Would you work with Alex again?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I don’t think I could afford him anymore though.

People Under the Stairs was such a product of its time. What would a modern take be?

It’s not quite like- - the funny thing is we’re back into another Bush era. There was more in that era of Bush Sr. of the haves and the have not’s way down at the bottom and cutting social services and stuff. This Bush is so obsessed with the war that it’s not quite the same template but we’ve had a couple directors give some interesting ideas so we’ll see.

Could you see the day they remake Scream?

I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to make a Scream 4. The actors are still around. Courtney and David are out of a job. No, Courtney’s doing a series. I shouldn’t say that.

What are your feelings on digital filmmaking?

I have nothing against it. I still prefer film. I just think it has a beauty to it. But some films don’t need that. 28 Days Later, my understanding was that was digital. I think it was terrific for that. Thirteen I believe was digital. The Michael Mann film about four years back, Collateral was digital or large parts of it were. So whatever helps you get the film into a theater, whatever is necessary. Certainly like The Hills Have Eyes II was shot on film but the minute it was shot on film, it was developed, I don’t know how they did it but I don’t think we had a negative. We certainly never had work prints. It was straight to digital on everything. We had all of our screenings in digital, the first time I’d done that and didn’t see a film version of it until we had the film totally made. At which time we found out there was a misregistration flaw in like 80 shots that we would have seen in dailies but we never looked at dailies. We just looked at digital versions. Whatever the lab was in England screwed it up so there are downsides to that. Find out some things very late.

Ever want to do a romantic comedy?

Of course. That’s why I did this.

What would Wes Craven bring to a full length rom-com?

I suppose a wicked sense of humor or something but it’s always struck me as kind of weird that I fell into making scary pictures. It was pure happenstance. The first time somebody talked to me about making a film, “I’ve got some money from these guys and they want a scary movie for their theaters.” I literally said, “I don’t know anything about writing scary movies.” “You were raised as a Baptist, right? Well, pull all the skeletons out of your closet.” And after that, both he and I, I’m speaking about Sean Cunningham, neither one of us wanted to go on and make another horror film. We felt like that was enough. And we went I think almost four years individually and together trying to get other things going and just could not get any money. We knew no one in Hollywood. We never even approached Hollywood at all, trying to get money out of New York. But people were always saying to both of us, “If you want to do something scary, I can get you the money.” At a certain point I was broke and needed to make child support payments and things like that, so I went and made Hills Have Eyes. And once you get a name for doing something really scary, people assume that you’re crazy and live in a cave and all those things. Somebody asked me this morning, “What did your friends think when you made a romantic comedy?” I said, “My friends all know who I really am. I’m not somebody scary in real life.” It’s just one of those things that you have to get into this very special environment. I think this film could help but it’s kind of an art film and I don’t know how many will see it. But you have the perception on the part of many, many, many people that I am scary and do scary things. So how do you get another audience into the theater waiting to be amused and made to laugh?

Do you like romantic comedies?

Yeah. Occasionally. Sure, I watch whatever I feel is a good film.

Any lately?

No, not really. Have you? I mean, there was the Wedding- - what was it, Wedding planner? Wedding Crashers, that was kind of but I didn’t point to that film. Something about marriage.

Was there a point you became comfortable being known as the scary director?

No. I think there’s always a part of me that feels like, “Fuck, if I had just not- - or if I had worked harder or come to Hollywood.” Btu I had no credentials at all in film except making Last House and that was a film that made a lot of people angry at us and think that we were perverted, nasty and horrible people. I think I did what- - if I wanted to make films and I did and you can do it, you can make a scary film then go make a really good scary film. And don’t be restricted to just being violent but be interesting and talk about things that reflect the world around you. I was able to do all that. At a certain point you realize I’m just lucky to be making film. Nightmare on Elm Street was a good example. I was studying Eastern philosophy at that time. I was like, “Okay, we’ll do something with levels of consciousness. Consciousness is awakeness, not being enlightened and conscious is being asleep. It lent itself perfectly to both this kind of philosophical look and to real life things. Once you realize that then you say, “Well, these are little art films. It’s just the audience has to scream in them.”

Filming in Paris for two days, what was that experience?

It was really nice. We were kind of isolated from the rest of Paris but just the thought, I can remember just thinking between shots, “I’m filming in Paris, this is so fantastic.” I’ve been to Paris many times and it’s so photogenic. I’ve often thought, “God, I’d love to do a film in Paris or a film in Europe.” Suddenly there you are. It’s just a very heady feeling to be working with French people and the offices were this old building that used to I think repair trolly cars or something. We’d look out our office window and see this big Gantry crane that used to be used. And all the people coming and going on the streets, I was just like, “This is really cool. It’s like the old days.”

Any thoughts of a future projects you’d like to do in the city?

No. It just seemed so unlikely I didn’t think about I frankly. I had no idea how this film would come together. I just did it in a really on the run between two or in the middle of two big press conference tours. It was like do the best you can and then [zoom noise] you’re off doing all this stuff. I said, “I wonder how that’ll turn out” but that’s how it was.

What’s the fasted you ever wrote a feature?

I wrote Last House on the Left in a weekend. That was I guess the fastest. I did a major rewrite on a script that was almost a page one rewrite in five days.