You are now listening to post-mortem with Mick Harris, where the most influential voices in horror cinema will spill their guts, literally.

To the renowned horror director, writer, and producer.

Now here's your host, Mick Garris.

I'm Mick Garris and this is post-mortem.

When you're shooting a film or a television show, the hours can really be long and the schedule's demanding.

It's a collaborative effort, more than anything, unifying the director with producers, writers, actors, and a crew from 50 to 100.

It's an army at war with a schedule and a budget, and anything that can make that attack smoother and more enjoyable is more than welcome.

Having people you've worked with before and have developed a working shorthand and comfort level

really makes the job so much better, so much more rewarding.

Probably the most intense relationships on a film set

are those with the actors.

There's a reason why directors work

with favorite and trusted actors over and over again.

It's the ability to be on the same creative page together to work with someone whose personality matches your own,

an ability to reach deeply into the emotional architecture of the character together

to understand and be able to discuss the most deeply personal and vulnerable aspects of psychology

and performance.

We've seen it time and again,

John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, from The Thing

to Elvis to Big Trouble in Little China.

Stuart Gordon and Jeffrey Combs in the Lovecraft films and beyond.

Germo del Toro and everyone's favorite creature

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