There are two levels of vampirism: one is the regular vampire, which is just like it has always been; and then there’s the super vampires, which are a new breed we’ve created.

It’s only in modern times that we have come to glorify vampirism.

The other thing that I started doing for myself was, I went through my diary of ideas that I keep and made sure that the translation of the comic to the movie was good.

For eight years I did effects for other movies until I got my movie made.

But I think we are seeing a resurgence of the graphic ghost story like The Others, Devil’s Backbone and The Sixth Sense. It is a return to more gothic atmospheric ghost storytelling.

I think there are movies that are so gigantic that you need a second unit.

I was part of a group that had a cinema club so every week we would project two or three movies on 16 or 35mm.

They’re getting more and more experience on what to expect, and the Hellboy audience is such a faithful and fanatic audience as I am, and you have to really be very open about what you do.

I was directing before I knew it was called that.

When I was a teenager there was no video in my country. Betamax came to Mexico very slowly.

For Devil’s Backbone I loved it but I felt very pressured but so I was neurotic on the shoot.

I think that The Eye is a particularly Americanized take on horror.

Hellboy is the first movie where both ends of the spectrum are combined.

Well, the first thing is that I love monsters, I identify with monsters.

I’d grab the camera and tell people what to do, and when I was 14, someone told me that it was called directing.

In that, Blade 2 is very much like a rock concert… if it’s too loud, you’re too old.

There are two levels of vampirism: one is the regular vampire, which is just like it has always been; and then there’s the super vampires, which are a new breed we’ve created.

I see horror as part of legitimate film. I don’t see it as an independent genre that has nothing to do with the rest of cinema.

I started when I was eight, doing super 8 films.

I like actors that are good with pantomime and that can transmit a lot by their presence and attitude more than through their dialogue.

I like John Carpenter. I like some of his films more than others.

What happens to me is that I am first and foremost a film geek.

I’m a lapsed altar boy.

Well I think effects are tools.

I think there is a very quiet power in things that are not on screen.