Hello, readers! Welcome back for another installment of one of our featured columns here at Daily Dead, Deadly Dialogue: A Conversation on Cinema, in which we catch up with notable folks—both in front of and behind the camera—from the horror and sci-fi genres to discuss the films that inspired them to become the artists they are today.
With this week’s home entertainment release of The Belko Experiment, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to hear from Australian filmmaker Greg McLean, the madman behind other genre films like Wolf Creek, Wolf Creek 2, and the underrated creature feature Rogue. McLean talks about what inspired him to follow a creative path in his career and how he continually celebrates his very favorite movies each and every year.
Look, there are an abundance of films that come to mind about things that propelled me to make the movies. I hate to be a cliché, but Star Wars blew my brains out because I saw it at the perfect time. That movie really worked for me on so many levels, in terms of really the power of storytelling on a big level and the possibilities of what stories are. And that movie, aside from the amazing effects of the time and the cast and what that film did, it instilled in me an intrinsic kind of questioning about how stories can be really powerful. After seeing that film and realizing that films can have a power that can change lives because stories are so powerful, that was a message that I’ve always carried with me.
And then I became more fascinated with stories that revolved around horror, and that’s because I had watched movies like Jaws and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Those were the movies behind me being moved into this realm of being fascinated with darker films, which are equally as powerful, and the types of stories I personally like to tell.
So, those are some of things that I got really inspired by and I'm still inspired by today. Literally, every year, I'll watch my favorite top ten films again repeatedly, just to remind myself why I love this medium so much, and how powerful it can be when it's done right.
[Photo credit: Above photo by Peter Iovino.]
Next: Deadly Dialogue: A Conversation on Cinema with Jason Blum
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
