Sound and sound design has always been very important to my approach to film, because it is a more subversive and allusive aspect of the medium.
Horror movies in a sense are about the things that you cannot control, cannot define and the things that you are afraid of, and that is what the boogey man is. The boogey man doesn't have a backstory, he is just the thing you fear and I think it is important to celebrate that aspect of horror.
Digging up graves is backbreaking work. So I just like that the genre of horror can embrace so many different styles and textures.
I always loved horror as a kid. On the one hand, I really love monsters, because in a way I feel like I related to their outsider status and like the sentimental romantic plight of the monster. More importantly though I feel like people are completely motivated by fear, especially with our political system here in America which is just degenerating into more and more fear mongering and it gets in the way of real discourse, plus it's just something I'm obsessive about and have always been a little bit of a paranoid guy.
In my films quite often, paranoia usually leads to the truth so it is kind of a psychological state of mind to think that what you fear may come true, and those are the types of stories that I like to tell.
I feel very strongly that a film isn't just a story, but the WAY that a story is told. It's why I am such a great fan of Hitchcock because it really is all in the filmmaking.
The worst thing that could happen to a filmmaker is growing up wanting to be a filmmaker.
The whole film business was built on immigrants: Billy Wilder and Michael Curtiz and all these hefty lads.
There are scripts that have come our way that are much more likely to be hits, but we don't really think that way.
We all seek comfort, and I don't pretend to want to live in squalor.
I went to good schools, and I've just always had an allergic reaction to snobbishness - always found myself preferring to blend into the woodwork. I have an affinity to those who, in a sense, failed.
I've gotta be honest, it is a little of a mystery to me. I consider myself very sentimental, very sensitive, but obviously my outward appearance is a bit scruffy-haired, and I have a general tendency toward snarling at people, and a sort of misanthropic nature. Maybe that is what people actually read. I do actually believe that misanthropy and sensitivity go hand in hand, because I have a tremendous disappointment in the ways of the world.
I may love individual people, but I am contemptuous of the arrogance , and in a way, it's both ruined me and fuels me. It's ruined me because nobody cares about these issues, and then it's the source of most of my storytelling now, because I am so preoccupied with it. It fuels me, because this is my outrage. I do believe in that great tradition of literature and storytelling. You know, the downfall and the folly of it all.
When so much is left to the listener's imagination, it is bound to be more scary. But our stories are not just to frighten; they are engaged with the things that are really scary like loneliness and madness.
Glenn and I were listening to a radio show in the car, and he said, "Glass Eye Pix should do radio plays." I loved the idea of working in a different medium. We've made comics, books, movies, video games, models, advent calendars, why wouldn't we try audio plays?
The biggest difference for me is that the tales really have no logical outlet, no particular infrastructure in which to present them as you would have with a film festival. There's no IMDb for audio dramas. So there's a lot of work with no particular reward.
It's always different, depending on the writer and the director. A collaborator like Graham Reznick delivers a fully finished piece, perfected in every way. Other writers direct the recording session and then leave quite a bit of the work to us.
I came to love the rhythm of the sound effects and the whole experience of listening to a story. I made a lot of stuff with my hands and so I loved being free to not watch a screen. I still love it to this day.
The unknown is the most frightening and mysterious thing, especially in the modern world where we can practically Google anything and find out the back story. I think to have that element of mystery it almost creates a frustration that is closer to real life.
The nature will continue, it's our existence that is finite and you are given this gift of life and you make your way with it, but fate and natural disasters will continue on.
I feel like we are so used to CGI [computer-generated imagery] and thank god because it is a wonderful tool, but there is an element of everything you are looking at has been created in the comfort of a studio. I want to return to a world where I can celebrate when you are really interacting with the world.
I love filmmaking when fate is a part of the process and you are dependent on the laws of physics and the elements to get a single moment that transports or in some way creates an illusion even for a moment. I think that is tremendous fun and what I think filmmaking is, catching lightning in a bottle.
I'm an old school guy and love the guys in the monster suits and JAWS; even though everyone makes fun of the shark I think it's awesome. You know it's fake, but with my generation that was part of the charm.
Sometimes I am more interested in the richness of the material with all the stuff we've done which all tell a story to me rather than any single film career I could have, because I really do find myself interested in other people's ideas. I just want to be responsible with an array of things that engage me and feel vital, opposed to the corporate media out there that is just about making the loudest noises possible.
I really think in life there is a lot of mystery and things we just can’t understand and your brain has to adapt... We all have to deal with the twists of fate whether they are explained or not and it’s how you react in life to these curveballs that is really the measure of a man.
