I want to ask about a movie that you famously did not make. You were going to make “Alien 3,” and you’ve discussed in interviews before about how you clashed the studio over your vision and how one of the deal breakers for the studio was that they didn’t want …

“Civil War” feels like to me a historical film from an alternate universe, where it expects you already understand the basics of the war, kind of like how “Saving Private Ryan” and “Dunkirk” don’t need to tell you how World War II started. Do you view it this way? I …

In “Y2K,” director Kyle Mooney recreates December 31, 1999 with such a specific but deliberately broad brush that it recalls the vision of the 1950s in “Back to the Future.” A specific moment in time, simultaneously captured and reduced in such a manner to sell the younger folks on the …

Filmmaker Pamela Adlon’s “Babes” is about motherhood and friendship and the messiness of growing up and realizing you’re less prepared than ever to confront life’s difficulties. It’s also about bodily fluids. Poop. Vomit. Mucus. Urine. And, perhaps especially, the various liquids of various consistencies produced by a vagina. Its characters …

Jason Schwartzman’s Lucky Flickerman provides the movie with extreme gallows humor and even the bleakest moments have these big laughs. Were you concerned about that character being as funny as he is, when the movie is as dark as it is? No, we were looking for it. Look, it’s something …

Seeing “Terrifier 2” in theaters, I remember watching the bedroom kill and thinking, “by watching this in the theater, am I being put on some kind of list?” And it stuck with me ever since. What is your favorite “Terrifier” kill out of both movies so far? Well, I think …

You talk about building these suspense moments and not delivering, but then when you do choose to deliver, an effective jump scare unites an audience like nothing else. How do you pull off those kinds of scares? I think to craft a jump scare that’s really going to work, you’ve …

Other than “Back to the Future,” were there other movies, either horror, comedy, or ’80s, that you leaned on as inspiration? I think for the ’80s element, all those John Hughes teen movies were definitely [influences], like “Weird Science,” “Breakfast Club,” “Pretty in Pink.” “Heathers” was one, too. This sort …

I have a very stupid question. Yeah. I remember someone asking a really good question when the remake came out: “Who cleans the cat every day?” Someone had to make sure that undead cat in the 2019 movie looked so gross, and then clearly someone needed to groom it after …

I do love how the first seven movies really lean into that low-budget aesthetic. The grimy, soundstage look of those early movies became something unique, its own visual look. The new films, “Jigsaw,” “Spiral,” and now “X,” I don’t want to say abandoned, but that old look has certainly been …

The movie does a really good job of balancing between the big scares and the smaller scares. The bigger scares are effective, but it was a smaller one, without even a musical sting, that made me jump out of my seat. Is building jump scares an art or a science? …

What are some movies that inspired you? What movies, both horror and not, should people watch alongside yours? Danny: “The Exorcist,” “Let the Right One In,” “Memories of Murder,” “The Vanishing.” Michael: “Return.” Danny: Yeah, those films feel pretty good. Let’s pick at random. Let’s pick “Memories of Murder.” What …