James Wan Quotes

Horror movies can be - I don't wanna say not real, but so over-the-top: you can get scared 'cos things are loud and in-your-face, but these are real emotions that I'm using.

It's very difficult to get an audience to be terrified of what's going on. Think about it: You're in a room with so many other people, so for them to be terrified and to care about what's going on on-screen takes a lot of work.

To make the reader afraid, I had to be afraid.

Number one is that it just scares people! Your hair is standing up on your arms, or at least that there's a few moments when you're jumping. That's what makes it a good horror movie.

People's imagination is the most effective tool in creating terror or dread.

When you have a chance to play a character people can relate to, it's rewarding.

I'm scared of scary movies.

But in film you always watch situations or stories that you really have no relation to. A lot of times just because there's no personal connection doesn't mean you can't connect with the film or the characters in the film.

The scariest part to any story is the sliver of truth you hide in the horror. Sometimes its not about the axe wielding murder, but the fact that he's lurking somewhere in your basement. Sure, you keep telling yourself that you'll replace the burnt out light every week.

What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me.

If you care about the characters, then whatever scary thing happens to them, you feel it even more.

I use myself as the barometer to gauge what is scary. I like to think if something scares me, then there's a very good chance an audience will feel the same way.

When horror is about something - capital-A about - that's when it's really landing.

It's difficult, very difficult to create something new every time in this space of horror and scare people every time.

We human beings get nervous if we don't know what's going on. It's the rule for creating scary stories: the unknown is always more frightening than the known.

People relate to my characters and see me in a different way. They identify with me and remember the nuances of my characters.

The closer a horror story gets to the truth of things, the more affective it is going to be.

I think good suspense and horror is really about creating situations that are relatable, and throwing a wrench in it and watching how people respond to it.

You don't want to just preach to people; you want to get them emotionally involved, and I think you do that with a wonderful human story about one person's struggle.

You can watch someone on-stage cry and cry - but in the audience you feel nothing. It's easy to become indulgent. For me, what's important is the story first.

I love to entertain, I love to make people laugh, cry, and move them, perhaps moving them in their lives.

I think it's very easy to disgust the reader with violence on the page - that's incredibly easy - but it's far harder to make a reader care about a character.

I can scare myself like a pro.

I've always been interested in films where you can identify with the actors. Where you can be in their shoes and therefore be more involved if they're people that you recognize.

The people only understand what they can feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them.