Horror director James Wan talks about the inspiration for Insidious as he celebrates the film's recent 11th anniversary. Wan made his career through horror films such as Saw, The Conjuring, and the more recent Malignant, as well as through big-budget blockbusters like Furious 7 and Aquaman. Wan is known for his collaborations with Leigh Whannell, who co-wrote many of Wan's early films before directing his own works including Upgrade and The Invisible Man.
Insidious follows a couple whose son enters a comatose state and becomes a vessel for malevolent entities to enter the real world from the astral plane. Insidious would go on to spawn four sequels, including the upcoming Insidious 5, which is set to be directed by franchise star and frequent Wan collaborator Patrick Wilson. The four Insidious films have grossed over $500 million combined against a combined budget of a mere $26.5 million.
Wan, on his Facebook page, talks a bit about the inspiration for Insidious, mentioning he wanted to shake off the "torture porn" label that had been following him since Saw's massive success. He talks about wanting to do something more atmospheric and less reliant on gore, taking inspiration from haunted house ghost stories. He also talks about making the movie on its $1.5 million budget and getting it shot in a brief 24 days, editing the film himself on his home computer. Read his quote below:
After SAW, I wanted to shake the “torture-porn” label and do something less graphic and more atmospheric. Being huge fans of ghost stories and haunted houses, Leigh Whannell and I wanted to do our own version of those films, and felt we could make it for very little money to retain complete creative control. We felt the most important thing the film needed was to be scary, and so we dove into the creepy world of astral projection (a subject matter that fascinates me) and dimension-traveling.
With Insidious' more atmospheric approach to horror, it allowed Wan to break into more ambitious projects, with his follow-up The Conjuring making over $300 million three years later. The hugely successful returns of the films are what allowed Wan to direct the big franchise entries that most mainstream audiences know him for. Insidious also allowed him to begin his working relationship with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, who would go on to produce other financially successful horror films such as The Purge, Split, and Get Out.
Though Wan's career has branched out into other genres, last year's Malignant shows his heart will always be with the horror genre, with its smaller scale allowing for more creative freedom and individual approaches. Though Insidious and his other franchises tend to get run into the ground with the high number of sequels, the first films are always what people will remember, and Wan's work speaks for itself on that front. Whatever is next for the Insidious franchise, Wan and Whannell's work has shaped modern horror filmmaking for better and worse.
Source: James Wan