Leigh Whannell Quotes

When I was a kid, I used to sneak down the stairs when my folks were listening to 'The Witch's Tale' and 'Inner Sanctum' on the radio. I went to see 'Frankenstein' in the movie theater and got the pants scared off of me.

My brother and I spent our childhood in movie theaters screaming. I decided early on that that was the epitome of entertainment. I'm always trying for that same level of adrenaline in my books.

I was raised in a strict Southern household in Lexington, South Carolina, and I remember sneaking off to watch 'Pet Cemetery' as a kid. After seeing those animals reincarnate, I screamed and couldn't sleep for weeks, but watched it again and again.

I get that same queasy, nervous, thrilling feeling every time I go to work. That's never worn off since I was 12 years-old with my dad's 8-millimeter movie camera.

I think we're all a little afraid of the dark. If you lived in the country, as I did, there's nothing quite like country dark, which was really black. And as a child, your imagination runs wild.

It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out-and come back for more.

'Monsters,' everybody has the thought of monsters in your closet as a kid, and more importantly, the idea of becoming a parent. We're always kind of looking for those emotional nuggets. They're always at the heart of the story.

I grew up watching horror movies with my dad. For as long as I can remember. I grew up loving being terrified. 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' at sleepovers. Hiding behind my fingers.

I had dreams of conehead aliens when I was little. Before 'Saturday Night Live' did it. And then they came out with them, and I went on to be a glorified extra in the movie. When everyone else was laughing, I was scared.

As a kid, I used to tell all these stories. I remember meeting a childhood friend, and we were talking. We remembered that I had made up this story about going to Mars. And she looked at me and said, 'I didn't sleep for a week after that!'

I rememeber one time we were getting ready to go to South America and everything was packed up and in the car ready to go and I hid and I was crying because I really did not want to go, I wanted to play. I did not want to go.

I grew up in a haunted house, reading Dr. Seuss.

When I was about nine, I was rushed to hospital to have my appendix removed. Like any child, I was more concerned about missing out on having fun with my friends than my health.

I couldn't watch '101 Dalmatians' when I was, like, nine because Cruella was too scary.

People love dark stories because they take you to a place you think you don't want to go but really you do.

I think I wanted to be a storyteller because I had a very active dream life. My life was boring, and I dreamed about a life bigger than my own. I've always just been that person, from my earliest memories at age 2.

The green thing I don't think frightens kids. It frightened me when I was like little because I didn't have the internet and didn't have all these other things that were, you know, in front of me at all times and accessible.

When was the last time someone read aloud to you? Probably when you were a child, and if you think back, you'll remember how safe you felt, tucked under the covers, or curled in someone's arms, as a story was spun around you like a web.

Come on back and we’ll see if you remember the simplest thing of all – how it is to be children, secure in belief and thus afraid of the dark.

Whatever is the scariest is almost always what I end up choosing.

We're terrified of shocks but we're so fascinated by it at the same time. We're terrified of spiders and reptiles and all of that but at the same time you're fascinated by them - you want to go to the zoo and go behind the glass and look at all these creepy crawlies! It's the same thing with the supernatural. I think we're very frightened by it.

I think most of us can remember from our own childhood, just in the Disney cartoons, things that frightened us profoundly. For me it was Bambi, the scene when the forest was on fire. That was something I had nightmares about. I can't imagine being a little kid of eight and seeing Night Of The Living Dead with living corpses eating the flesh of living people.

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.

I had a cousin once who lived in your dictionary, inside the binding, and there was a tiny hole which he used for a door, and it led out between trichotomy and trick. Now what do you think of that? It was only a few minutes walk to trigger, then over the page to trinity, trinket and trional, and there my cousin used to fall asleep.

I am filled suddenly with hope. I don't think I will ever die. We are looking for ghosts, but, I think, a good story will do.