"Then, Boogie Nights by P.T. Anderson. I loved it, kind of like for the same reason, and also because I’m very impressed by the fact you can make an artsy movie, but also a commercial one, and a popular one. It’s so rare. It’s just the most difficult thing to do, and they both did that. It’s a big inspiration for me because art films and small, independent movies are so hard to exist right now, and I think it’s very hard as a director today to feel like, can I do something free? Can I do something beautiful? Can I do something also funny but also act strong, say something about the world, but also not doing something too popular, and with some cliché subject. I feel like it’s very tricky right now to give money for a director who’s gonna have different ideas and want to do something special. So, I would say those movies, because also we need to talk about that problem right now of making small movies that don’t really exist any more, and are suffocated by those big other ones. It’s kind of scary right now."

"And then I’ll go to my third one, which of course I would say… Most people would go with The Empire Strikes Back, but I gotta go with Star Wars, the original. The Summer tentpole, it was something we had never seen before. I remember, back in the day it was all those exorcism movies, you know, it was the same time when all that was going on when they were like, “The Tempter!” and you turn around and it’s a scary movie. And then there was Taxi Driver, and all these weird… Everything had a weird aura to it, you know what I mean? And my mother was like, “I can’t take you to the movies! You’ll see something crazy!” So my aunt took me to see Star Wars. That was the only thing that we could see as kids. It was either that or The Apple Dumpling Gang, and I was like, “We can’t go that young!” [laughs] But Star Wars, man, I mean… It was really the sci-fi thing. Still to this day, I’m a sci-fi nut. I love it. It’s one of those things that influences me to this day."

"The step-by-step horrific setup of the film is just great filmmaking. The movie starts, and you’re on a movie set, and this actress is bringing her daughter along with her to Boston, because she has broken up with her husband. So while she’s busy working, [actress] Linda Blair is at home, doing whatever, except the home is haunted, and eventually the evil spirit, a demon takes over her, and her mom doesn’t believe in it. Sure, you get the punch in the gut and the kick in the nuts when her head spins around and she spits out pea soup and everybody just flips out, but leading up to that is a very well-written script. It’s easy to do the action sequences. You sit down, and say, ‘OK, we’re gonna have a head pop off here, and then I’m gonna have a ghost dive off somebody’s ass, and use them like a hand puppet.’ OK, I get it. Those are all gonna be good hand-puppet scary moves, but what’s the script? You have to care about the characters, and stuff. That’s what we mean by elevated.”

"I became obsessed with horror at a very early age. Knowing this, my dad would often recall the greatest horror film he ever saw. It was black and white, it was French, and it was, in his words, “really, really gory.” He would tell me it was about a mad surgeon who tries to restore the face of his daughter, disfigured in a car accident, by mutilating young women and stealing their fair skin. And he would go on and on about how great it was, how scary it was, and how I would simply have to see it. But . . . He could not recall the name of the film. I tried to cross-reference with horror guidebooks in the library, but without the invention of the Internet and plot keywords, I was left stumped for a long time. Years later, I saw Eyes Without a Face and called my dad immediately. I told him the crucial fact he’d been missing, the actual name of the greatest horror film he had ever seen. I then agreed with him that, yes, it was a quite extraordinary film."

"My first favorite film is The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. I am a huge horror film fan. I love them so much. I’ve always loved them. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been attracted to scary stuff; I don’t know why. When I was younger I would watch a lot of the cheesier process-of-elimination slasher ’90s films. And then I feel like, as my tastes matured a little bit as I got older, I found The Shining, which is a movie that my dad had always spoken about with this weird fear, because he’d never finished the movie. He’s like, “The one film I’ve never been able to finish in my life is The Shining.” So I grew up like, “What is The Shining?” And then, finally I watched it, and it was just incredible. Well, Stanley Kubrick’s my favorite director, so you’ll probably see a lot of his films in the top five. I just love that movie so much, and it’s my favorite on-screen performance of all time, from Jack Nicholson. I think that he’s absolutely incredible. I’m ready to play a role like that."

"I got dragged to this by some young relatives in Greece after a frustrating day in an immigration office thanks to Brexit. I hadn’t seen the first three installments and the film was dubbed in Greek, which hindered my grasp to some degree, only it turned out to be one of my most memorable experiences in a cinema and a lot of that was down to the uninhibited audience. I saw the film in the same open-air cinema (on the outskirts of Athens) where I saw “Dirty Dancing” over 30 years ago, which was even wilder with the beyond capacity audience who went crazy when the film’s climactic dance erupted. Though not reaching the euphoric audience chaos of the latter film, “Toy Story 4” was a timely reminder of how valuable and downright memorable a communal cinema experience is. I was completely swept up in the highs and lows of the film and never imagined that the fate of a single-use plastic item could reduce adults to tears. It was funny, scary and heavy on the heart in places. I actually bought it on DVD hoping to repeat the experience."

"Another favorite movie of mine is The Wizard of Oz. It’s just a beautiful movie all the way around. It would get a little dark and scary for me as a kid when those flying monkeys came out. Hoo-Hoo! Yeah, the flying monkeys kind of threw me off. I’d start watching the movie at three o’clock, by five o’clock the movie’s about to end, and I’m scared and dinner’s ready — I’m giving you too much info. When Dorothy first lands and the house falls on the shoes and the feet curl up, and then she goes walking and finds all these different characters — all of that was beautiful — gorgeous. Matter of fact, it was straight-up genius and it hasn’t been matched… It was too incredible. Who ever penned that was genius. And the director was genius. And the Lion was genius. And the Tin Man was genius — everything about it. I love all the characters but Dorothy was the best character. She was everything. She was a great singer. She was a great actress. She was kind. She wanted to take everybody with her."