Every James Wan Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
1. Saw
But Wan has never managed to top the nerve-jangling brilliance of his formal filmmaking debut.
Made for a mere $1.2 million, Saw may lack the polish of Wan's future work, but it thrives on the strength of its ingeniously grim premise, giving Wan and writer Leigh Whannell the floor to come up with as many creatively gnarly traps as their minds would allow.
Though undeniably rough around the edges in terms of its technical execution and performances - especially a never-worse Cary Elwes - Saw's brilliantly enigmatic story and continual unspooling of tantalising reveals make it extremely tough to resist.
What got everyone talking about Saw is of course its climatic plot twist, which remains one of the most shocking and talked-about of the last 20 years.
It birthed a glut of sequels of wildly varying quality, but the grotty, low-rent purity of the original - which is a lot less bloody than you probably remember - ensures it's still the greatest thing Wan has ever made, warts and all.