I think the experience of going to a theater and seeing a movie with a lot of people is still part of the transformational power of the film, and it's equivalent to the old shaman telling a story by the campfire to a bunch of people.
Interpretation
The collective experience of watching a film in a theater has a deep impact on individuals, reminiscent of storytelling traditions.
Wes Craven emphasizes the significance of shared experiences in film viewing, comparing the communal act of watching movies in a theater to the ancient practice of storytelling by the campfire. This highlights how engaging with narratives in a group can be transformative, fostering a sense of connection and emotional resonance that transcends individual experiences.
In practice
During a film festival, one might say, 'It's amazing how this theater brings us together, just like the old storytellers.'
That's what's great about the horror genre is that you're getting a load of people together in the cinema at the same place and the same time, having them all experience extreme fear and come out alive at the end. It's an uplifting experience, and there's a sense of elation.
You don't enter the theater and pay your money to be afraid. You enter the theater and pay your money to have the fears that are already in you when you go into a theater dealt with and put into a narrative.
If something comes along that is totally outside of horror, fine, but I find there's an immense amount of freedom within the genre.
You have to be aware of what the audience's expectations are, and then you have to pervert them, basically, and hit them upside the head from a direction they weren't looking.
I couldn't find an actor to play Freddy Krueger with the sense of ferocity I was seeking. Everyone was too quiet, too compassionate towards children. Then Robert Englund auditioned.
I was paralyzed from the chest down when I was 19, so I kind of put my head together about dying, and I think I've come to terms with it.
To you I am neither man nor woman. I come before you as an author only.
Everything we know about Hamilton, we knew when he was alive, because he told us.
My life, my reading, everything about me revolves around the cinema. So for me, cinema is life, and vice-versa.
Camus says in 'The Stranger' that reason is the enemy of imagination. Sometimes you have to put reason aside and make something beautiful.
Monet's garden must be included with his works, because he combined the magic of an adaptation of nature with the work of a painter of light. An extension of the studio into the openair, with color tones lavishly spread out on all sides to exercise the eye with seductive vibrations, from which a feverishly aroused retina expects unquenchable joy.
Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.
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