"To go back to what is my place of love... it was comforting," James Wan – the director behind Saw, The Conjuring, and Aquaman – tells Total Film in the new issue of the magazine, featuring Dune on the cover. The filmmaker is back with another horror movie, Malignant, and he feels right at home.
"I felt like it might be cool to make something under the radar, that’s not based on any IP, an original story," he says. "Keep it as low-key as possible and make it really fun. The goal was to go back to my indie horror roots but at the same time, do something that I’ve never done before."
The protagonist of Malignant is Madison (Annabelle Wallis, who appeared in the first two Annabelle movies), plagued by horrific visions of gruesome killings that turn out to be real.
"It’s my take on that particular ’80s trope of storytelling where a victim starts seeing through the vision of a killer," grins Wan. "There was a period where there were a lot of movies like that, and I’m a big fan of that particular sub-genre. Movies like The Eyes of Laura Mars. I wanted to do my own version, crossed with my love of [Brian] De Palma and [Dario] Argento and [Mario] Bava."
Above, you can see an exclusive new image from Malignant. Wan also confirmed while speaking to Total Film that he's some way into principal photography on Aquaman 2.
Malignant is in cinemas on September 10. For more on the horror, pick up a copy of the new issue of Total Film when it hits shelves on Friday 20 August. Check out the new cover below, as well as the cover of the special supplement that comes with the issue.
And if you're a fan of Total Film, why not subscribe so that you never miss an issue? You can grab both a physical and digital subscription – and subscribers get exclusive covers and big discounts. Click through the link for more info.
