I've always been interested in the camera and the effects of it - that's what drew me to film in the first place.

I realized what interested me as a student of film was one thing and the movies that I liked were another.

Well it's always been an element of the horror film to show us the gross out. I mean that's one option for all filmmakers making a horror film and it's not something I've found myself above either.

When you make the audience the critic, though, when you start asking them to speak about the film, all these weird moments that are way out of the ordinary, that we do a lot of in our pictures, they don't hold up to critical analysis from an untrained professional critic very well.

Every picture has been a learning opportunity for me.

[Beginning at 2 p.m., fans were treated to a horror-film convention, including collectibles for sale and special guests signing autographs. At night, however, the Flashback Weekend truly came to new life with a dusk-to-dawn film festival, including Wes Craven's] The Last House on the Left ... Evil Dead II.