The First Monster You Have To Scare

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.

I've Found That If You Have Two Films That Don't Perform Well It Doesn't Matter That You've Had A Bunch Of Successful Ones. The Phone Stops Ringing, And After Deadly Blessing And Swamp Thing That's What Happened.

I've Done A Few Interviews Where I Realized That 9/11 Was The Ultimate Home Invasion, Not To Be Glib About It. You Know, Where The Place That You Think Is Safe And The People That You Think Are Safe And Far From Evil Are Suddenly Just Slaughtered By It, And You Have No Control Over It.

I Think That There Has Been A Slow Recognition That There's A Mind At Work Here, And There's A Skill And Some Bit Of Artistry, And That I Could Probably Do Other Things. Otherwise, I Don't Know That I Would've Been Given The Opportunity To Do Paris, Je T'aime.

The First Monster That An Audience Has To Be Scared Of Is The Filmmaker. They Have To Feel In The Presence Of Someone Not Confined By The Normal Rules Of Propriety And Decency.