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George A. Romero
director/screenwriter
Select Credits: "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), "The Crazies" (1973), "Martin" (1977), "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), "Creepshow" (1982), "Day of the Dead" (1985), "Monkey Shines" (1988), "The Dark Half" (1993), "Bruiser" (2000)
Bio: Romero's "Dead" trilogy ("Night of the Living Dead," "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead") has helped to make the writer/director king of the zombies. Born in the Bronx, New York, Romero relocated to Pittsburgh, where many of his seminal works were set. The horror master has a number of projects in the works, including "Diamond Dead" (the tale of an undead rock band) and a long-awaited fourth film in the zombie-centric "Dead" series.
A Few Choice Words: I was allowed to go to movies alone as a kid — I was 10, 12, something like that — at the neighborhood theater. I grew up in the Bronx, and they were playing the whole Universal-monsters series on the big screen. They're gorgeous. Those were my first experiences with horror. I think the first one that really scared the hell out of me was the old version of "The Thing," the Christian Nyby version, the Howard Hawks production. That made you sit up and take notice. That was the first one that really spooked me out. There were films that weren't even horror films that ... well, I don't know if you really want to hear about that. There's a film called "The Tales of Hoffmann," which is basically a ballet. It's a fantasy that combines opera and a ballet made by Michael Powell. That scared the sh-- out of me, and it was just a fantasy.
What scares me is now is Iraq, the bomb, stuff like that. I was this little Catholic kid from the Bronx that was worried about God slapping my wrist, and worrying about the neighbors, and I think that's where my zombies came from. The neighbors were the scariest things in life, and the bombs and the stuff that some jerk might do to me for no reason at all. That's the stuff that scares me.
Wes Craven
director/producer/screenwriter
Select Credits: "The Last House on the Left" (1972), "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977), "Swamp Thing" (1982), "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), "The Serpent and the Rainbow" (1988), "The People Under the Stairs" (1991), "Scream" (1996)
Bio: Wes Craven's unique visions have put him at the forefront of every major horror movement of the last 30 years. Dig the stark, ultra-real feel of the '70s? Try "The Last House on the Left." Partial to the slasher flicks of the '80s? He gave us "A Nightmare on Elm Street." How about the knowing, ironic horror of the '90s? His "Scream" invented it. Craven continues to drum up scares, and will next hit theaters with the werewolf flick "Cursed," currently in post-production.
A Few Choice Words: George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" was the first horror film I saw, because I came from this really weird background in this very religious family. I grew up in a fundamentalist church that didn't allow moviegoing, so I literally didn't have exposure to movies until ... I think I was out of graduate school before I really started seeing a lot of movies. During the church days it was only Disney, so I didn't have a big backlog of movies. My influences were really literary, much more as a reader than a moviegoer, just by necessity. But then there was also a great sort of love for films once I started to see them, because it was like I had to catch up. I feel like I've been doing that the rest of my life. I just wasn't aware of horror films. It's ironic, because the first time I got to do a film, literally, the thing they said to me was, "You say you want to be a director someday. We have some guys that want a scary movie. Go write one. If they like it, script it and direct it." I didn't have a backlog of all the scary movies that had been made or how to do it or anything. I just kind of went out, did my own version of what I thought was scary, which I think in some ways made it very different and fresh, because I didn't have any reference whatsoever.
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Photo: MTV News
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