Prior to 'Insidious Chapter 3,' I was happy to write movies for James Wan to direct as I felt very much that I was one half of a duo. I looked at us as a team who works together and I was happy to be part of that, I was happy to effectively be the bass player in The Beatles.

Maybe I'm a product of my era, but I just enjoy the practical effects of 'The Thing' more than CGI aliens.

I love, and I've always loved, contained sci-fi films that utilize practical effects. I feel like the human eye can tell when something is actually in the frame and when it was inserted digitally later.

In a lot of ways knowledge kills fear. Once you know who the boogie man is, once you know what's under the bed, it can still be frightening but that fear of the unknown is gone.

A lot of low-budget genre films you see are horror movies, because horror is the friendliest movie to lack of money.

I'm still a big believer in movie theaters, and going to see movies in public.

That's what I love about writing is you don't need anyone's permission to do it. You can just get up in the morning, grab a pad and pen and start writing.

The movies sort of tell you what they want to be as you're writing them.

I think true connectivity is something that is rare in sequels. I mean I love the first 'Die Hard' film; you won't find a bigger 'Die Hard' fan than me. But I feel like with the sequels, they're just taking that character and dropping him in different scenarios. There's no real connective tissue.

I found myself in this conundrum of loving acting, but not liking the path that you have to take to do it. I was just never good at auditioning, so basically I decided I would just write my own stuff and if I could get a role in it, then fine.

Certain stories need the resources of a studio. If you're telling a story about a giant robot war in outer space, you're going to need the money and the resources most of the time to do it justice.

The great thing about horror films is that they work on a low budget. The genre is the star. You don't need big movie stars, and I actually think a lot of times that the best horror films are the low budget contained ones.

Saw' definitely had an edge to it that wasn't American.

You know you've have a good idea when you're lying awake at night going 'someone else is going to take it, I just know it!'

Like everyone else, I use my phone a lot, and being a screenwriter, my laptop is my life.

In chatting to directors over the years, including James Wan, they always tell you the war stories. No one ever says, 'Oh, I had a great time on that film.' It's always this went wrong, that went wrong.

You might not have the biggest budget or resources or cast, but if you have a great story, people will latch onto it.

One of the most crucial aspects of a haunted house movie is the fear and disbelief of the characters, because they don't know what's happening to them.

I felt the violence in 'Upgrade' was necessary because I wanted to show what a computer was capable of.

Upgrade' was a hard one to make.

The writing process is the time where nothing's been set in stone. It's a blank slate, or a blank page.

I'm not a great cinema-goer.

My father worked in a factory and as a child it felt very secure. It felt very secure because everybody had work, the schools were free, so there was a security of knowing that the war had finished and families would come together again.

Ordinary people can be very articulate and very eloquent.