Director Bryan Bertino's Films That Inspired 'Vicious'

"I've always loved the pacing. Even though Carpenter didn't direct that film, it feels like Carpenter, especially when you look at it next to The Thing. And so that movie has always stood out to me as my favorite of the Halloween movies and it was a movie I watched a lot as a kid."

"Saint Maud was a movie that we used a lot as a reference point because it was such an internal story and such a personal look at a character. There were things that I just loved about that movie and was truly scared by. It was one of the movies that scared me the most in the past few years."

"Another movie that was an inspiration was the original Exorcist, which is not shocking. But I think the way that it was shot and how real it felt, even though it was dealing with supernatural elements. Whether it's the lighting or the blocking, it all felt very naturalistic, which I think for me is very crucial in doing supernatural stories. To try to ground them as much as possible in something that feels like you're in someone's living room."

"Horror films were reference points, but a movie like Klute was very much a reference point because so much of it takes place in Jane Fonda's apartment and the way that you have these different elements of space. It was a very wide open space [in Vicious]. I knew that I wanted Vicious to not be broken up into tiny rooms. So instead to have everything within her eyesight was a huge challenge, in terms of trying to make something scary when you can actually see what's going on."

"Another movie that I would reference is The Vigil, which is a very small movie, but it was one of those movies where, as a filmmaker, I watched it and I became very jealous of it instantly. I know I love it if I'm instantly jealous because it's touching upon themes and ideas that I feel like I could do, or I wish I would have done that they're doing better. So that's a movie that was something we were taking little pieces from here and there."

"I don't think you can do a [magic] box movie without having a discussion about Hellraiser. I knew that I didn't want it to feel as elaborate, but it was a movie that I went back and rewatched because there was a draw to this item. I was curious about people kind of touching the fire even though they know that it's burning. That happens with [Dakota Fanning's character] Polly and I think that element is kind of a constant through a lot of the Hellraisers; people being seduced by the apple and not being able to help themselves."

"The Tenant was a movie that I went back and looked at. I think Repulsion and The Tenant went hand in hand as things that we talked about, because there is such a great history of these movies where people are attacking themselves, are being attacked, and can't really tell the difference between what is in their mind and what is not. So those movies definitely jumped out to me."