I got the sense that you really enjoyed making this.

Theres a kind of gleeful, black streak through it.

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I think there was.

It was a very hard film to make.

The first one we shot in 19 days, and this one was 30.

Its ambitious, as you saw were out shooting in the streets.

Lets just hit the streets the actors were up for it.

So hopefully that infuses something into its DNA, that the viewer feels, so they have fun too.

We were rats on the streets, runnin around in downtown LA.

Not that I want to bad mouth LA, but LA at night is not the nicest place!

I was going to ask you about theEscape From New Yorkinfluence.

And not just because of the action, but also because of the atmosphere its very cynical about humanity.

It is, it is.

I think Im schizophrenic like that.

Its very cynical about where we are, especially in America.

But I wanted to end it with some hope.

Its a cynical movie, but maybe at the end theres a little hope.

But it is an incredibly cynical view.

To be honest, my fear right now is of guns, and this film comes from that.

So I think that cynicism seeps into the film.

America itself becomes the canvas instead of the haunted house, the canvas is America.

We dont need ghosts or vampires anymore when were just killing each other, you know?

There are two things at work, I thought.

Its about race, its about the class divide, and its about guns.

I always felt it could work on two levels.

They wanted westerns and they wanted army films, but the directors didnt really want to make them.

You smuggle ideas into genre movies.

That was always the inent: lets do a genre movie.

We can smuggle some stuff in there.

And I think we have, without beating people over the head.

It seems like the audience is picking up on it, when weve tested the film theyre getting it.

Especially after the Katrina flood and there was no aid.

That was where some of the ideas came from in the first script.

So Im happy you saw that stuff in there.

But its not exactly subtle!

Thats what I liked.

I got that idea from a Greenaway film, actually.

Theres a great hunting garden that we saw and we said, Lets build it like the Greenaway film.

So there is a British element we wanted to bring into it.

Im happy you liked it.

Theres an absurdity to it, I think.

Ive always been a Fellini fan, so I wanted to bring a sense of absurdity to it.

The big lady on the roof with the sniper rifle… theres macabre humour.

I heard its actually a great film.

And that terrifies me.

People have been saying Oh, poor Tom Cruise, and everything.

A 30 day shoot, but it allowed me…

I received a couple of studio notes.

They really leave you alone.

Their investment is so much lower, and so it’s possible for you to do more interesting things.

Yes, hes doing a western right now with Ti West directing, which is kind of cool.

So hes expanding that $3m template into other genres.

Hopefully, therell be original fare that you just cant do for $100m to $150m.

AndEdge Of Tomorrows scary, because it didnt do well.

So the budget definitely gives us freedom to explore other ideas we hope!

[Chuckles]

Do you think Blumhouse is doing stuff that Hollywood used to do but isnt anymore?

Yeah, I think so.

Jasons the Roger Corman of today in a great way.

I really mean that, too.

Roger made Scorsese and Copolla back in the day withBoxcar BerthaandDementia 13,so Jasons going back to that.

Elevating the B-movie, in a way, which is what happened in the late 60s and 70s.

I shouldnt say youre working for nothing, because youre working for the creative passion of the project.

And the time is hard because youre so crunched in.

But in the end I think its worth it, because you have so much freedom.

You have the freedom that they had back in the day, like you said.

Or hitting you over the head, saying, Do this!

double-check this person lives and this person dies.

So I think hes done something really great and really innovative for the industry right now.

I hope it continues.

I hope his films keep making money.

So its a win-win situation.

Hopefully other people will start doing it too.

We seem to have hit a good patch lately for horror.

Especially for horror with a bit of depth.

Weve had Ti WestsThe Sacrament,and alsoCheap Thrills,which also had interesting… Cheap Thrillsis a really dark horror comedy.

EL Katz directed it.

Ive heard of it, but I havent seen it yet.

It explores similar themes toThe Purge.

Ill have to check it out.The Sacrament I like Ti.

Ive heardThe Sacraments really worth seeing.

Its a terrible time for drama.

I think, for audiences in tough economic times, people dont want to be hammered with heavy drama.

But genre lets people escape and I understand that, because I love genre movies, too.

Thats why good filmmakers are going to genre, and giving it something new that we havent seen before.

Theres a British director whos doing great things with genre.

Hes the best guy out there right now.

Uh…

Ben Wheatley?

Hes been doing some great stuff.

Oh yeah, hes brilliant.

Hes been doing really cool work within the genre.

Because back in the day, we hadRosemarys BabyandThe ShiningandThe Exorcistand thenHalloweencame along, but there wasnt many.

Now there seems to be many more within the genre.

And as you say, theyre doing interesting things rather than just slasher films or something like that.

Is it true that when you wroteThe Purge,you were inspired by a road rage incident?

It did, it did.

It was a perfect storm of things that resulted in it.

Ever since I was a little boy, Ive been terrified of guns.

Then my wife said something after a road rage incident this is where it comes from.

Some drunk guy cut us off, and I almost got into a fist fight with him.

We were literally wrestling on the ground.

The cops turned up, and he was just drunk.

He literally almost killed us.

He was being real jerk.

And she was raging.

We were both raging we were on fire.

I knew exactly what she meant.

And I said, Wow, honey.

Thats a bold statement!

But it stayed with me.

I also noticed that nobody owned guns.

I thought, maybe not one free one every year, but maybe one night…

I thought it was a metaphor for Americas obsession with guns and violence.

[Laughs] Yes, definitely.

Writing was always a means to direct it just took me a long time to get there.

Directors come from so many different angles.

I just thought Id keep writing and then Id maybe get to direct.

I was making little shorts on a camera I had growing up, but writing was my way in.

It just didnt happen as quick as I thought.

That was going to be with Ethan Hawke, but that fell apart because we lost the financing.

But there was a frustration.

I guess because I wanted to direct.

Some people did a great job probably better than I would have done.

But the quality didnt really matter it was just the interpretation.

So the frustration helped, yes!

Of course, Francis Ford Coppola directed one of your screenplays.

That was your first one, wasnt it?

It was probably my thirtieth script, but it was the first one I sold, yeah.

I had a friend I met at film school before I quit.

I was writing a lot of dark material, quite violent.

But he was more like Spielberg or Robert Zemeckis.

We befriended each other, and he asked me to write a short film.

SoJackstemmed from a very strange place, because it was a very sweet movie.

A childrens movie, whereas normally I write things likeThe Purge,which is the polar opposite.

Then Robin and Francis decided to team up.

I got to live with Francis Ford Coppola.

I was 24, and it was a truly strange time.

The movie was the movie, whatever that is.

Kids liked it, I guess.

But its not for me, I should say.

It was an interesting way into the business very interesting!

[Chuckles]

And you wroteAssault On Precinct 13andThe Negotiatoras well.

Which are both a bit likeThe Purge.They have that claustrophobic element to them.

Why do you think that is?

My dad took me to seeDog Day Afternoonwhen I was very young, and I adored that movie.

Like, those early movies really make an imprint on the brain.

So I dont know what it is, but I feel like its a pressure cooker.

But I think the inception was frickinDog Day Afternoon!

Well its a classic film to be influenced by.

And a classic era for cinema.

So these enclosed things I cant get them out of my own way.

[Laughs] I think we all write the same movie over and over again.

I love the bottle situation.

What was Ethan Hawke like to work with on the first one, because he was great in it.

Ethan and I have a great shorthand.

SoThe Purgewas our third film together.

We became friends we both live in Chelsea in New York, and I love working with him.

It was a character he wanted to play this kind of slick jerk.

So he really embraced it, the idea of playing this jerk.

And he did it really well.

We keep trying to figure out what to do next.

Thats whats great about Ethan.

We love genre, we love our films.

Ethans great that way.

Although I cant speak for other actors, I think theres a hesitancy to go for genre sometimes.

Hes willing to go, literally, fromHamlettoThe Purge.

I liked Rhys Wakefield in the first one as well.

We really struggled with casting that character.

We cast him the day before shooting.

We were having all-night casting sessions, and I couldnt find him.

Everybody was going to big [with their performances].

Then Rhys came in, an Australian, but he hid his accent.

I literally went, Oh, thank God.

I was really freaked out as a child by those murders.

And without my telling Rhys, he based his whole group and his character on the Manson family.

Its kind of strange without even speaking about it, he arrived at the same thing.

It was that weird, collective unconscious that goes on between people.

He was amazing, and I hope he gets cast in more stuff.

I hated killing him, because Id love to bring him back, but I cant now.

Unless I do a prequel or something, where hes on one of the previous purges!

So was it difficult to getThe Purge: Anarchydone in a year?

It was the hardest thing.

He said, How do you feel?

I got the call from Universal, Start thinking about part two after that opening weekend.

So its been one year from thought to outlining to script writing to pre-production to post-production.

And I said, I dont feel like its been a rush at all.

When I look at the movie, I dont feel like we compromised or that its a rush job.

But one year was tough, though.

I need a break!

I need time off now.

It adds to the gritty air, too, that guerrilla approach to filmmaking.

Thats what we said.

Jock, my director of photography, we just said, Lets go.

Weve just got to shoot.

Well just get out there.

We were shooting at night so everyones in a bit of a weird state.

Once you start shooting nights, after a couple of weeks, things start getting a little bit hallucinatory.

But I think it fed the film it gives that craziness to it.

But its nuts, though.

Everyone asks if I want to do another one.

I do, but I need to sleep a little.

Youre not likely to do The Purge 3 for next year, then?

They want it, my friend.

Because last time, I had no time.

It was just, go.

Hopefully Ill come up with a good idea.

Maybe I wont come up with a good idea.

Its a tough, dark world to exist in,The Purge.To stay within it mentally is… wow.

I need to take a little break from it.

Its going to be an interesting summer.

I hope people dig it.

And Frank Grillos great in it.

His performance reminded me of a cross between Snake Plissken and Kyle Reese out ofThe Terminator.

Hes going to be so happy [you said that].

I kept pushing for him.

Hes not a big name yet, you know?

That andThe Outlaw Josey Waleswere what we were going for.

I should have done a scene where hes parting a sea of people or something!

On that bombshell we shall end it!

James DeMonaco, thank you very much.

The Purge: Anarchyis out in UK cinemas on the 25th July.