Top 33 Scott Derrickson Quotes

When I went to Europe a few years ago, I felt very at home there, and I loved standing in Notre Dame and looking at all the gargoyles on the outside of that building and realizing that, as scary and frightening as they were, what I was looking at was something that was built to the glory of God.

In my opinion, the horror genre is a perfect genre for Christians to be involved with. I think the more compelling question is, Why do so many Christians find it odd that a Christian would be working in this genre?

I’m an orthodox Christian. When people ask me if I’m a Christian, I always want to qualify and know what they mean by that. I’m not a Republican, and I’m not right wing. I’m not a dispensationalist. I don’t think the world’s about to end.

Trauma and pain and suffering can be the very thing that dislodges a person from themselves both in awful ways and larger ways that force one to reckon with one’s own life.

I’m not interested in gothic storytelling or the horrific for its own sake. I’m always interested in it as a way of getting at larger ideas or important meaning. And you don’t see that as much as you’d think in the history of horror cinema. A lot of times, it’s scariness for scariness’ own sake.

Fundamentalism is rooted in fear, and it’s another reason I’m interested in the horror genre, because I know the fear that fundamentalism is built upon.

I’m not a dispensationalist – I don’t believe in the Rapture. I think it’s an unbiblical doctrine, and in North American Christianity, at least, it is the teaching that is the root of much of our subculturalism.

In my films, I either want the music to be very subtle and very buried or just put it right out in front and be super blunt with it.

We’re all capable of being more than we presently are, and the effort that it takes and the will that it takes and sometimes the trauma and tragedy that it takes to force us into that kind of growth is the story of our lives.

Priests and pastors are probably the most stereotyped characters in film and television, and the reason why, I think, is that most people don’t know one. Most writers who work in Hollywood don’t know any.

I certainly hope they let me make another ‘Doctor Strange.’ I would do it in a second. I love this character. It’s been the best filmmaking experience of my career; I work really well with these guys. It was a rewarding, collaborative process that I would do again in a second.

I went to a fundamentalist Christian high school and went to a fundamentalist church, and they were the greatest people; there was an amazing sense of community. The problem is when the messiness of real life enters, and the inflexibility of a moral code cannot cope with the realities of moral relativism.

Corporate America limits the world to consumerism. Science can limit it to the material world. Even religion limits it to a lot of theories that can explain everything. I think we need cinema to break that apart and remind us that we’re not in control, and we don’t understand as much as we think do.

I came in with a very specific idea about what a Doctor Strange movie should be, which was rooted in the comics, and I thought it should be as weird and as visually ambitious compared to modern comic book movies as the comic was when it showed up in the ’60s compared to other comic books at the time.

The marketing of my movies is something I have no control over! I usually am shown things to give input beforehand. Some directors get really involved with that, but it’s not what I do. I don’t know anything about marketing; it’s not my skill set!

If you really look hard at the evidence, the most rational conclusion is to believe that the demonic is real.

I love the horror genre for how cinematic it is. I gravitated, I think, initially, toward the horror genre because, of all the genres, I think it is the genre that is most friendly to the subject matter of faith and belief in religion.

I grew up reading comics – mostly Marvel – Doctor Strange was my favourite comic book and has remained my favourite as an adult. It’s the only comic book movie property I’ve ever gone after. I felt uniquely suited to it.

Real Super 8 is creepy. If you went into your grandmother’s attic and found her Super 8 films and watched them, I don’t care what was on them, there would be something a little creepy feeling about it.

I think a lot of my appreciation for the Doors’ music, which I love, originates with my discovery of them through seeing ‘Apocalypse Now.’ It’s my second favorite film of all time.

I think it’s difficult to be a Christian anywhere, at least to be a committed Christian – I think that demands a lot from a person no matter their field of work, and certainly working in Hollywood is no exception.

We’ve all watched hundreds of movies from characters’ points of view that are not our own. That’s part of the gift movies give us.

Fundamentalism is such a pejorative word and immediately evokes images of angry extremism. In my experience, that’s not usually what it looks like. I was a fundamentalist in high school.

Screenplays are the currency of Hollywood.

I wasn’t born into a religious home, but I was just not a materialist. I didn’t believe the material world was all there was or, even, most of what there was. I always felt that I was part of a reality of which the majority was unseen.

The evil within the fantasy genre tends to be threatening to the heroes within the story, but not to the reader – or not to the viewer, in the case of cinema – and that’s why I think it’s more palatable and something that is more easily embraced for a lot of people.

If you look at life with any honesty and intelligence, it’s clear that human nature is dark, vile, selfish, and despondent. But I also see a force in human nature, namely grace, that sometimes works against our natural moral entropy.

I’m not standing above the audience trying to manipulate them as a puppet master or a trickster; I’m inside the story I’m writing and making and thinking about things very seriously and feeling very deeply at times, and trying to translate that into a narrative.

I’m married to a nurse, and she is really, really ardent that – in screenplays or movies that I’ve worked on, that all the medical aspects be properly presented. I think that filmmakers ought to be respectful of all fields and not just be lazy and put nonsense in movies because most people won’t know the difference.

The world is a more mysterious place than we admit sometimes – there is more to the world than just human evil.

I always liked the idea in ‘Potter’ that you don’t choose the wand, the wand chooses you, and that relics decide when you’re ready to handle them. I’m a cinephile first and a filmmaker second, and it’s all swimming in the subconscious.

I’m not going to work outside of genre. It’s going to be horror, action, or sci-fi. I don’t ever really see myself being interested in movies outside of that.

When I was hired to write and direct a movie, my Christian duty suddenly became quite clear: My primary duty as a Christian in Hollywood is to do my job well.