Clint over at Moviehole had a chance to get one of his buddies to talk to the great Sam Raimi. In the interview he talks about the state of the horror industry, his past genre successes and misfires and of course The Grudge (review). Inside you can find an excerpt from the interview.
P.F: How has horror changed since the Evil Dead days? And the genre in particular how do you think it has changed in relation to this film?
Raimi: Well I think for the first time in a long time America’s filmmaking is being influenced by the overseas artists. I think we saw all those great German expressionists films like Dr Calligari, Metropolis, which influenced greatly the American cinema specifically but many years have passed and I don’t think it is as great as the Italian cinema was with Lucio Couchy and I didn’t see the influence in American filmmaking I just saw us making Exorcist and real American movies. Even though the Italians’ films are always great but what I am saying is what has changed recently is I feel America again being influenced by the artists overseas in the field of horror.
P.F: What are you a fan of yourself… a fan of horror or genre of specific films? What are you a fan of? What do you love to see?
Raimi: I love to see a filmmaker taking us places we have never been before and really getting under my skin in a new and subtle a way that is personal to them. Like that is how I feel about guys like Shimizu who can make a creeping type of horror not the sledgehammer techniques of the American filmmakers, which I am also guilty of. Polanski worked in that way and it is brilliant, so many of it is brilliant. Like The Tenant. You know that was so nightmarey he must have been so deeply involved in and he shared it with him the effects a very personal freaky kind of a way. That is when I am particularly excited by… these personal visions of our own nightmares that we can relate to.
P.F: Do you think the American audience has become more… not really more sophisticated but do you think they are now more likely to accept the subtleties of a film like this The Grudge as against the more gratuitous films that permeated the ‘80’s and the early ‘90’s.
Raimi: I think the American audiences are always ready to accept it but sometimes filmmakers play down to the audience or they don’t have the imagination to deliver the next step or they… or they… the studio, the financing and distribution centres don’t want to take risks with something different. They want to give, they want to keep putting up what they think has worked in the past.
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