Horror Film Quotes & Sayings

The first horror film I remember seeing in the theatre was Halloween and from the first scene when the kid puts on the mask and it is his POV, I was hooked. — David Arquette

Everyone has the opportunity to do a horror film. There's something great about it as an actor. You have to go to places you'd normally never go and be put in situations you would never be put into. You don't get the opportunity in a lot of films to have this kind of acting. It's an interesting challenge. — Alexandra Daddario

So I was asked to do horror film after horror film, a series of about five, after that, and some of those were a little too gruesome. I wasn't too comfortable all the time in those. I didn't really care for them. — Fay Wray

By mid-summer only Ma Barker remained in Chicago, lost in her jigsaw puzzles. Karpis drove over to visit her one weekend and found she was doing surprisingly well. He and Dock took her to see a movie. To their horror, the film was preceded by a newsreel warning moviegoers to be on the lookout for Dillinger, Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Karpis, and the Barkers. Karpis scrunched low in his seat as their pictures flashed on the screen. "One of these men may be sitting next to you," the announcer said. Karpis pulled his hat low over his forehead. — Bryan Burrough

The cellar was straight off the set of a horror film. The floor was packed dirt and littered with the droppings of mice and rats. The worn stone walls were damp with a slick layer of mold. Even the air was heavy and filled with a dark sense of menace. It combined to create an atmosphere that would send most people fleeing in terror. But Edra was made of sterner stuff. — Alexandra Ivy

My initial idea was I wanted to make it a horror film, very much. At times I do enter that world. — Nicolas Winding Refn

Suddenly exhausted, she closes her eyes and slips into nightmares again. Graveyards rising out of the ocean. Her friends' corpses in the light of their burning school. Skeletons ripping open men's chests and crawling inside. She endures it patiently, waiting for the horror film to end and the theater to go dark, those precious few hours of blackout that are her only respite. — Isaac Marion

I'm a huge fan of 1930s horror - Universal films. I grew up with them and I just absolutely love them. — Marco Pirroni

Yuki: "What can I learn from a stupid cat like you? You didn't even know that Jason isn't really a bear. He's a character in a horror film."
Kyo: "Yeah? So what if I didn't? Like I'd waste my time watching some movie about a bear!"
Yuki: You truly are an idiot. — Natsuki Takaya

The lumpiness of 'The Good Lie's progression - from infancy to adulthood, and from ethnic horror to gentle social comedy to a heroic gift of freedom - proclaims the film's respect for facts and truths that can't be squeezed into a smooth narrative. — Richard Corliss

A really good horror film has a story. — Dee Wallace

It's funny that you can murder someone horribly and graphically and disturbingly in a horror film, and it's not an NC-17, but if you put a naked man on screen, everyone freaks out. — Carey Mulligan

I don't think when I started off that I was expecting to become so specialized, but what happened is that when my career started, I didn't pick my first film. I was picked to do it, and it happened to be a horror film. — Christopher Young

When you're young, you want to make every kind of film: musicals, Westerns, horror. Slowly you begin to hear your own voice. I hope people receive what I do as small, personal films that are somewhat contrarian about their main characters. — Jason Reitman

And I'm auditioning right now for a movie, and then I have a script that I'm reading right now for a horror film, and I'm meeting for a couple of television shows that I just had yesterday, and pretty much was offered one of them. — Trishelle Cannatella

I didn't even know what a horror film was. I kind of made it up as I went along. — Wes Craven

People make films about all kinds of relationships, but they won't do these extremely intense platonic love affairs that happen between young girls. In a way they are more intense than anything else you ever have, and that's what I wanted to make a film about, though it was in the context of a horror film. — Mary Harron

When I was a kid I was really into horror films. I watched every single horror film that came out in the 80s. — David Hayter

I liked working on 'The Grudge 2.' It was really fun, and I got to meet a lot of cool people. I think the film is a fine example of horror, and I felt excited that I could act in something like that. — Shaun Sipos

When horror turns into gore, when you show the monster, the killings, and the blood, it loses its suggestive powers. It loses part of what makes a horror film a horror film, which is that the images you see develop in your brain and you become the one imagining what you are not seeing on screen. — Raul Garcia

When I think of 'Nightmare on Elm Street,' there was a warmth to those teenagers that I related to. They were not aware that they were in the middle of a horror film, and I really loved those characters and I empathized with them. — Jason Reitman

'The Conjuring' is incredibly effective and scary without the use of blood, gore, and death. It's a horror film that emphasizes atmosphere and suspense in the tradition of classics like 'Psycho' or 'The Others.' — Toby Emmerich

The action movie, the thriller and the drama all have safety nets under them. But not the horror film. The horror film can sink to an abyss far darker than the imagination can ever reach. — Marcus Dunstan

In TV and film, a little goes a long way. I see the show as horror so a lot of the [violence] is suggested. But it is violent. It is gory. I don't see any need to up the gore. Just to keep it as real and visceral as possible. — Glen Mazzara

Horror films had died a little bit before Scream came around. That was one of the reasons I wrote it. I wanted to write something that wasn't being made right now and maybe sell if I come up with a new horror film. Because no one is watching those movies. Let's do it. That was my whole goal, and it paid off. I feel like it's never stopped. — Kevin D. Williamson

That's definitely true! It was before my father died, so I can't attribute it to an obsession with death. When I was seven, I loved those old Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone. The Scarlet Claw was one of my faves. And I loved all the Halloween's and that film about the haunted house ... Burnt Offerings, with Oliver Reed. Every birthday party was a slumber party and we'd watch horror films. — Cate Blanchett

I'd never watch a horror film, but after I found out I was going to be in one, I watched, like, four of them, including The Shining, I was terrified - I couldn't sleep for days. But I wanted to get myself used to things I was going to see on the set. — Jennifer Love Hewitt

I would much rather watch a horror film or science fiction than a comedy. I don't know why. I just like them. I find them relaxing. — Moon Bloodgood

'Dark Circles' is a great relationship/character piece and also a horror film. It tinkered with the genre, which I loved. I was sick of seeing the same thing, sick of people just trying to get a movie made. — Johnathon Schaech

If one horror film hits, everyone says, 'Let's go make a horror film.' It's the genre that never dies. — George A. Romero

I see horror as part of legitimate film. I don't see it as an independent genre that has nothing to do with the rest of cinema. — Guillermo Del Toro

I read a lot of ghost stories because I was writing a ghost story. I didn't think at all I was writing a horror or a thriller or whatever because it is about a ghost, whereas a horror film can be about aliens or things that rise out of the marsh that have no human shape. — Susan Hill

Horror films don't create fear. They release it. — Wes Craven

When you're playing the devil, you're playing the ultimate evil. There are no boundaries. In doing a film in the horror genre or a psychological thriller, you're really pushed as an actress, you're pushed way outside of your comfort zone. Emotionally, mentally, and physically. That's when things really get fun. — Ashley Bell

I think of horror films as art, as films of confrontation. Films that make you confront aspects of your own life that are difficult to face. Just because you're making a horror film doesn't mean you can't make an artful film. — David Cronenberg

Horror stories have always worked on film. It's where they work. That's where vampires and ghosts and UFOs are real. They're not particularly real in life, but they're real on the screen. It's the communal aspect of movie-watching. — John Carpenter

I love watching audiences scream. I imagine it's the same joy that a director feels who has made a comedy when he or she is sitting at the back of a theater listening to the audience laugh. That sound of laughter is so sweet to a comedy director and that's exactly how a horror film feels when you hear the audience scream. — Leigh Whannell

I've always had a fascination for everything surrounding things that are unexplainable. Not surprising that my first movie was a horror film, even though, of course, at the time I had no experience writing horror music. — Christopher Young

Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it's got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren't innocent any more. — Neil Jordan

I'm a huge baby and horror films just terrify me, they're very effective with me. — Alexandra Daddario

I'm always a fan of a good horror film. — Andre Braugher

If you make a movie of the present day culture, in the future it'll be a horror film. — Jacque Fresco

What I will add as an perfect example of a man who is passionate of his work, without wife, everything giving, no information about his life like mother, father or something like this... I will give as an example NightClawer.
People often understand under this name some kind a horror, but unfortunately it's about a reporter and it's not horror. I will call it passion! — Deyth Banger

The beauty of being an actor in a horror film is that you know what to expect and what's coming. — Denzel Whitaker

I'm just one of those people that if I sit down to watch a horror film, I put my hands over my face and I cry a lot and I don't see half of the film because I'm too upset. — Neve Campbell

The question I ask myself is: have I really just become a squeamish middle-aged man, or has something happened to the horror genre that shows a growing appetite for watching torture, or at least a desire to explore it on film? And if so, why would that be? I can't pretend I know. I just know I don't like it. — Mark Gatiss

I'm not a director to make an action or horror film. That's not for me. — Jason Alexander

When the Second World War finished, I was 23, and already I had seen enough horror to last me a lifetime. I'd seen dreadful, dreadful things, without saying a word. So seeing horror depicted on film doesn't affect me much. — Christopher Lee

We're not just horror fans. We're film fans. I love action films. I want to do action films. I want to do romantic comedies. I love all this stuff. So, if I find the good material, I'll do it. — James Wan

I think that horror, in general, is fairly popular. It's definitely popular in film. There's just not a lot of good horror on TV, so whenever there is good horror on TV, people rush to it. — Oren Peli

Screaming. Did I mention the screaming? Screaming is usually associated with horror films and roller coasters. This is why I usually look like I've just watched a horror film on a rollercoaster. Kids love to scream. Frightened, happy, bored. They scream. I've actually learned to love the sound of a vacuum cleaner. It's just so peaceful. — Jim Gaffigan

In horror, character development is often pushed aside in favor of the shock value. The best genre movies to me are movies like The Shining. You had a connection to the characters in that film. — Joshua Leonard

It's not an easy place to be - to write a horror film. You go down the stairs to the dark to find these characters. It's not a place anyone can go, and sometimes it's not a place that you want to go. — Wes Craven

That's also why comedy and horror are my two favorite genres of film to write, because you get these outbursts of emotion from people, laughter and shock, and it's really thrilling, and I like to be thrilled. — Diablo Cody

I love horror films, so I guess it's one of those things where I find myself interested in the script. — Elisha Cuthbert

It's gotten to the point where it's big news when I don't do a horror film. — Donald Pleasence

I want to have an ending where people say: "That's the most shocking ending I've ever seen in a mainstream horror film." — Eli Roth

I make unpopular versions of popular things. I make a horror film and it's not a horror film. None of my genre movies function as genre movies. — Mary Harron

When I first heard of it, I thought it was a horror film. 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' is such a strange name. I wasn't into the comic books at all. — Judith Hoag

There is something out there which is difficult to be saw and understand. (The Ring 1) — Deyth Banger

Horror films do not prepare us for the hours lost in searching after one clear thought. — Norman Mailer

Just as making an omelette & breaking eggs you can't make a horror film without breaking a few heads! — Kensington Gore

I definitely think for up and coming filmmakers, people graduating from film school, people that want to do their own movies, horror movies are a great way to go. — Jonathan Levine

If you don't want to be scared in a horror film, don't close your eyes. Close your ears. — Eli Roth

I hope one day that I'll get to make another horror film; I'd love to. — Peter Jackson

Whether you're writing a horror show or a James Bond film, I think what bubbles beneath is interesting characterization. The colors that emerge through storytelling is what a dramatist does. There's always got to be something bubbling underneath that will erupt at some point. — John Logan

My first horror film was - well, I don't know. 'Bless the Child' is sort of genre, but 'May' was such a cult hit that after that, I just started getting offers for horror. I think I got a little bit pigeonholed in it right off of 'May' because there was just such a large response to that film. — Angela Bettis

I think that, back in the day, there used to be a lot of horror films that kind of had a checklist of what went into making the 'perfect horror film', and I think now people are raising the bar in the industry, as far as the types of horror films that are being made. — Elisha Cuthbert

I believe, as a producer/director, your duty is to create a beautiful horror film that really resonates. — Guillermo Del Toro

I really respond to human scripts, scripts that are raw and real and risky. I love playing scary characters - not horror film scary, but vulnerable scary. — Shailene Woodley

That's when you know a horror film delivers - when you're walking out of the theater going 'Oh my God!' You can't get the images out of your mind. — Elisha Cuthbert

I think my mom is the inspiration of me wanting to do film and TV and be an actor because she loved film so much. She loved, like, horror films and action films, so growing up, she loved watching all the Charles Bronson films and all the westerns. — Rick Gonzalez

That's scary, all the time to be afraid Wreck 2015 (Film, you should check it out). — Deyth Banger

I think so much of the horror film is about our primal instincts, and our primal instincts are not just towards violence. It's also towards sex. I feel like horror movies, as much as they're about violence, they're also about sex. It's about our instincts, so in that regard, it's crucial that you honor both of those things. — Drew Goddard

Nico was gothic, but she was Mary Shelley gothic to everyone else's Hammer horror film gothic. They both did Frankenstein, but Nico's was real. — Peter Murphy

My interest in film is sort of catholic - apart from science fiction and horror movies, I'll watch almost everything. — James Dyson

I set out to do a horror film with 'Dog Soldiers,' and what I came out with at the end of the day was something that was more of a cult movie, more of a black comedy with some horror elements in it. It kind of went over the top. — Neil Marshall

You make a horror film that's not very good. You'd be joining a long line, in a long video aisle, of stuff that doesn't work. — Patrick Fabian

The Den, the best horror - You never know who is the Original! — Deyth Banger

This film is what it is. It's a campy thriller horror movie where you go and have fun. With these types of films, you can't take it too seriously. They are what they are. — Morris Chestnut

As far back as I can remember, these are the first movies, the Universal horror movies where I knew the title of the film and I also knew the names of the actors in those films. — Benicio Del Toro

Like something straight out of a B-grade horror film, a single arm shot up from the dirt, reaching and grabbing as it clawed its way forth from its earthen prison. Ash and Trent watched the monster struggle in silence for at least ten minutes, occasionally exchanging glances. Finally, after all the writhing, the zombie emerged. It stumbled out of its grave covered in dirt and gave an annoyed-sounding groan. — Kait Ballenger

He clicked the Save button, and there was the sound of a trumpet fanfare. A cleverly designed Flash animation in emerald green illuminated in gold leapt out at him in a 3D effect like the titles of an epic film:

WELCOME, ASH, TO BIG BROTHER, THE AVENGER!

The words exploded in a shower of gold dust. A voice boomed chillingly, 'If you want help to sort them out, look no further! Big Brother will avenge you! — Tracey Morait

I was imagining films in my head and trying to gather friends together to make movies since I was a kid. I tried to do comedy skits and a horror film. — Cary Fukunaga

In a business that has exploited and ignored our people I have only found dead-ends. We need romantic comedies, gross-out and mockery comedies, horror and thrillers, teen movies and love-stories. All these and more will be a positive step towards the future of Native Americans in the world and film industry; an industry that that offers us not only the chance to play the parts of heroes, love interests and warriors, but also of villains, dorks and dangerous, brokenhearted products of circumstance. — Misty Upham

I had never really done something that was more of a horror film, and its funny, because those are the kind of movies that I like probably more than any other genre. The script had images in it that I liked. — Tim Burton

I wanted to make a horror film about beauty. — Nicolas Winding Refn

Horror films have been with us forever, so you can't say I originated that in any way, but it sort of brought back a classical way to make a horror film. — Roger Corman

'The Exorcist' is absolutely my favorite horror film, and I watched it when I was, like, seven years old with my mother for the first time. I don't know why my mom let me watch that. I couldn't go to the bathroom by myself. I couldn't go upstairs by myself. I couldn't sleep. — Odette Annable

I think film had a terrible effect on horror fiction particularly in the 80s, with certain writers turning out stuff as slick and cliched as Hollywood movies. — Poppy Z. Brite

I laugh a lot in horror films. If I'm scared in a horror film, I try to think about what's scaring me ... particularly, if it's a bad movie, but something they're doing still works. It's the same way I look at comedy. I've always had an intellectual view of comedy, and what makes people laugh, and how does it work. — Jason Reitman

Horror is a curiousity, it's used we to go over on real horror it just prepare us for the hard battles. To laugh at somebody's harm... there is even and scientific explanation. — Deyth Banger

Being a mother was like being trapped in the first fifteen minutes of a horror film. Everything was fine, lovely. But there was this persistent sense of dread. — Laura Lippman

Fear has disappeared. No more fear. In Asia, it is different. They've discovered again the fear and the psychology of the characters. Without psychology, the horror film doesn't exist. — Dario Argento

Take my wife ... please. I'm not saying she's ugly, but when she went to see a horror film, the audience thought she was making a personal appearance. — Les Dawson

A period romance film with elements of horror. That was successful, because I feel like Coppola's DRACULA was one or the other. You know? It was never scary it was never a film he got invested in the romance of the characters. He understood it, but he never got invested. So it as a challenge for me to see if I could do that, I still don't know how audiences will sort of react to that. — Cary Fukunaga

It's not scary to make a horror film because you get to pull back the curtain and see that none of it's real. When you're watching one, the terror bombards you. — Josh Hartnett

Well, it wasn't a holiday, but I had expected to do some sightseeing when I went to Haiti to film a series called 'True Horror' for Discovery. Before I arrived, our film crew were kidnapped and held at knifepoint. — Anthony Head

I love when you go to a horror film with real horror fans and everybody's there watching, getting involved and screaming. That's when it's most alive and exciting for me. — David Arquette

Concert pianists get to be quite chummy with dead composers. They can't help it. Classical music isn't just music. It's a personal diary. An uncensored confession in the dead of night. A baring of the soul. Take a modern example. Florence and the Machine? In the song 'Cosmic Love,' she catalogs the way in which the world has gone dark, distorting her, when she, a rather intense young woman, was left bereft by a love affair. 'The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out. — Marisha Pessl