(Photo by Warner Bros.)
All James Wan Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
Director James Wan and creative partner Leigh Whannell broke into the industry with their 2003 short Saw, which they remade a year later as a feature-length Lionsgate film. Introducing horror icon Jigsaw (the moral and vengeful escape-room architect with lots of time on his hands, played with aplomb by Tobin Bell), Saw‘s high-concept, extreme-gore thrills found its audience of young, increasingly desensitized viewers. Wan and Whannell branched out early from Saw, remaining on the franchise as executive producers.
Dead Silence and Death Sentence came and went before Wan struck upon on more franchise horror gold with Insidious. Wan would direct the first two films, as Whannell made his directorial debut on Chapter 3 (and from there would climb to Upgrade and The Invisible Man). After Insidious for Wan: Directing horror opus The Conjuring, a blockbuster 1970s-style scarefest, reminiscent of The Omen and The Exorcist.
Wan was given the keys to the Fast & Furious series, with Furious 7 pulling off the action, the heists, and the proper, emotional family tribute to star Paul Walker, who died late in production. F7 remains the best-reviewed and highest-grossing Furious of the franchise. The Conjuring 2 came pretty close to capturing the magic of the first, and Wan’s sojourn into the DC Extended Universe yielded Aquaman, the first DCEU movie to top $1 billion worldwide.
Wan is back again to his smaller-scale horror roots with Malignant. To mark the occasion, we’re ranking all James Wan movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
20%
21%
38%
50%
66%
66%
80%
81%
86%
