People

James Wan

Directing · follow into films and chains

Biography

James Wan (born 26 February 1977) is an Australian filmmaker. He has primarily worked in the horror genre as the co-creator of the Saw and Insidious franchises and the creator of The Conjuring Universe. The lattermost is the highest-grossing horror franchise at over $2 billion. Wan is also the founder of the film and television production company Atomic Monster. Beginning his career with the Saw franchise, Wan made his feature directorial debut with his first film in 2004. The franchise became commercially successful and grossed more than $1 billion globally. Following a period of setbacks, Wan found new success with the Insidious series, in which he directed the first film in 2010 and its 2013 sequel. The same year as the second Insidious, Wan directed the first Conjuring film to critical and commercial success. He served as the director of the second installment in 2016 and produced subsequent films in the franchise. Outside of horror, Wan directed Furious 7 (2015), the seventh installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, and the DC Extended Universe superhero films Aquaman (2018) and its sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023). Both Furious 7 and Aquaman grossed over $1 billion, making Wan the eighth director with two films to reach the milestone. He is the 16th highest-grossing director of all time as of 2021, with his films having grossed over $3.7 billion worldwide. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Wan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Notable films

Where to start

Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.

Backrooms

Producer

Saw

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Furious 7

Appears in a KinoChain journey

Mortal Kombat II

Producer

Insidious: The Last Key

Producer

The Conjuring

Directed

Lee Cronin's The Mummy

Producer

Insidious

Directed

Chains

KinoChain journeys

Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.

Browse all chains

Death as Choreography: Eight Films of Inventive Demise

From cosmic indifference to moral punishment, these eight horror films treat death as a precise, theatrical art form. Each kill is a set piece, a statement, and...

8 films

The Threshold of Nowhere

From a furniture store's hidden door to the endless corridors of the mind, this chain maps the liminal spaces where dread and wonder collide.

8 films

Ghosts in the Machine

From a stuntman's final role to a star's digital encore, these eight films trace cinema's long affair with performing from beyond the grave.

8 films

Topics