Sean Durkin

“In editing, it's amazing how you choose the in and out points. What you cut on is everything for creating tension. It's amazing how expanding a shot by five seconds can just ruin the tension.”

“I always try to keep the confidence of the actors, and try my best to make them feel comfortable or confident.”

“I won't rewrite on set, but I'll just trim the fat.”

“I'm a believer in film school.”

“What I learned from directing, I learned from soccer, where it's like a coach-player relationship.”

“When I hire actors I believe in their abilities.”

“I was really into writing short fiction and also photography when I was a kid.”

“The trappings of a religious cult tend to fall into candlelit ceremonies and robes and group chanting and singing and prayer.”

“When you write, no matter what, it ends up personal.”

“When someone stays with you and they're not your guest, even when they are your guest they get on your nerves. When people visit for long periods of time, that just happens.”

“You know, when you're isolated on set for like a month, people like to get rowdy.”

“I remember being at school during morning meeting and looking around at everybody, 350 kids, saying a prayer. We're all very young and no one knows what it means, and I remember feeling strange that people were just repeating words that they didn't understand. I refused to participate. For some reason I always rejected it, but respectfully.”

“I'm interested in adapting books and all sorts of things.”

“When I was a little kid, I loved horror films. I always liked being scared.”

“Yeah, in my scripts, I don't tend to describe landscape too clearly because I like to keep it really basic and sort of let people paint their own picture. I don't find it helpful to spend a page describing a setting, except for maybe a few key things.”

“Well, first of all, making films is a collaborative process. You need people. You need people you trust and love and who are your friends. People you can work with.”

“You can't write something to please someone.”

“I wasn't good enough to be a professional soccer player obviously but that was my first goal in life.”

“I love the first hour of a horror movie, the fear and anticipation. Then, when it gets bloody, I lose interest.”

“When I was a kid, I was afraid of large group of conforming people.”