James Wan Quotes

Any horror element is as much psychological as special effects.

With a horror movie, you don't want to anticipate where things are going to go.

Ironically, I wouldn't say I'm a massive horror fan. I love thrillers.

Though they don't always have to be set in fog, weather is incredibly important in ghost stories. As is suspense: you've got to turn the screw very, very slowly.

Look at the world of both film and indie games, and you'll find a startling similarity between the two when it comes to creating the perfect horror story. The tricks storytellers pull to make your blood run cold never change; a creaking floorboard, the eerie feeling of being watched, wandering into a world filled with unspeakable terror.

The key to a good horror movie is what happens between the scares. The scares aren't the tricky part. If you're involved in what's going on in between, the scare is going to trick you. If you're not, the best scare in the world will not be scary.

I find the horror genre quite challenging. That's not to say everything I've done has been straight horror - a lot of them have been more on the thriller side. But regardless, I find it the most challenging as an actor to create sheer anxiety and terror out of nowhere because there's nothing scary going on and you have to act like it is.

It's easy for me to write a horror movie about real stuff because my mind is always going there anyway.

I wanted 'Alien' to be all about claustrophobia.

Most horror films fail to scare me. I think 'The Ring' plays more as a psychological thriller. It's smarter, there's more character development and some of the themes explored go a little deeper.

I don't go to horror movies. I walked out of 'The Exorcist,' man.

Horror movies can be very interesting because they can deal with intangible subjects that are full of emotion.

I hate horror movies! I avoid them like the plague. I don't like getting scared.

Horror, for me, has to involve some sort of fantasy. Horror is something that is in your dreams or your nightmares.

I think most fiction focuses on uncomfortable settings because that's interesting.

There often is a dark secret in books... There is often a gathering sense of dread; there's a gap sometimes in the text from which all kinds of monsters can emerge.

I feel that in horror movies, especially, if you don't care about the characters, you've lost the audience. No one cares, and it becomes a process of watching people get killed.

I don't watch scary movies. Sometimes, even having to read the script and do an episode of 'Grimm,' I get a little tense because I know someone's going to jump out of somewhere.

I don't see scarey films. I certainly wouldn't go see my films.

I love the first hour of a horror movie, the fear and anticipation. Then, when it gets bloody, I lose interest.

A good writer can set a thriller anywhere and make it convincing: the trick is to evoke the setting in such a way that it highlights the crime or unsettles the reader.

For me, the sound design and the musical score is a big part of what makes scary movies work.

Horror, of all the genres, is the only one that can provoke an involuntary visceral reaction.

It's not scary to make a horror film because you get to pull back the curtain and see that none of it's real. When you're watching one, the terror bombards you.

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.