Fantastique

The stories behind some of cinema's great movies by the people who made them. Here, in their own words, are insights, reminiscences and candid comments by the directors (and, occasionally, stars) of films as diverse as The Exorcist, Men in Black, Sleepy Hollow and Twelve Monkeys.

The line-up is truly stellar. William Friedkin rubs shoulders with Barry Sonnenfeld and Will Smith. Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam recall the creation of their individual and unique projects. John Carpenter looks back at The Thing, once misunderstood but now lauded as a masterpiece. Zombie king George A. Romero retraces the corpse-strewn road that led to his return to movies with Land of the Dead. Quentin Tarantino talks passionately about the 'Grindhouse' experiment of Death Proof. And acclaimed newcomer Ben Wheatley, hailed as the savior of new British horror, reveals the background to Kill List.

Just some of the filmmakers who have made a dent in the genre of horror, sci-fi and fantasy.

TONY EARNSHAW has interviewed hundreds of film personalities while writing for such diverse publications as Fangoria, Cinema Reiro, Sight & Sound, Diabolique, Starburst, Film Review, Little Shoppe of Horrors and Scarlet Street. He is the author of An Actor and a Rare One -- Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, Beating the Devil -- The Making of Night of the Demon, Made in Yorkshire (with Jim Moran), The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark (Ed.), Studies in the Horror Film: Tobe Hooper's Salem's Lot (Ed.) and Under Milk Wood Revisited: The Wales of Dylan Thomas (with Mark Davis). His debut piece of horror fiction, 'Flies', appeared in The Eleventh Black Book of Horror, published by Mortbury Press in 2015.