Director James Wan (Picture: Getty)

The director of Saw, Insidious and the upcoming release The Conjuring, James Wan states when creating a horror film he likes to ‘put the things that scare me up on screen… that’s kind of like my therapy’.

I’ve been a fan of the horror genre ever since I was 12. The first film I saw (and wasn’t meant to see) was the classic and horror game changer, Halloween 1978. The slow build of tension, the monster concealed and only revealed at the climatic end sequence, the realistic setting and the heart stopping music truly had me squirming.

It’s therapy on a budget for most horror fans. The pulse quickens, adrenalin surges all from the comfort of your own armchair. A safe thrill if you will, leaving a calmness after on the realisation that one’s own life is thankfully not so horrific!



No doubt some see horror as nothing more than a vulgar, distasteful show of blood and gore; a vessel of which to push how much audiences can stomach.


Others see it as hilarious verging ridiculous, not helped by films of recent years that seem to rely more on gore or hilarity than the genuine build up of tension or plot such as Hitchcock’s Psycho 1960 or the more recent gem,The Orphanage 2007 by Juan Antonio Bayona.

Saw 2004 was the first of Wan’s films I watched; fresh with a shocking twist about two men held hostage by a psychopath hell bent on teaching them the meaning of life through sick and demented games.

At the time of its release the film was one of the most profitable horror flicks since Scream 1996 -another horror genre reviver. Next was Dead Silence 2007, the legend of Mary Shaw, murdered ventriloquist who seeks revenge on the town who cut out her tongue – with the aide of her haunting dummies.

Sounds cliched but the film is genuinely spooky with very little blood and gore with the face of Mary startling to say the least.

Then Insidious in 2010, a quirky take on The Poltergeist tale.

The best horror films are the ones that build the tension, play with our primal fears,conceal the monster and have us holding our breath

The latest offering The Conjuring , explores the ever popular sub genre of the Haunted House. From the trailers alone this film seems to hark back to the classic ghost story which causes hair on the back of your neck to stand up and your hands to grip the cinema seat. We also get to see actress Lili Taylor in a horror tale again. She starred in the 1999 remake of The Haunting which was poor compared to the 1963 original but the actress herself was made for horror.

Blood and gore has its place in the web of horror staples but to me the best horror films are the ones that build the tension, play with our primal fears, conceal the monster and have us holding our breath while the soundtrack is left pounding in our ears.

The Conjuring is on general release from 2nd August.