Quotes

It is important to consider that the horror movies should - like modern art - not have a too obvious meaning. When you watch them it is more important what you feel than what you understand.

In Japan horror film are made for a female audience, so [Ringu] has opened the genre towards the female audience and today the horror genre is very feminine.

Everything in horror film is about transgression, and the young audience wants to touch something that is forbidden, and is by function anti-establishment. It is a way for young audiences to express rebellion, and also to deal with very modern fear but in a very playful way, in a very symbolic way. I think it is why horror films have a natural function among the teenage audience; it is a way to express the fact they are not invincible. I have the feeling that is very human, to be young and just to enjoy the thrill of death without any consequences. You can enjoy this thrill, and then two days later be in the Army in Iraq. The death is far when we are here on this side of the world, but the young audience knows we are not so far from the real death.

I always considered the horror genre as a political genre. I'm born in 1960. I have been raised in the admiration of directors of horror movies that appeared in the'70s, like John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and these people are still my heroes. They start their work at the moment of Vietnam and it is kind of obvious that there is a link between the problematic situation of America and the start of the work. It is interesting; in France the horror films are not so popular. People go to see them, but not for the same reason. It is more artistic and process. When I saw 'Hostel,' I was absolutely blown away to see the film in a room of young girls and boys, and it was a date movie. You understand that all these people come to this movie to face something that disturbs them in a collective way.