There are two different stories in horror: internal and external. In external horror films, the evil comes from the outside, the other tribe, this thing in the darkness that we don't understand. Internal is the human heart.
Film buffs who don't live in Hollywood have a fantasy about what it's like to be a director. Movies and the people who make movies have such glamour associated with them. But the truth is, it's not like that. It's very different. It's hard work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the misconception about the glamorous life of a film director, emphasizing the hard work involved in filmmaking.
John Carpenter's quote acknowledges the disparity between the fantasy and reality of being a film director. While many outside Hollywood may romanticize the profession, seeing it filled with glamour and excitement, Carpenter insists that the truth is rooted in rigorous effort and dedication. He calls attention to the common misconceptions held by film enthusiasts, reminding them that behind the allure of the film industry lies the challenge of hard work that directors and filmmakers face daily.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about filmmaking, one might say, 'As John Carpenter highlighted, being a film director requires hard work, not just glamour.'
More from John Carpenter
All quotes →What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me.
It's a very good time for horror. This business certainly has changed, but there's still room for serious horror films. Look at 28 Days Later, that's not a tongue-in-cheek picture.
Similar quotes
I believe that stories are incredibly important, possibly in ways we don't understand, in allowing us to make sense of our lives, in allowing us to escape our lives, in giving us empathy and in creating the world that we live in.
It must be extremely uncomfortable to live with a writer - all that preoccupation and brooding.
In a strange way, architecture is really an unfinished thing, because even though the building is finished, it takes on a new life. It becomes part of a new dynamic: how people will occupy it, use it, think about it.
Color, even more than drawing, is a means of liberation.
Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.
Prose is not to be read aloud but to oneself alone at night, and it is not quick as poetry but rather a gathering web of insinuations ... Prose should be a long intimacy between strangers with no direct appeal to what both may have known. It should slowly appeal to feelings unexpressed, it should in the end draw tears out of the stone.