22 April 2011 (Movie Interview)

Entertainment.ie get trapped with the makers of Saw, James Wan and Leigh Whannell. The horror high kings discuss Jaws, primal fears, clowns, budget filmmaking, box office receipts, musical comedies, Saw 8 and their new movie, Insidious.

Words: Mark Linehan

I couldn't breathe. Both my arms were tied to what appeared to be an old electric chair. A mask of spikes surrounded my face. The more I fought, the more the straps that bound my arms tightened. A robotic voice played as a screen flickered in front of me. A male appeared on the screen. I had less than two minutes to escape. The mask tightened as the voice warned that I must watch the end of this weather report by Alan Hughes or have my face torn off. Through the sweat I screamed, "Give me the mask, I can't take this any more!"

Well, that's how I envisaged my interview with the creators of the torture porn tour-de-force that is Saw. If you've never seen - Saw, then just imagine a wood-working class that has gone particularly wrong. Human guinea pigs are subjected to the most creatively gruesome, sick, twisted, vomit inducing, sordid and it has to be said ingenious forms of debased torture committed to celluloid. These medieval inspired horror traps have included a razor wire maze; a reverse bear trap (attached to a head); a needle pit; a knife chair; a head cube; a hair trap; and any number of spinning blades, sharp objects and power tools that you're most likely to find hanging from the shed walls of any self-respecting DIY enthusiast/psychopath. All these evil deeds are overseen by the Scarlet Pimpernel of torture, Jigsaw, and in what may be a twisted salute to gender equality; men and women alike are subjected to the stunts. With all this in mind, it was a pleasure to find that the two men responsible, James Wan and Leigh Whannell are the least torturous interviewees I have encountered.

"You got a notebook in the colours of Ireland that's pretty patriotic, mate," Leigh points out as I sit down. "I'd say you're like me, standing at the window naked saluting the national anthem every morning!" We burst out laughing. Both men greet me with cheshire cat smiles and a spring in their step. "I wouldn't say that we are obsessed with horror but we love genre movies. What we do love about the horror genre is that it's a craftsman's genre. Nothing about it is haphazard. It's put together in a way like an engine in order to manipulate the audience. And we as an audience, we love to be manipulated. When a good director has you in the palm of his hands and you're squirming in your seat, there's nothing like it. Hitchcock was the master. But you have people like early Spielberg, Hideo Nakata, Brian De Palma, Scorsese, Dario Argento. When you see a good director at work, a real craftsman, it's great fun."

Wan and Whannell, both 34, intermittently reel out lists of directors that have influenced them. They grew a common bond after meeting at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology studying Film. According to them it was the kind of place that didn't encourage their style of filmmaking, but it is where they honed their horror skills. It's funny to hear the film that disturbed these newly crowned high kings of horror most was about a big fish, "The film that scarred us both as kids was Jaws. It made me frightened of the ocean and I still am! (which must be hard living in Oz) The genius of Jaws was that it tapped into the primal fears, these are the true keepers because man has a fear of being eaten by a creature from below. He is out of his comfort zone and has no control over his environment, he cannot hide. We took a lot of these cues when creating Saw."

When both men talk, it's two heads of the same body. Like a long married couple each finishes the other's lines. In an industry so frought with fragile egos, the two are beaming with friendly banter. And obviously there's the financial bond. According to Wikipedia the Saw franchise has already grossed $848 million at the box office worldwide. The first film alone grossed $55m on a budget of $1m. The two men stepped away after that but still claim ownership and a hefty wedge of the takings. The figures are even more astounding for their new movie, Insidious. I say that I read that Insidious cost close to $2m (Wiki again so that gross figure on box office is probably double that figure!). Leigh looks at me puzzled. "Insidious cost $800,000 mate, so cheap. We made it outside the studio system. The irony being that it was made independently and that we had say so on nearly everything including me (James Wan) getting director's cut. That is so rare these days. Nobody gets that these days because of studio involvement." Leigh adds: "If there is a group of people policing each frame of a movie then inevitably it gets diluted and it is not your film when it is distributed." The studios must now be very big fans. Yet to be released in Ireland and the UK it has already grossed over $35m at the US box office. An incredible return.

Moving away from the torture porn, Insidious is a haunted house movie with a twist. Taking nods from Omen, Poltergeist, Hellraiser, The Shining, The Exorcist and even Ghostbusters, it is a salute to the movies that inspired them and a return to the classic creaking door and face at the window horror. An impressive cast led by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Morning Glory) and Rose Byrne (Troy, Get him to The Greek), the story revolves around a family who move to a new house and find that after a series of chilling incidents, it is their child and not the house that is haunted. Leigh doesn't feel that the PG-13 rating affected the movie, but enhanced it: "We don't feel that the rating affected us in making this movie. We just have to think about the process in a different way to say making a movie like Saw. No guts, no gore, but we have to make the scares subtle and we love that challenge. We also get to scare a lot more people. We're hoping that they're will be a whole bunch of kids that will be scarred for life. The therapists of America are probably going to thank us for bringing so much custom their way!"

James dips in, "I think that it is scarier. When you don't have the gore and guts to lean on then you have to dig deeper into your bag of tricks. To make something scary it has to be instinctual. The really scary stuff are the things that burrow into your subconcious and stay there. It's the kind of thing that you see as a kid and it scars you. What Leigh and I do a lot is look at the things that scare us. We design our scare scenes and our suspense sequences around that. Like shadowy figures in the room, creaking doors or being watched from up close. All of these primal fears. It kinda sucks when it's 3am and you are just thinking about a scene and working through it then you cannot sleep after because you're brain is still going!"

So, what next for the dastardly duo? There has been talk of another Saw. "Well I think the producers of Saw wanna take a break. They have made seven Saw movies in seven years and it's a really tiring process, but I would say the studio would be quite happy to keep it going. Whoever is counting the money at Lionsgate is thinking, 'When are we gonna make Saw 8!?' We have been talking about a sci-fi project. Really early stages, but very exciting because it's something new to us and you need to paint with different colours or you just get bored. The reason why I wanted to be in this industry is because I never wanted a job. I didn't want to work and just get bored. I'm too lazy. I think if you repeat yourself too much something becomes like a job and I want us to change things up, so okay let's do a comedy now.

James: "But don't worry they're won't be any clowns. Jesus, I would never put a clown in a comedy they're one of the scariest things out there!" And we'll leave the last line to Leigh: "People think it's bizarre that the Saw guys have made a haunted house movie. Well, wait until you've seen our musical comedy. Then you'll see bizarre!"

Insidious is in Cinemas April 29th. 

 

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