Terence Fisher

Born in London, England
Died in Twickenham, London, England

“The process is very gradual, you see.  At first there’s the tainted stage; they know what will eventually happen to them if they go on but they say, ‘Oh God, don’t do it to me do it again, please, please.’”

“The reflection of the flame in the glass seems to be touching the hand.  And you feel the helpless fear of these dismembered parts.  This sort of thing can hardly be visualized at the script stage.”

“Do I believe in the supernatural?  Oh yes, certainly.  I can’t believe, I can’t accept that you die and that’s the end.  Physically maybe it is a fact.  But there’s something about the mind that’s more than that.”

“Certainly Dracula did bring a hell of a lot of joy to a hell of a lot of women.  And if this erotic quality hadn’t come out we’d have been very disappointed.”

“He ’s ruthless only because of his ideals.  Unfortunately he doesn’t succeed.  The thing fails and gets out of hand and takes charge of him.  Idealism is the only excuse he could have and it’s a great excuse.”

“One blob of red in the wrong place and the audience isn’t looking at the hero, they’re looking at a patch of curtain (or something similar) and your whole effect is lost.”

“The written word is the basic of everything.  Most important, the idea, and after that, the dialogue.  You can rehash the dialogue as you go along, it ’s disgraceful to have to do this, but now and again you have no choice.”

“There is the danger of over preparation, of loss of spontaneity; over rehearsal is the most terrible thing you can imagine.  We do have a very close association between costume and set designer, though.  And the cameraman is very important, of course.”

“We’re not as materialistic and income-tax conscious as we think.  At the moment our superstitions are tucked away, but come out sometimes in strange ways sex crimes, black masses.”