[Valley of Violence] was written for James Ransone. PJ's a friend of mine, I've known him for a long time, he's always like, "Dude, when are we going to make a movie together?" I finally called him.

Ti West

Categorized in : Long Together Pjs

I'd been all hyped about it, I was like, "Please come," and to have that and know Tommy Nohilly is probably going like, "This is cool," it makes me feel good.

please feel-good feels

I've done it with all my films. I always keep an eye on the first time I show it because... I don't know. Neurosis.

neurosis eye done

It's unreal. I mean, the dog backflips. It's amazing. Google Jumpy on YouTube - I had seen the dog first and I was like, "Y'all don't even know."

google dog mean

I think you make the movie in your head that you have to make, and you have to get it out of you. You have all these pretentious reasons why you want to do it, and you set out to accomplish them. And you think "This is important for what I'm trying to accomplish for the story," and I think those reasons will come through to an audience, and they will find it. That's the best you can do.

important trying thinking

I don't generally watch the movie [ The House Of The Devil ]. It's sort of like hearing your voice on tape.

devil voice house

I like movies that leave things in the hands of the audience. by Ti West

I like movies that leave things in the hands of the audience.

audience hands

I just really like seeing mundane stuff in movies. It's realistic... by Ti West

I just really like seeing mundane stuff in movies. It's realistic.

mundane realistic stuff

It's very important to me to find ways to relate the audience to the characters. This is the first thing to go in most mainstream horror films.

important character way

I think having funny characters is just one way of having three-d... by Ti West

I think having funny characters is just one way of having three-dimensional characters.

having-fun character thinking

I'm not sure I understand the compulsion to label things. by Ti West

I'm not sure I understand the compulsion to label things.

compulsion not-sure labels

In a traditional Western there's always the bravado, and it's almost like they're winking that they know they're in a Western - "Look how good I can spin my gun." In real life, when the bad guy kills somebody, or they're bad guy friend gets killed, they're upset, too, which is not typical in Westerns.

guy gun real

To me it's not so much that the movies are slow-paced as much as they are about spending time building a relationship between the audience and the characters. If you don't spend an adequate amount of time doing this, then how can you expect to scare anyone?

adequate scare character

You have to. But I generally try - I'll creep in the back. I'll be outside. I'll pace around. I don't really get that nervous about whether people like [my films].

pace trying people

Technology has just been the major progression of the last 15 years - instant communication. That stuff has gone so global. That's what's interesting about it. When someone sits down in front of a computer, it's the same everywhere in the world, and it's the same screen looking back at you with the same Google, and there's no individuality to it. So I decided it would be kind of visually uninteresting to have in my films.

communication technology interesting

To me, making a horror movie is about how you can present similar genre familiarities, but present them a little bit differently. Part of what interests me is the nonchalant realism of it, because you don't get that in the big studio horror movies. I like seeing someone walk around a house and sift through the drawers, and things like that, because that reminds me of what I would do, and of weird personal choices that people would make. That, in contrast to seeing someone get chased with a knife, makes it all the more interesting.

choices people interesting

It's funny, because I don't think of my films as "slow-burn." I don't even know if I was familiar with the phrase until people started labeling me with it.

phrases people thinking

I don't really get that nervous about whether people like it. You can't do anything about that. It's more technical. You spend two years of your life obsessing, picturing sound details, and you work so hard to make a movie a certain way, that you get there, and you're like - is it loud enough or whatever, so that this experience with everybody in this room is the fairest chance I can get. And then if you like it, cool, and if you don't, whatever.

two people years

The first half [of Valley of Violence] was to endear you to all these people and give you all these archetypes that you're familiar with, and then the second half, just to see all those archetypes unravel like real people.

real giving people

Typically, in Westerns, people who are in a Western feel like they're in a Western. It's almost like they know they do all these Western things.

western feels people

From a performance standpoint, it just gives [actors] so much - I had such a great cast [ in Valley of Violence] - and it gives them the ability to go wild with it and to have performances that are memorable.

valleys memorable giving