JACK SPENCELY 9302 A2 MEDIA

James Wan is a very famous film director, screenwriter and producer. He is extremely renowned for his work in making horror movies and is one of the most popular directors for his work in various films like 'The Conjuring', 'Insidious' and the infamous 'Saw' franchise, which in the early 2000s was often considered a trial by fire for numerous teenagers. Each of these films succeeds in its intended purpose of instilling fear into it's audience.

 

Many of his horror movies involve a physical monster that is difficult to combat, like a ghost or demon. This is opposed to a force that represents evil or a monster that can be fought. This creates that sense of desperation that creates plenty of tension in the film. He also uses one particulary creepy piece of iconography, ventriloquist dolls, in his films. One of his most popular films, 'Annabell' uses the doll as the primary antagonist of the film. He also prefers to use real props like several horror directors as opposed to CGI which creates a feeling of realism and adds to the horror. 

 

'Saw', is probably his most popular franchise. While there is little in the way of story to the film it makes up for it with it's underlying meaning "Would you kill to live". The film relies on gore and psychological terror through the threat of grim dismemberment and death. While this seems unrealisitic it's the sheer amount of the gore that causes terror and the films antagonist, Jigsaw, that provide the terror. He utilises the puppet, Billy, as a way to talk to each of the victims and this puppet actually represents the environment he is in with his colouration. Billy is also within a part of the 'Uncanny Valley', which is a term used to describe characters and how close they are to humans. there is a dip in the middle to represent the uncanny valley which are things almost human but off in some way which causes them to come across as creepy.