James Wan has described 'Malignant' as a "palette cleanser".

The 44-year-old director has returned to the horror genre for his latest movie and admitted he wanted to make another scary flick following his work on the 'Aquaman' superhero franchise.

James, who has co-created both the 'Saw' and 'Insidious' franchises, told Entertainment Weekly: "Right after 'Aquaman 1', I knew I was jumping in to 'Aquaman 2' at some point, but I needed to take a little break, I needed a palette cleanser.

"There's only so many PG-13 movies I can make before I get bored of that. I wanted to go back to the kind of movies I used to make that I haven't made for a while."

James admits that he wasn't worried if his "people" didn't think a return to horror was a wise career choice following his work on 'Aquaman'.

The director joked: "I'm sure they were secretly thinking it.

"I don't know. I think they were just excited that I was excited, that was the bottom line. My people know that I'm very much driven by the projects that excite me.

"They've tried in the past to get me to do things that I'm not interested in and they have seen firsthand it gets nowhere."

'Malignant' stars Annabelle Wallis as Madison, a woman tormented by shocking visions of grisly murders, and James revealed that he was desperate to work with her after collaborating on the film 'Annabelle' in 'The Conjuring' Universe - another horror series created by the filmmaker.

He said: "I've loved her ever since and I've always wanted to find something to work with her on.

"When we first sent her the script I was fingers-crossed hoping that she would be attracted to it. When she read it, she loved the theme of the movie, where it could allow her to play as an actor, to (walk) that psychological line. Am I crazy? Am I not? Am I stalked by a killer? What's going on?"