Horror found me. I got into the movie business to make westerns.
I stopped directing in 2001 for four or five years, until I did the TV series ‘Masters Of Horror.’ I had been working steadily as a director since 1970. That’s a long time. I was burned out.
There’s nothing better than being in an asylum, if you’re going to have a bunch of crazy people in an asylum, and they’re all beautiful Hollywood actresses.
One could make money and get a career going with a low-budget horror film about killers attacking on holidays. It is always flattering to have somebody copy you.
Film buffs who don’t live in Hollywood have a fantasy about what it’s like to be a director. Movies and the people who make movies have such glamour associated with them. But the truth is, it’s not like that. It’s very different. It’s hard work.
First of all, I was a wrestling fan when I was young. Even when I figured out what wrestling was, I was still a fan.
I don’t want to be a part of the demographics. I want to be an individual. I wear each of my films as a badge of pride. That’s why I cherish all my bad reviews. If the critics start liking my movies, then I’m in deep trouble.
I don’t watch my films. I’ve seen ’em enough after cutting them and putting the music on. I don’t ever want to see them again.
I enjoyed ‘The Avengers.’ I couldn’t do that kind of movie though. Superheroes aren’t my deal.
Child pornography is taboo. There are really no such things as snuff films. That’s a legend. But movies are like pieces of dreams, and we don’t need to go into those dreams. Those dreams are beyond. Child pornography – it’s horrible. Human suffering is a horrible thing in real life.
I had a talent for scoring films. I just developed it.
I love making movies.
I never got in this business, in cinema, to make horror movies. They arrived on my doorstep and I got typecast. Which was fine, I enjoy it, but I got into this business to make westerns. And the kind of westerns I used to see, they died. So that didn’t work out.
When you have no money, you need invention.
To make movies you just have to want it enough. You have to have the passion for telling stories. You have to get by the love-of-movies aspect. You can’t just be a movie fan.
Anybody can make a movie, if you have the will. The digital revolution has made it very inexpensive to make a film. Anybody who wants to can do it.
As a filmmaker, it’s about surviving and lasting. So many talented people that I’ve known in my life – directors and writers – just haven’t made it and haven’t had a chance.
Fears are all psychological. Being afraid of death, loss of a loved one and disfigurement are all powered by your mind, and that’s very powerful stuff.
We all question our sanity. Everyone has had an experience of loss of control of something.
Monsters in movies are us, always us, one way or the other. They’re us with hats on. The zombies in George Romero’s movies are us. They’re hungry. Monsters are us, the dangerous parts of us. The part that wants to destroy. The part of us with the reptile brain. The part of us that’s vicious and cruel. We express these in our stories as these monsters out there.