The Conjuring 2 director James Wan got his start in horror, and as we caught up with the helmer at a recent press roundtable, he admitted that is where his heart is and always has been. But, as we clearly see with his work on the billion-dollar-earning Fast 7, Wan can successfully break out of that genre and triumph in other arenas. Heck, he’s about to tackle the Aquaman movie for Warner Bros.
No matter how far Wan goes into other genres of film, he is a horror helming storytelling through and through and evidence of that brilliance is on display in every frame of footage in The Conjuring 2 (review coming June 10). Check out our entire roundtable interview with the visionary and wickedly talented director as we delve into items such as the lessons he learned from the Fast 7 experience, the differences from making The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, as well as what scary flicks it was that inspired him to first pick up a camera in the first place.
Q: There is such a different feel to this film, versus the first film. Was that part of the appeal of coming back to the series?
James Wan: Oh you mean the location of Enfield, London? Yeah, that was part of the reason why I wanted to come back, why I was willing to come back, because it felt different. I knew that I needed to do something different to the first movie, so the stylistic location change, really made it feel like a different movie and obviously, the time period of 70’s London just gave it such a different flavor.
Q: Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, obviously, you had them on the first movie, they are such magic together. What did you first see with those two that they were the two to play the parts?
James Wan: I’ve had my eye on Vera Farmiga for a long time. I love her work, all the way back, I think the first movie I saw her in was a movie she made with Paul Walker called Running Scared, and I loved her in that. I’ve always loved the idea of working with her. I love her ability. I felt like I needed someone like a Vera Farmiga to portray that other-worldly character of Lorraine Warren. I felt very fortunate that we reached out to Vera and she was excited about this role, and doubly more exciting for me was that she knew Patrick. So, they already had a bit of history before, so I thought this is great. And, of course, I have worked with Mr. Wilson, many times before (on Insidious) and I just love Patrick. I think he is such a great leading man that the world hasn’t quite latched onto just yet. Between the two of them — they just get along so well and I think they’re about the same age as well, so they shared a lot of similarities, and a lot of influences. It was just the perfect dynamic for who I needed for the Warrens.
Q: As much as Patrick and Vera are perfect as the Warrens, you have cast perfectly in both films with the moms. Can you talk about casting the moms for these?
James Wan: I have such a great casting director first and foremost, Anne McCarthy, who helps me tremendously, with all the characters, especially with all the kids. She did such a great job in helping me find Lili Taylor (on the first film). After that, we were like, you know what, Lili did such an amazing job on the first film, that we have to live up to that. So when Frances O’Connor’s name came up, I was like, we gotta go with Frances. I’ve always wanted to work with her, and this was the perfect opportunity. She really wanted to be a part of this movie, and she loved the first film. It is that role where you need someone strong but in this movie, playing a character who’s sort of, lower middle class, very English, from that part of the world. For Frances, who is such a well respected actor, she really wanted to capture that sort of middle-lower class of that time period as well, living in council housing house, not having the money to look after this family, you know she really tried to do her research into Peggy Hodgson. But of course, she wanted to play Peggy her way, as she should, so that was that fine line of what Frances brings to it and what the real Peggy Hodgson kinda demanded in the first place.
Q: That house she lives in…
James Wan: You just want to Clorox the whole space! We talked a fair bit with the people that were there in the late 70’s, that were part of that particular story, people that investigated it. One of the people that were there during the height of all the media frenzy was a guy named Graham Morris. He’s the photographer that took a lot of the pictures of whatever thing that happened in that house. He could not be any more of a skeptic type. He’s not religious person. He said, when he was there, that house just really felt like it was falling apart. This family so poor, they had no money to fix anything — the wallpaper was peeling off that wall. He said he couldn’t believe that this was the environment that family, these people were living in, and he felt bad for them. But he also said, I don’t believe in that world, the supernatural world, but things were happening in that house that I just could not explain. He said that things would be moving on their own and he experienced it, he literally had a Lego brick that flew out of a living room, hit him in the face, drew blood and when he went to look at it, there was no one in that room. This council housing are so small, there’s literally no place for anyone to hide.
Q: The differences in locale between the two movies couldn’t have been more vast for you.
James Wan: I wanted to change the look from the first film. The first movie took place in a farmhouse. It was isolated — in the middle of nowhere. It was a big farmhouse, and there was a lot of space to move around, a lot of space for boogiemen to hide in. What made it exciting for me, with this one was it could not be more opposite to it. It was smack in the middle of suburbia, in a busy burrough, on the outskirts of London. There’s pedestrian traffic everywhere, and it is such a different look to the first film.
Q: If you could go back to the beginning, what was it about the genre of horror, and what was it that spoke to you as a kid? Now as an adult, as a director, you’ve had success in other genres of film, but you clearly have such a passion and a love, a gift, of this genre, that it brought you back. What is it about this genre that speaks so much to you?
James Wan: First and foremost, obviously, I’m such a fan of the genre. I saw Poltergeist and Jaws at such a young age, I think it scarred me. Poltergeist made me terrified of creepy dolls, there’s a reason I’m somewhat fixated on evil dolls [laughs]. I have Spielberg to blame for that, and Toby Hooper. Then Jaws made me terrified of the watery unknown, the ocean, and the idea, the concept of men being taken out a space that we’re comfortable in, and put us in an environment where, we’re literally the fish out of water. Between those two movies, I started understanding the dynamic of how to create tension. Part of the reason why I got into horror movies to begin with is a love the horror genre, so I know I can make something in the horror genre from a pure place, a place of passion. But I remember reading an article in which Sam Raimi said that the horror genre is the best genre to break into filmmaking with. Because it’s the one genre that you don’t need necessarily need a lot of money to make it work, if you can be effective you can make it really good with a little amount of money. But more importantly, for me, that particular genre, the horror genre, is a director’s medium. It lets the director craft the camera work, craft the mist on scene, knows when to edit, use sound design, use visual, use lighting, use the actors in such a way and so it is such a director’s medium that I felt it was the perfect place for me to showcase me as a filmmaker.