If You Think It, The Camera Will

I Wrote, I Think, Half A Dozen Films That Were Completely Out Of Genre. Comedies, Love Stories, Even One Serious Film About Vietnam, And We Couldn't Get Backing For Any Of It. And We Both Sort Of Drifted From Making, At That Time, Serious Money On Last House To Going Through It All In The Course Of Almost Three Years And Only Getting Offers To Do Something Scary Again.

There Was A Generation Of Kids Who Were Just Kind Of Emulating Distant Heroes And Wearing Peace Symbols, And Parents Who Were Thinking Of Themselves As Liberal And Removed From Barbarity, But It Also Was The Era Of Vietnam. I Very Much Was Influenced - And I Think The Whole Country Was Kind Of In A State Of Shock - For The First Time Seeing The Horror And Cruelty Of War.

I Did Have The Resource Of Having Taught Greek Mythology And The History Of Western Civilization, And You Can Go Back Into The Plays Of Aeschylus And Follow What Happens When People Seek Revenge, And There Are People Plucking Their Eyes Out. And Greek Mythology Is Filled With All Kinds Of Monsters And Whatnot.

[i Was] Feeling Like I'd Done Something Horrible, "i'm A Despicable Person And I'm Perverse," And All These Things, To A Sense Of The Power And The Necessity, In A Sense, Of Horror Films And Dealing With Dark Material.

I Make Something I Can Look At And Say, "that's A Good Piece Of Work, And There's Some Terrific Directing And Acting In It, And You Should Be Proud Of It."