'A Place Where Beauty and Terror Merge'

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It's as though fundamentalism packs your brain into such a tight space that if it starts to break out, the breaking out is explosive. Your mind just continues to expand and search. The momentum of my creative life and intellectual growth is still the momentum of me breaking out of fundamentalism. Because of that I'm very grateful for it. But I'm also grateful that at the center of it was something that I still believe to be true-those fundamentals of faith. The very basic orthodox truths of Christianity were things I learned and was trained in at that time of my life that I still hold to.

How would you classify your Christianity at this point in your life?

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.What it is to me is sufficiently stated in the Apostle's creed, and anyone who can embrace the totality of that statement is an orthodox Christian in my view.

Blood is obviously a prominent part of horror films, and it also has theological importance. Does the theological significance of blood have any relation to your commitment to the horror genre?

Most definitely. Blood has profoundly significant meaning to me. I think it has profoundly significant meaning to God. The role that blood plays in Christian iconography is huge-the washing of the blood, the shedding of blood, the blood of the cross, the crucifixion, the violence of that imagery. These are horrific and yet they are at the center of the Christian faith. There is a place where beauty and terror merge and it's at the cross. I think the horror genre, when it's done well, is always just that. A blending of terror and beauty where good aesthetics combine with what really is frightening to us, and disturbing and violent, and the blending of those two things together enlightens us about the nature of the world and ourselves and God.

You don't hide the fact that you're a Christian, and yet you're a successful filmmaker. Is there any discrimination in Hollywood against Christians?

I think the only discrimination that I've experienced is that which is the result of the Christian tendency to be close-minded and judgmental. People in Hollywood, when they find out you're a Christian, have different associations with that terms that are not entirely unwarranted. With some people you have to do a little more work to get around that. I've found that Christian material and Christian subject matter is not something that Hollywood is afraid of. They're increasingly interested in it because they see that it's of interest to the public and that this is a Christian country for the most part. I don't see any kind of bias against that.

Is there any tension between your commitments to your faith and your art?

My faith sometimes burdens me with the responsibility to think very deeply and long and hard about the choices I make creatively. There are projects I turn down because the material is too much a violation of what I believe. But that's true of anybody.

What kind of projects have you turned down? Are there basic principles you follow to guide you to projects that align with your values?

Themes that are contrary to what I believe about the world. I read a horror script that was very good, but the message was very anti-marriage. I believe marriage is a sacrament. I had to turn it down for that reason. Every artist in the business turns projects down because they are a violation of their perspective or points of view. I'm not special in that respect.

"The American church is becoming sadly addicted to its own comfort."
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