"The Conjuring 2" opened this weekend to great reviews and to a big box office. The film marked the return of James Wan to the director's seat and his return to the horror film. Wan has made his name throughout the years for numerous horror franchises including "Saw," "Death Sentence" and "Insidious." However, last year he made a surprise entry inyo the action genre with "Furious 7."

Latin Post had a chance to talk to Wan about his development as a director and what it meant to come back to the horror genre and the new elemnets he employed for this new film.   

Latin Post: What are the challenges of making a sequel and living up to the success of the original film?

James Wan: That was the biggest challenge for me. Trying to live up to all the expectation of the first film. And it's always hard because when you're making the first one no one knows anything about it, it's under the radar. But when you do the second one, people know so much about it and they're looking forward to it. And that puts so much pressure on you to try and live up to it. And so I saw that as a challenge and one where I wanted to put my best foot forward and to really making a movie with great storytelling and visuals.

LP: When researching for the sequel, how did you come across this story?

JW: There were these stories that Lorraine had talked about in the past and the writers were really taken by it. When we were designing "The Conjuring 2," we need we wanted to touch on Amityville because it was such a famous case that put the Warrens on the map and we knew that we needed to acknowledge that story. Except that I didn't really want to tell that story again because the Amityville story has been done so much. So when the Hodgson story came along it felt like the perfect story to follow along Amityville. There was so much media surrounding them and the stories also had many skeptics.  

LP: what was the research process like?

JW: There is so much documentation over the years. For us we needed to hear these stories straight from source. So we talked to Lorraine Warren and then we talked to Janet Hodgson, Margaret and Billy. It was important to me as a filmmaker to see what they had to say and to see it firsthand and the emotion that they had recounting these stories.

LP: Going into production, what was it like reuniting with Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson and what did they bring this time around?

JW: As much as people love the scary scenes, they love the characters. They really love the roles that Vera and Patrick play. So what I really spend a lot of time with my writers is really crafting the characters and what it will add to the story. You have to find that personal story thread and we used Amityville to kick off the story and thread these characters go through.

LP: One of the things that is so rare in horror films, is the way you balance your characters with the thrills and the scares as well as with intimate moments. Can you tell me about this approach?

JW: I think scares alone are not good enough. If you don't have characters that you care about then those scares only work on a surface level and there will be no sort of emotional connection. Creating characters that you really care about it really important and is what makes these films effective. Jumping into "Conjuring 2" I wanted to find that balance spending time with the scares but also finding time with these characters. And ultimately I also wanted to have a bit of humor because I think you need levity in this sort of movie because otherwise you have a movie that is too oppressive and ultimately that emotional rollercoaster ride is what makes it effective for the audience.

LP: Can you tell me about the visual style? This film has a lot of moving shots and a lot of times you have long takes that are very effective and suspenseful. How did you come up with this style?

JW: I think the visual style is an extension of what I did on the first movie. But at the same time I wanted to step up my game and do something a bit different. I really wanted it to feel like a step forward so I focused on my filmmaking and how I would craft my camera. I'm a visual director and I really do believe that my camera can tell a lot and really tell the story of what is happening on screen. And a lot of directors that I admire create so much tension with the way they move their camera. And I'm big fan of camera techniques and movements to create emotion and tell the story that is needed. Beyond the camera, one of the things I loved about moving from the U.S to England was that my production designers got to play with different visual palettes