After exploding with the grassroots success of the first SAW, James Wan has had a slow but calculated career in choosing pet projects to try and solidify himself as a horror household name. While nobody may have predicted he'd be a Master of Horror after his follow-up, DEAD SILENCE, he seems to really have been gaining momentum with his last two films, INSIDIOUS and now THE CONJURING, both films that tracked small initially but have enjoyed better-than-predicted box office and strong word of mouth. Wan is now emerging as one of the central figures of horror...which of his films to date is your favorite?
Saw is just classic IMO and I can still revisit it despite knowing all that came after it, and still enjoy it. I gotta go with that for now, but will hold my vote until I see The Conjuring. I planned to skip it and wait for blu-ray, but think I'll try and get out next week to support original R-rated horror in theaters.
WTF after I voted I ended up here?? http://horrordigital.com/vb3forum/showthread.php?t=2558 Anyway I voted for Dead Silence.
same. i wasn't impressed by insidious, and the conjuring looks like more of the exact same. the saw films are cinematic junk food, the kind where you feel a little bit nauseous even before you're finished. i actually enjoyed dead silence, though. I honestly don't consider him as anything special to the horror genre. Any more so that Darren Lynn Bousman or Scott Derrickson or Scott Stewart. edit: wow, after all the fawning people did over insidious, i'm shocked to see it still hasn't received a single vote!
The Conjuring was excellent. Nothing particularly new, but immaculately done. That said, Insidious is his best film to date. I hated Saw and thought Death Sentence was okay. Never watched the other one, looked lame.
I've seen all these films except Dead Silence and picked The Conjuring. Well worth viewing for fans on this site.
Saw is excellent and Insidious is creepy good fun. but I'm not gonna lie, I really loved The Conjuring, I can't stop thinking about it and I want to see it again so badly. IMO I thought it was near-perfect and one of my favorite horror films in years.
I really enjoy Insidious, but even though I've only seen the film once (yesterday), The Conjuring gets my vote. The Conjuring is a well done atmospheric haunted house film that I won't hesitate to revisit. No Tiny Tim songs either (unlike Insidious).
I liked Saw and thought Dead Silence was okay, but Death Sentence was the movie that showed me Wan wasn't just another run of the mill Director. The movie is pretty good, but the chase scene is what makes it stand out from the others. It's an extremely complex continuous tracking shot as the character is chased through an alley and through a multi floor parking garage. There is a making of on the DVD that covers this scene that is well worth your time as well. Insidious is probably my favourite movie by him though. Very creepy, even if it does fall apart near the end when Darth Maul is revealed to be the villain. I will wait to vote until I see The Conjuring though, as I have been hearing nothing but good things about it, could easily top Insidious. Hopefully I will catch it in the next week or so.
Saw for me. I wanted to love Insidious, but it's just too ridiculous. Haven't seen a couple on there though.
I can't believe all of the Insidious hate. I really enjoyed it. More so than Saw, which suprised me. I can't wait to see The Conjuring.
I enjoy all his films, but Insidious is probably my favorite of the bunch. I look forward to Insidious Chapter 2!
Love Insidious, but The Conjuring blew it away with its straight-ahead tone and lack of humor. Great acting all around too. I hated Saw and its sequels-garbage.
That is very encouraging. Something Insidious needed. To explain, it's not so much "hate" as it is frustration. I loved the music/sound effects and atmosphere. Those were bang-on greatness. But then there was the little kid ghost, then the biker ghost, then Darth Maul, then old witch, then psychotic family, then old lady with a gas mask on, then people using an adjective as a noun. "Further". What the fuck is wrong with Purgatory or Limbo all of a sudden? Why give it a new name? It just struck me as a hipster idea thrown in there to try and make what was going on sound more profound and original than it actually was. By the end of it, Insidious had pulled itself apart with too many of it's own ideas that I was annoyed. And THAT pisses me off exponentially more because it was such a shame for what the film had going for it, to be brought down with the rest of the ship.
If you liked Amityville I and II, Dead Silence and films of that nature I would venture you will not find too much to complain about with The Conjuring.
What gives Insidious the upper hand over The Conjuring, which by the way after one viewing would rank 3rd for me after Saw. Is that the conjuring felt a bit too safe. Sure it had less flaws but with Insidouis he didn't seem afraid to swing for the fences. Not everything worked but what did resulting in half a dozen scenes which were more memorable than any scene in The Conjuring for me.
I voted for Dead Silence. And I probably always will...until I see The Conjuring. Because it's a bigger improvement after Saw than Insidious was after Dead Silence. Silence is bad but it is shocking how entertaining it is. Insidious is easily better but I actually felt even less about the characters. And I spent a great amount of time sitting there re-writing the dialogue to myself, especially during the Lynn Shaye scenes. For scenes that ripped off Poltergeist, it forgot about really engaging our imaginations for what was in that "terrifying" nether-region where the boy's spirit wandered off. Then when the father goes into it... we get nothing. The movie wasted a lot of time with boring characters. But...at least it was watchable. Saw is one of the biggest pieces of shit I've ever seen. Absolutely, utterly irredeemable.
