I Like To Address The Fears Of

I'm Writing A Film Called 'bug.' It's An Original Script, And It's Not About Killer Insects. It's A Thriller Set In A High School. The Bug Of The Title Refers To A Surveillance Device.

I Wasn't Allowed To See Movies When I Was A Child. It Was Against The Religion I Was Raised In, Fundamentalist Baptist. I Didn't Go Into A Commercial Movie House Until I Was A Senior In College, And That Was On The Sly. It Wasn't Until I Was In Graduate School That I Immersed Myself In Films. Then, I Went To See All The Films By Bergman, Fellini, Etc.

I Came To Terms With Living Mostly In A World Of Horror Pictures Or Genre Pictures. I Have Had A Few Chances To Get Outside And Do Something Different, Like Paris, Je T'aime Or Music Of The Heart, But Mostly It's Been My Lot. And To Have Created, With A Few Shocking Films, An Awareness Or A Perception Of Me As Somebody Dangerous And Scary - That Can Be Sold, But Trying To Sell Me For Some Other Kind Of Picture, Like Music Of The Heart, Was Very Difficult.

I Think The Important Thing About Staying Creative And Staying Sharp And Original Is Not To Look Back Too Much, And To Kind Of Look To Where Your Vision Is Going Now. But I Have Felt Over The Years A Definite Progression Or Arc From Feeling Guilty About What I Had Done With The First One, Because Certainly There Was All That Fundamentalist Guilt That Came Pouring Back In. Feeling Like I'd Done Something Horrible, "i'm A Despicable Person And I'm Perverse," And All These Things, To A Sense Of The Power And The Necessity, In A Sense, Of Horror Films And Dealing With Dark Material.

There's More Emphasis On Art And Culture In Europe Than There Is In The United States And I Think That A Lot Of American Directors And Writers Are Just Trying To Copy Other American Horror Films, They Don't Pick Up Much In The Way That European Filmmakers Do.