Horror Elements Quotes

To make Michael Myers frightening, I had him walk like a man, not a monster.

For me, the sound design and the musical score is a big part of what makes scary movies work.

I don't expect people who've enjoyed 'Spy Kids' will enjoy 'Repo! the Genetic Opera!'

Fear has disappeared. No more fear. In Asia, it is different. They've discovered again the fear and the psychology of the characters. Without psychology, the horror film doesn't exist.

The thing is, horror is a big part of 'Sherlock Holmes.' Doyle also wrote a lot of great horror stories, so there's a lot more horror in 'Holmes' that people possibly think of. There's a lot of curses and mysticism and real scares.

Darla [from Buffy The Vampire Slayer] wasn't Darla in the beginning, by the way. Darla was just Vampire Girl #1. But I just started adding a little bit of glee and joy into everything she did and just relied on the fact that the prosthetic does the work. And then I didn't have to be scary. The prosthetic was scary enough. I just had to smile and show off Darla's really great dental work.

I set out to do a horror film with 'Dog Soldiers,' and what I came out with at the end of the day was something that was more of a cult movie, more of a black comedy with some horror elements in it. It kind of went over the top.

With shows like 'The X-Files' or 'Eerie, Indiana' - even though they would have comedic moments, even though they would have character moments - there was a sincerity about magic.

Then my first film was something called Cannibal Girls, which sounds like a horror movie but was actually kind of a goofy comedy with horror elements. Like a horror spoof.

There's a depth to the nightmare, to the symbolism you can exploit, on an intellectual level, on a sexual level, on a primal, violent level, and I think all of those things together are just great. They're the spice and ingredients in the menu of the horror movie, and I think that's why we'll be around for a long time.

I wrote a book called 'Doll Bones', which was another middle-grade book, and when I was writing it, I needed a place in the U.S. that made bone china. And there are only two places in the U.S. that make bone china. They made it by grinding down actual cow bones. It was a plot point. It was a creepy doll book.

I've always said if I had to pinpoint what's more important in a scary movie, the soundscape or the visuals, I'd pick the sound.

"Repulsion" for me was a really big movie where I was like, "OK, technically there's nothing scary going on here but I'm kind of terrified." Something so tiny was devolving this whole world. I guess I've always been obsessed with what I call the "epically small" in cinema, and that's how one tiny, little weird thing can just explode everything.

The best horror walks a line that's completely on a psychological level, not needing the typical tropes of traditional horror filmmaking, then also having to tease out those elements in a way that makes the audience feel like they know what they're in.

There's scary stuff in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.' There's some really nasty skeletons and dead bodies.

Horror used to be one thing, and I think that's starting to broaden - there can have subgenres, and other things can be going on in a horror story. In comics, you'll never get the 'Boo' effect in a comic; you can go for mood, atmosphere and personal tragedy to build the horror elements and sense of dread.

It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude.

I love mixing horror with comedy.

If you're making a horror film, it's very important that you have lots of quiet, suspensey, don't-know-what's-happening stuff before you get the big fright.

When you create those characters that people love and care about and put them in a dark hallway, already the audience is on edge, and they feel empathy for that character. Then it's up to me to decide what jumps out in that hallway. So I think laying that foundation of strong characters and strong story is the most important thing in a horror film.

To me, the scariest movie ever made to this day is 'The Exorcist.' It still scares the living hell out of me, and it's because of the fantasy element. It's the exorcism. It's the Devil. It's not a guy breaking into your house trying to torture you or cut your whatever off. Those kinds of movies don't do it for me, and I don't call them horror.

For me in a horror film, just looking down a long corridor and seeing somebody standing there, the simplest thing in the world, has a really seismic impact to me.

In 'Crush,' it still has a lot of elements of other genres, and then the horror is layered on top of it, especially towards the end.

Horror fans need horror, okay? They don't need little worms squirming around going down your throat. To them, that's not horror.

I felt people responded to two things. One, obviously, is the gore and the scenes like the eye gauging.