Quotes

[interview with Dave Kehr in the New York Times, September 2002] I'll direct any movie starring a monkey or the Olsen Twins. Preferably both.

I would shoot in the Czech Republic over the States any day. There's no unions here, so the dollar goes a lot farther. You can film with kids without the same kind of strict regulations and hassles you get in the U.S.

I know your second film can make or break you, because you're either a bona fide director or a one hit wonder.

I am very lucky to have good people around me to bounce ideas off of. They bring out the best in you.

Hype can be the best thing in the world, but too much of it can kill you. There's this weird balance between getting people excited to see the film, and not wanting to over-hype it to the point where they can't enjoy it because they've been told it's so great. Cabin Fever was definitely a victim of that, and people got really angry if it didn't live up to their expectations that they read on the Internet. The truth is, with movies like Hostel and Cabin Fever, the Internet's our only shot. They don't have the big stars like War of the Worlds, and they don't have the advertising dollars that these films do. Studios can spend $30-$40 million marketing a movie. How do you compete with that? You have to find a way to get fans to support your movie, and the Internet's the only way to reach them directly without a huge budget. However, the danger is that if you catch that hype wave and people are excited, you have crazy expectations to live up to. People's enjoyment of a movie is directly related to what their expectations of that movie are. If they heard Cabin Fever was some weirdo low budget scary/funny indie movie that got a distribution deal at a festival, they tended to like it much more than people who heard it was the second coming. The other danger is that people get sick of you - fast, and I know people out there are tired of reading about me.

Cabin Fever was this crazy ride, as most of you know. It was all totally built through Internet and word of mouth, and we made it for a million and a half bucks, and it wound up doing like over 100 million dollars.

People don't enjoy violence in real life, but they love it in their movies. And I think a lot of studio horror movies don't want to offend anybody. If there's anything that's too far out there, they test it and if it offends people, they take it out. But Open Water, Wolf Creek, The Devil's Rejects -- these are movies made outside of the studio system, that don't have a happy ending. [The studios and critics] forget that that's what people are paying for -- to be terrified and disturbed.

There's not a single instance of a horror movie actually causing any violence. People know it's fake, that's why they allow themselves to enjoy it. It helps them deal with their own fears, the fear of things beyond their control. People blow up abortion clinics and then blame the bible, but you would never say 'ban the bible,' you'd say that's some lunatic who wants to kill people and then hide behind religion. Nobody ever died from a horror movie, in fact, it's the opposite. It's the single best date movie you can go to, because you're guaranteed to be squeezing that person for the entire film. And if the movie works, your date won't want to go to sleep alone. Horror films are an aphrodisiac. 9 months from now I predict a wave of 'Hostel' babies.

If I don't come home covered head to toe in fake blood then I haven't done my job as a horror director.

Failure, in my book, is someone who lives in the safety of their laptop taking shots at those who actually achieved what they have been unable to do.

I'd seen all these films on the festival circuit like Audition, Ichi the Killer, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, and I said, this is the kind of movie I want to make. Something that's sick, and disturbing, and fucked- up... [but] I wanted it also to be a fun ride.

I read it and it was like Donny kicks open the door and shoots Hitler in the face. I was like 'Woo-hoo!' I was so happy. It was amazing. It was like I'm going to be the new Moses. - on the script for Inglourious Basterds

I saw Alien (1979) when I was eight years old. To me, it was like a combination of Jaws (1975) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and that's the movie that made me want to be a director. It traumatized me. I actually threw up I was so nervous after I saw it but that's like the highest compliment you can give a horror film. Then, when I was 12, I saw The Evil Dead (1981) and that movie traumatized me too, but I also discovered that a 21-year-old [Sam Raimi] directed it, that you can go off in the woods with your friends and for not much money make a classic.

Peter Sellers is probably my favorite actor of all time. I just watched Dr Strangelove (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)) the other night. I'm obsessed with him, even in The Party (1968) and Being There (1979). Peter Sellers can do no wrong in my book. I also love Ricky Gervais, Sacha Baron Cohen, Steve Coogan.

I really like The Office (2001), the original one. And obviously Sacha Baron Cohen, I have all the British Ali G DVDs. When I was shooting Hostel (2005), the children who played the street kids were these gypsies who lived in a commune. They didn't go to school but knew English from watching HBO and Ali G. They called me Eli G, and I had to say: 'Yo bitches!' Recently I've been watching Nighty Night (2004) with Julia Davis. That's one of my favorites.

I will be forever stuck in classic rock. I listen to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie. I have a soft spot for '80s metal, because I grew up in Massachusetts, so I listened to Guns N' Roses, AC/DC and Iron Maiden. I like weirder, more obscure stuff too like Devo.

I still like The Boomtown Rats. Bob Geldof is actually my favorite person to argue about music with, because he just rolls his eyes when I talk about the genius of Powerslave, an Iron Maiden album. He just scratches his head, looks at his daughter and says: 'Why did you pick this guy?'

The Exorcist (1973) felt so real. I'd never seen anything that horrifying. It scared me for years, I had nightmares for years as a child and had always wanted to be involved in an exorcism movie.

[on shooting of Hostel (2005) in the Czech Republic] The thing that is wonderful about shooting in Prague is that there is such an incredible wealth of talent. We are probably the only American movie that has gone in and used a local crew and a Czech DP. Every other movie that shoots there brings in their own crew and department heads. So the local actors will get roles like bus boy #3 or have some walk on role. Usually they will end up dubbing the voices so it doesn't sound like they are in the Czech Republic. That was the best thing about writing and then shooting there, because you could cast these actors and have authentic accents rather than trying to pretend. So, all the sudden you have these award winning actors like Jan Vlasák that plays the Dutch business man. We called him 'Hannibal Czechkter', and he was so great. He doesn't even speak English and he said: Don't worry, I learn. He's like the top Shakespearean actor in the country! Most of these actors could care less about being in big films in America, they just love acting.

[on Hostel] "Thats how I feel about what is going on in Iraq. There are people that just want money and people are being sacrificed for it.

I don't think of myself as a horror director. I'm a director who has made horror movies. I understand why people say that, but I directed a thriller and I did 20 animated shorts before I made "Cabin Fever," so I don't even think of myself that way.