"I want my films to be very tactile, visually and sonically."
"My goal from the very beginning was to make very visually lush, juicy films that you can really sink your teeth into. That's always been part of my modus operandi."
"I've always liked the idea of merging esoteric art cinema with down-and-dirty exploitation films."
"I was, like, 'I really wanna see an Eric Rohmer movie take place in a Bert I. Gordon universe.' Where there's a story going on that's about, you know, loss and desire, but with a giganticized-animal element."
"I'd been drifting and in a very self-destructive bent ever since my mother died and as soon as I dealt with the grief, for the first time in 10 years, I had clarity and I realized: 'I need to make a movie, now, cause if I don't make it now, I might never do it.' That's what pushed me forward, and I immediately moved to Vancouver."
"The thing I do miss about the way some sequels were in the past was that each film felt like its own unique, complete tone. Now, sequels are tonal facsimiles of the ones before them, like a television series, whereas back in the past sequels would often be radically different from the ones before."
"Just making 'Black Rainbow' was like my minimum requirement before death, so that I could die with some honour and not in total shame."
"In the night there's sometimes a sort of cursed quality to the Pacific Northwest."
"I feel like I thrive in the red light."
"There was a time in my life when I would literally go see every single film that came out in the theaters. No matter what. I just became obsessed with movies, and wound up getting drawn to the pulsating grain of film and the flickering of the light."
"I'm too neurotic to ever feel good. If I ever felt good, I think something horrible would happen."
"Well, when I was really young and we lived in Sweden, the only films that were around at that point were... We had this collection of these super-8 highlight reels that they used to sell; like, they sold these super-8 reels that only had the best parts from a movie. So early on that's what I was seeing."
"A huge part of my writing process is listening to music as I write, almost creating an unofficial soundtrack to the film I'm working on, a sort of playlist. But the specific songs change rapidly as I write."
"The idea of creating a quote-unquote 'retro' world isn't all that appealing to me by itself."
"I guess a little bit of delusion can go a long way."
"Mandy' came from grief and depression. I wanted this to be an outward volcanic expulsion of the emotion of my first film."
"Being compared to 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' is a huge compliment."
"A lot of films mistake convolutedness for complexity. To me, a simple story can be a powerful spine to build around."
"My mother died in 1997 and I spiralled into this self-destructive vortex of trying to annihilate my consciousness. I was afraid to face the grief of losing her, because she was somebody I loved more than anybody else in the world."
"Mythologies are violent things, and to be true to them, you have to go to primal territory."
"I don't know anybody who goes horseback riding at sunset, but everybody watches TV and eats."
"Me writing 'Black Rainbow' was me alone in a windowless room going insane."
"I don't know if I'm a sequels kind of person. I prefer each film to have its own unique identity."
"The last thing on earth I wanted to do was make a movie that plays directly to a sort-of frat boy audience, you know?"
"I feel happy working in the low-budget realm, doing stuff that is a little bit more esoteric, and personal."
