Tobe Hooper Talks “DJINN”:

DJINN sees Khaled and Salama, an Emirati couple, returning home from the U.S. only to find the titular forces invading their apartment. Speaking to Rolling Stone, the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE director explains, “It’s the best screenplay that I’ve read in many years, and it was much more of what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s more of a metaphysical thriller, laced with extremely good characters."

The idea of Djinn is steeped within Muslim culture and something I’ve personally seen to be taken very seriously. On approaching the subject overseas, Hooper remarks, “I should say that I have done my very best in integrating into the culture. But yes, I had guidelines. You can’t just parachute into a new culture or place without having someone help you."

As far as the population’s willingness to discuss Djinn: “It’s in the Quran that God created men and he created Djinn. So they’re in parallel worlds, and you actually can’t be a believer in one thing without believing in the other. So there was no reluctance.”

On modern horror and working within it as a veteran: “A lot of films that I’ve seen made, particularly for the commercial market, in the U.S. have become more-or-less action films. Quite a lot of them anyway. There are a few films where a story is actually told. I take film as seriously as I did in the beginning, and I love it as much. It’s just that the world has changed. I’m not crystallized—I’m aware of that, and so I change with the world. At least, I do my best.

“It’s much harder to scare people in the conventional way. When I made CHAINSAW, people jumped and screamed. POLTERGEIST, they were still screaming in the theater. Now they’ve seen everything, they’ve totally had their appetites filled, and the reactions aren’t as new now because they’re not in some kind of psychological context.”

 

Horror Town USA

-Fangoria.com