Jonathan Levine Quotes

I think being snobby about the kind of storytelling people do, it just irks me. It irks me. And in fact, it's one of the things that drives me to make as many horror movies as I do.

I love scary movies and respect the filmmakers of scary movies, and it's just as hard to make a great scary movie as it is to make a great comedy or drama or anything else.

Independent horror movies have really stepped up the game, and hopefully mainstream Hollywood will follow suit.

Rob [Tapert], myself and Bruce Campbell sat in hundreds of drive-insnot hundreds, but tens of drive-ins, watching these movies and learning how they were made, and we started to make our own in Super 8. And that’s really how we got into horror films. After a while we learned to really like them, and the craft that went into them.

The thing I've come to learn is that what's great about small independent films is the intimacy and the communication that occurs when you're making them.

I like serious films, the moneymaking blockbusters that don't make any kind of sense and John Carpenter films.

On the last couple of movies I made - big-budget Hollywood movies - I really missed being able to create my own material.

It was the beginning of film for television. So we had all of these great opportunities. Northwestern was probably the only major film school of its kind at the time that was graduating anybody important.

'Nightmare on Elm Street' really lends itself to using new technologies. CGI would be a great way to exploit and embrace the dream sequences.

I love 'Paranormal Activity' and 'The Exorcist.' 'The Shining' is a great one too, but there's not a lot that scares me. Maybe it's because I know the other side of it, and I know how movies are made, but it takes a lot for me to get freaked out.

Just making a movie the way 'All is Lost' had to be made was a great experience, because it was structured differently than any other film I will make for the rest of my life.

I feel the horror audience is a great audience, and I would ideally make a movie that would give them as much energy as they're willing to give to the picture.

I get a lot of independent films from people who are starting out.

We're gonna try and bring on all the different aspects of horror movie making and bring on guests and show all these old '50's B movies. Not the real corny ones, the real cool ones.

I like horror movies, and in fact I like them even more now after making one. I just think they're much more liberating because you don't really have to apply a very strict logic.

After film school, I embarked on trying to promote independent films. But after a while, I realized I was breaking my back doing six-day-a-week shoots, 14-hour days, and no guarantee of distribution.

I have respect for anyone who's going to go out and make a movie for a small budget and turn it into a phenomenon. God bless you. Please keep making movies. That's great. But it's not what entertains me.

Trying to make a feature film yourself with no money is the best film school you can do.

I love Sam Raimi. 'Evil Dead 2' is one of my favorite films. It's one of the best cheaper horror films I've ever seen. Horror films and suspense films can be made on a low budget without big stars and be very effective.

Nobody cares for the product I, and a host of other horror directors, make.

Sometimes I have little movies that I've made that I wish would be seen by a larger audience. I have a horror movie called 'Sensored' which I'm very creepy and disgusting in, and then I have a family drama called 'The Legends of Nethiah' which has a science-fiction B-story.

My father Kamran Khan was a successful producer, director and actor in B-grade films.

I've got dreams now of reinventing 'Hellraiser' and just getting my head on anything I can get my hands on that maybe I would love. 'Cause the possibilities are endless: I can make my own movies; I can make other people's movies. But if someone had a 'Hellraiser' script and had funding, and I loved it, let's go.

I would say that since I was nine years old I've always wanted to write and direct horror movies and action movies. There's never been a time in my life where that wasn't all I wanted to do.

I didn't go to film school; I studied fine art - I learned how to be a filmmaker on everybody else's money.