James Wan has revealed he is aiming to make the next Saw film “scary again” as he prepares to return to the long-running horror franchise.
Speaking to Letterboxd’s Isaac Feldberg while at Sundance for the Park City Legacy screening of the original 2004 film, Wan discussed his involvement in the upcoming 11th instalment and his desire to recapture the spirit of the first movie.
He said: “For me to finally come back to it, I feel I have probably the freshest outlook.
“I feel I can come back to it with a new perspective whilst knowing that with this next movie I want to hark back to the spirit of the first movie.”
The filmmaker explained that his focus is less on gore and more on psychological horror.
He went on: “One of the things I really want to do with this next Saw is make it scary again. I want to make a scary Saw — not just gory, but psychologically scarring, like what Leigh and I did in the first movie.”
Wan added that he and co-creator Leigh Whannell want to revisit Jigsaw’s original philosophy.
He explained: “Leigh and I both want to recapture the spirit of that first film and revisit Jigsaw’s philosophy, which is that he goes after people who don’t appreciate their lives.”
He continued: “If you’re a scumbag, but you appreciate your life, he doesn’t see you as someone who’s wasting your life, so I want to go back to what we touched on in the first movie with regard to that.”
Wan also stressed the importance of pushing the franchise forward.
He said: “At the same time, I want to honor what people have come to love about the franchise, whilst trying to do something fresh and new that we haven’t seen before.”
Reflecting on the longevity of the series, Wan concluded: “This next movie would be the 11th instalment, and there’ve been lots of films in this world. We need to do something different in order to reach out to a new generation that didn’t grow up with it.”
