Bryan Bertino

Asked to direct The Strangers after selling it to Universal.

As a writer, I tend to write smaller movies. I think of them as mini-epics. You take all of those emotions, and it is a huge story - just in a small space. That way, you can really examine all the little details of their life. Sometimes, in these bigger movies, and especially in the horror genre... it's too many words. I'd rather have my language limited because I do think at times, the bigger the movie, the less personal - and the greater the chance of audiences not being able to feel like they're in that space with the characters. But as a director, I think I certainly benefited from my first film being something that allowed me to feel like I knew where I was going everyday. I don't know if I'm capable of jumping into Peter Jackson's shoes anytime soon; I can't imagine the idea of having thirty, fifty or 100 locations to deal with. It's just a difficult thing to pull off. -- on what was important working on "The Strangers".