Quotes from Leigh Whannell

If you chose to be an actor, if you take that baton and say 'OK, this is what I want to do with my life.' you're really putting your fate and your life in the hands of others.

I'm not actually terrified of technology. Though I'm certainly not an early adopter, either.

Somewhere along the way, the ability to make terrifying big budget films like 'The Exorcist' or 'The Shining' was lost, and I don't know if we'll ever get it back.

I think the way to create a lot of terror in a haunted house film is to have a bunch of people who have no idea what's happening to them, and you sort of live the movie through their eyes.

You can't compare David Cronenberg's 'The Fly' to the older version.

I will say that when it comes to the horror genre, for me, the scariest thing is when something is actually in the frame.

I wasn't a frustrated writer who really wanted to act or a frustrated writer who really wanted to direct. I was really happy writing screenplays, and there's a lot of people who just do that - they're screenwriters.

I always want to fulfill genre expectations and think that should be the bedrock of any film - then you can layer in thematics.

I was influenced by people like David Fincher and William Friedkin, and these directors who kinda paint their films with these dark shades.

I think repetition is the hardest thing to avoid with sequels, because you've told a story and now you're adding more story to the story.

The problem with acting is that there's really no control. You're at the behest of others.

I'm still a big believer in movie theaters, and going to see movies in public.

When I was a kid, 'Robocop' to me was just good guys and bad guys.

You know you've have a good idea when you're lying awake at night going 'someone else is going to take it, I just know it!'

The good thing about directing a screenplay that you've written is that you see the film in your head as you're writing it and then you see those decisions through to the end.

Horror film fans are pretty starved for quality. If you do something thoughtful or if you make something good, they're so thankful for it.

The great thing about 'The Exorcist' is it's dead serious horror. No comedy, no self-reference, it's a documentary style.

I think that's the problem, when you're a young filmmaker and you're starting out, you don't know people, you're easily lead, you don't know the right people to talk to, you really need guides.

One of the most crucial aspects of a haunted house movie is the fear and disbelief of the characters, because they don't know what's happening to them.

Supernatural films allow you to bend the rules of time and space - that's really fun, especially for screenwriters who often get shot down for logic reasons.

The good thing with 'Insidious' and 'The Further' is that it's so nebulous, this supernatural world, that it allows you to bend things. There's a lot of room, it's very malleable, like how in the second film we had a lot of time travel.

I think true connectivity is something that is rare in sequels. I mean I love the first 'Die Hard' film; you won't find a bigger 'Die Hard' fan than me. But I feel like with the sequels, they're just taking that character and dropping him in different scenarios. There's no real connective tissue.

Usually with me, the ideas I have for movies just sort of pop into my head. I've read a bunch of screenwriting books over the years and, to be honest, they're mostly pretty crappy.

The most fun part of making a horror movie is watching it with an audience.