning against prioritizing concept over clarity. When a story loses its anchor, even surrealism gets boring.
11. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) has traded his surf-bro swagger for full-time king duties in Atlantis. But peace doesn’t last. Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is back with ancient magical tech and a thirst for revenge, forcing Arthur to team up—reluctantly—with his exiled half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson).
This sequel had a lot stacked against it—studio interference, a soft DC slate reset, and post-Aquaman fatigue. The first film’s colorful, kinetic charm is diluted here by uneven pacing, bloated exposition, and a plot that feels both overstuffed and undercooked.
While Wan brings flair to some sequences, especially the eco-horror elements in the trench and temple settings, there’s no real emotional current running through it.
For writers and directors, this is a crash course in sequel fatigue. Big-budget storytelling only works if the characters still matter. World-building, no matter how expansive, means nothing if the plot doesn’t flow and the stakes aren’t felt. And if you’re juggling monsters, politics, and brotherly bonding all in one movie, make sure they’re not all pulling in different directions.
10. Dead Silence (2007)
After his wife Lisa (Laura Regan) is found dead with her tongue ripped out, Jamie Ashen (Ryan Kwanten) returns to his hometown of Raven’s Fair to investigate a cursed ventriloquist dummy named Billy. The deeper Jamie digs, the weirder things get: ghost stories, a haunted theater, and the long-dead Mary Shaw (Judith Roberts), a murdered ventriloquist who may be pulling the strings from beyond the grave.
Dead Silence looks great on paper. Creepy dolls? Check. A tragic backstory? Check. James Wan’s eye for shadow and sound design? Absolutely. But the film stumbles in execution. The scares are stylish but predictable, the pacing drags, and the plot twists feel more like narrative patch jobs than genuine revelations.
Still, it’s visually rich, with cold, fog-drenched production design that nods to Hammer horror and giallo in equal parts. And Mary Shaw? Genuinely unsettling when she’s not being over-explained.
Dead Silence proves that even a good idea can fall flat without strong characters and tight plotting. If you build your film around a mythos, you need to make sure it doesn’t buckle under its own backstory. But on a craft level, it’s a great example of how much tension you can wring from silence, timing, and the sound of creaking wood.
9. Death Sentence (2007)
When his teenage son Brendan (Stuart Lafferty) is murdered during a gang initiation, mild-mannered executive Nick Hume (Kevin Bacon) spirals into a dark, bloody quest for vengeance. What starts as a one-off retaliation soon turns Nick into a target, dragging his entire family into a brutal urban war against a violent gang led by Billy Darley (Garrett Hedlund).
Death Sentence is raw and angry, and it knows it. Wan directs this loose adaptation of Brian Garfield’s novel like he’s still working in horror, but here, the horror comes from how quickly a man can become a monster.
The action is visceral, especially in a standout parking garage sequence that’s all grit, shadows, and tracking shots. Bacon delivers one of his most emotionally unhinged performances, selling the transformation from grieving father to broken executioner. But while the film’s rage is palpable, it doesn’t always know what it wants to say about vengeance. It flirts with depth but mostly chooses carnage.
For creators, this is a lesson in tone control. Death Sentence also shows that even if your story has been told before, a distinct directorial style—like Wan’s horror-tinged visuals—can still make it feel fresh.
8. Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Picking up right after the events of Insidious, the sequel follows Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) as they try to return to normalcy after rescuing their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) from the spirit realm. But things are far from normal. Paranormal disturbances persist, and Josh starts acting strangely—possibly because something followed him back from the Further.
Insidious: Chapter 2 doubles down on what made the first film a hit: creepy sound design, eerie visuals, and that signature Wan pacing where dread simmers. However, this time, the narrative becomes entangled in its own time-traveling ghost logic.
The scares still land, and Patrick Wilson gets a meatier, more sinister role to chew on, but the film leans too hard on exposition and flashbacks. It’s inventive, sure, but it feels more like fan service than progression.
For horror writers, this sequel reminds us that escalation is key, but not at the cost of coherence. Building lore can deepen your world—but if your audience is confused instead of intrigued, you’ve lost them.
7. Aquaman (2018)
In Aquaman, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is pulled between the surface world and the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, where he must challenge his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to prevent war. With the help of Princess Mera (Amber Heard) and a trident forged for a true king, Arthur embarks on a globetrotting, sea-surfing adventure to claim his destiny.
Wan approaches Aquaman like a kid who just discovered his dad’s old fantasy comics and thought, “Yeah, let’s do all of it.” Giant crabs, laser sharks, and an octopus playing drums—it all works. The film is a visual overload in the best way, featuring CGI-heavy visuals and a color-saturated palette, with unbroken long takes that make underwater battles feel balletic.
It’s clunky in parts, sure, with dialogue that sometimes sounds like it’s been pulled from a cereal box, but it leans into the absurdity with such confidence that it works.
Style matters when you commit to it. Wan doesn’t try to make Aquaman gritty or self-serious—he plays the epic, operatic card and runs with it. If you’re writing or directing a genre piece, own its identity. Be loud, be weird, and above all, be intentional. Audiences can sense when a film believes in its own world.
6. Malignant (2021)
Madison (Annabelle Wallis) starts seeing murders as they happen—visions she can’t escape and can’t explain. As bodies pile up, she uncovers a terrifying connection to her own past, one involving a parasitic twin named Gabriel who shares more than just a backstory.
Malignant is James Wan unshackled. It starts like a haunted house flick and morphs into something closer to an ’80s Italian horror nightmare with body horror, neon lighting, and bonkers camera work. The twist, when it lands, is so wild it practically rebrands the entire movie. Some critics were baffled; others hailed it as cult gold. Love it or hate it, you won’t forget it.
Take risks. Malignant feels like a film made by someone who had nothing to prove and everything to experiment with. It’s a great reminder that sometimes you have to let the freak flag fly. Remember, though, that bold moves need a tonal anchor, or they risk alienating everyone who’s not in on the joke.
5. Furious 7 (2015)
When Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his crew for the events of Fast & Furious 6, the gang embarks on a globe-trotting mission that includes skydiving cars, skyscraper jumps, and emotional farewells.
Directing a Fast & Furious movie was already a high-octane challenge. Directing one after the tragic death of Paul Walker mid-production? A logistical and emotional minefield. Yet Wan pulled it off, weaving thrilling set pieces with heartfelt tribute.
The action is massive—gravity-defying stunts, brutal hand-to-hand combat—but it’s the film’s restraint in Walker’s final scenes that earns its place here. That final beach-drive sequence is quiet, poignant, and pitch-perfect.
Sometimes the most powerful moments aren’t the loudest. Furious 7 is a case study in scale management and how to balance big-budget chaos with emotional clarity. Wan’s ability to honor a fallen actor while delivering a crowd-pleasing blockbuster is nothing short of miraculous.
4. The Conjuring 2 (2016)
This time, Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) are sent to 1977 London to investigate the haunting of a council house in Enfield. A single mother, Peggy Hodgson (Frances O’Connor), and her kids, especially young Janet (Madison Wolfe), are being terrorized by poltergeists, including a snarling entity known as the Crooked Man.
The Conjuring 2 is a sequel that earns its scares and its scope. Wan brings British horror gloom to the table, but also infuses the film with warmth and even romance—the Warrens are a married couple worth rooting for. The camerawork is elegant and fluid, often allowing scenes to play out in long takes that ratchet up the tension. Additionally, the introduction of the demon nun Valak gave rise to another spin-off and a horror icon.
If you’re writing horror, this is a reminder: care about your characters. Conjuring 2 succeeds because it’s as much about human connection as it is about hauntings.
3. Insidious (2010)
Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) move into a new house with their kids, only to find their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falling into an unexplained coma. When ghostly figures start appearing, they discover that Dalton’s consciousness is trapped in a realm called the Further—a place crawling with restless spirits.
With Insidious, Wan returned to horror with a vengeance. He strips the genre to its essentials: creepy visuals, whisper-quiet sound design, and tension so thick you could slice it with a tuning fork. The film also introduced the idea of astral projection as a horror device—an original touch that gave it an eerie mythos. And that red-faced demon? Nightmare fuel.
Insidious was made on a modest budget, but it punches far above its weight because of clever camera work, tight pacing, and an unforgettable score. Writers: don’t chase effects, chase mood. Directors: use space like it’s a character. Wan does both here, and the result is terrifying.
2. Saw (2004)
Two men, Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes), wake up chained in a grimy bathroom with a dead body between them. They soon realize they’re pawns in a twisted game orchestrated by the Jigsaw Killer (Tobin Bell), who forces victims to make life-or-death decisions to prove their will to live.
Saw changed horror. Period.
Shot in just 18 days on a shoestring budget, it launched an entire subgenre (torture porn, for better or worse), revived interest in gritty indie horror, and catapulted Wan and Whannell into the spotlight. The premise is tight, the editing razor-sharp, and the final twist is one of the most iconic in modern horror history.
Filmmakers should study Saw like a playbook. It demonstrates how to stretch resources, build suspense, and shock without losing the narrative thread. It proves you don’t need spectacles to make a cultural dent, just a nasty hook and total commitment to your premise.
1. The Conjuring (2013)
Based on real-life case files of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), The Conjuring centers on the Perron family, whose rural Rhode Island home becomes a demonic battleground. With escalating hauntings and a full-blown possession, the Warrens must confront one of the darkest forces they’ve ever faced.
The Conjuring is Wan at the top of his game. From its cold open to the final showdown, the film blends classic horror craftsmanship—minimal CGI, long tracking shots, and practical effects—with emotionally grounded characters. The scares are earned, the mood is thick, and the pacing is flawless. It is so much more than just a scary movie. It’s a movie that respects the mechanics of fear.
What makes The Conjuring the definitive Wan film is how it balances everything: tone, theme, pace, performance, and genre loyalty.
Aspiring filmmakers, take notes. This is how you turn a genre flick into an enduring cultural phenomenon.
Conclusion
James Wan’s directorial journey reads like a creative rollercoaster, from student film oddities to horror game-changers, revenge thrillers, superhero spectacles, and a heartfelt goodbye behind the wheel of a franchise. Each movie is a case study in commitment to tone, style, and purpose.
Whether you’re writing your first script or storyboarding your debut, Wan’s filmography is a reminder that no budget is too small, no genre too boxed-in, and no idea too weird.
