Two minutes into the Fede Alvarez remake of the Sam Raimi classic, The Evil Dead, we have already been scared, repulsed and told that all bets are, effectively, off as a father lights his own demon-possessed daughter on fire and shoots her in the head with a shotgun. Within the first minute of Alvarez’s new film Don’t Breathe, which hits Blu-ray and DVD November 29th, we are certain that our heroine will be dead as she is dragged up a deserted Detroit suburb street to a dilapidated stronghold. Writer/director Fede Alvarez  and his screenwriting partner Rodo Sayagues know what grabs audiences and they doesn’t waste time in doing so. Movies are their business.

Alvarez and Sayagues took time out of their busy schedules to sit down with HorrorBuzz while promoting the release of Don’t Breath on Blu-Ray, to discuss the film, their take on horror, and what we can look forward to in the upcoming release.

With the success of their remake/reboot of the classic Evil Dead they decided to strike out and create an original yarn for their sophomore effort. Don’t Breathe tells the story of a group of thieves who decide to go for a large stash of cash hidden inside the home of a blind recluse. Of course, they get a lot more than they bargained for and very quickly the tables are turned in the most terrifying of ways.

The following article has spoilers so, if you have not seen Don’t Breathe yet, stop what you are doing, get it on iTunes right now, watch it, then come back and read the interview.

HorrorBuzz. Why an original story?”

Alverez. As much success that we felt we had with Evil Dead, it was still Evil Dead. I mean, as a director on that set, we really had a lot of freedom, but it was still an Evil Dead movie. The way I see it, it’s like you go to a friends house and they say ‘Oh do what you want, make yourself at home. Take what you want from the fridge.’ But really, it’s not like you are gonna take off your pants, have a beer, and you now, really do what you want. Evil Dead felt that way for us.

Sayagues. We could really indulge in what was the idea, it could be whatever we wanted to be.

Alverez. Also we felt that there were areas in the Horror genre that we hadn’t ventured. In Evil Dead we had shock, gore, in your face violence, we had covered that. We decided we wanted to make a movie that was more suspenseful and more intense. That was the genesis of Don’t Breathe. We developed a story that would let us go there.

Sayagues. Evil Dead didn’t leave a lot of room for that, it was all about shock. So we tried to come up with a premise that allowed us to explore the emotion of suspense.

HorrorBuzz. With suspense in mind, how did you devise an idea that serviced those needs?

Alverez. I want to believe at least that if you have the right idea it would be fertile enough, like if the idea is powerful enough, the story will come out of it. That was the idea. We thought, “what if we have a bunch of robbers that break into the house of a blind man that is hiding a secret?” and everything just comes out of that. We think Oh, ok, let’s say they sneak in and he doesn’t know how many there are and he kills one of them. Then it’s like, ok why doesn’t he call the police, well, because he’s hiding a secret and the other two are witness to all of that and a lot of that progresses naturally. That I think was the hardest part. Which, ironically is the thing that kind of popped out of no where.

Sayagues. For every one idea that made it into the movie we probably had, I don’t know, a hundred that didn’t so it takes those other 99 ideas to get to that one that you think it could work.

HorrorBuzz.  It’s an interesting niche that you have tapped into. With the popularity of the PG-13, micro-budget horror movies, you have made two hard R movies that have both made over 50 million. Evil Dead –  $54,239,856 and Don’t Breathe – $89,006,750. You have made hard R horror films that are doing well. What’s the secret?

Sayagues. What we have learned is that R can be a detriment or a plus. We thought that if we are going to make a rated R movie we really needed to take it as far as it could go until it, you know, crossed over.

Alverez.  It was funny, on Evil Dead we were so naive. We were really going for it on that one.

HorrorBuzz.  Did you get it? (An NC-17 rating)

Alverez.  We got it on the first cut, yes. But we didn’t have to change a lot to get an R. We only cut just a few frames here and there from the fucked-upness that we exposed the audience to.

Sayagues. If you are a kid and you go to the movies to see a rated R movie you really want to be as close to NC-17 as you possibly can.

Alverez.  If there is any secret, for us as film makers, to never forget what it is to be an artists. We see it happen all the time where they spend so much time making a movie that they forget what it is that the audience wants to see. What it was that thing that you wanted when you were just going to see movies. The more you start thinking about the business of it and that takes over, you start losing track of what is that the audience wants.

We always try to remember what it was we always wanted to see and the promise of the genre. Like you go watch a movie like this one you are promising the audience something. When the audience sees the trailer for a movie like this, they expect a certain thing. We tried to deliver what they were expecting, and a lot more shit thrown in there, that they never imagined they were gonna get. In Evil Dead people went into that movie thinking, ‘Oh man, yeah that is never gonna be as good as the original, it’s gonna be watered down.’ But it was like, ‘Hardcore, you wanna see hardcore?’ We gave them as much as we could in an R rating. We really want to make sure that we deliver on what the audience expects.

HorrorBuzz.  What were some of those movies when you were a kid that made you think, “oh my god, I should NOT be watching this!”

Alverez.  Evil Dead did that to me the first time I was watching it. It felt like, almost like it was porn, the nervousness of “I’m not supposed to be watching this.

Sayagues. The Exorcist. There’s a lot of scenes that have haunted me. I saw that when I was seven or eight and it destroyed my psyche. That stuff stayed with me for years but I think that is kind of the point of horror. You need to get that experience.

Alverez.  In the movie world in Hollywood, horror is sort of the rebel, the one that doesn’t give a fuck, the one that is reckless and taking risks. Like we were saying if it were the character in a movie it would be the punk that had never finished high school that is taking your daughter to the prom and you cannot help it. The saddest thing would be to see that same character dressing up and trying to fit in. Some horror films coming out of Hollywood are just that. They are tying to be all bad ass but they are also playing by the rules. That’s the problem with a lot of the PG-13 horror movies. When you have a PG-13 Texas Chainsaw Massacre it’s exactly that, the bad guy trying to fit in at the party. We really try to embrace that idea and go for it and deliver. We are constantly trying to make it fucked up and weird and we are trying to kick half of the audience out of the theatre on purpose. If you are a rock and roll band and you see some posh kids in the back, you are trying to scare them out, and that’s what we do.

There have been some critics, very few thank god, but they thought ‘Oh my GOD! they did a scene with a turkey baster that was gratuitous” and, it was supposed to be gratuitous because that’s horror.’

Sayagues. Human beings need to experience these fears and emotions of all sorts. How do you experience these fears and emotions without putting yourself in these situations? You are watching a horror movie to get these emotions but you are in a safe place.

HorrorBuzz. Speaking of the Turkey Baster, there are a lot of people asking Why did they have to go there?

Alverez.  It was very simple and organic to be honest. In the first draft of the script he kept her in the basement and that was basically as far as we went. he had this rich girl in his basement who had killed his daughter. I mean, the girl got off scot-free and she should have been in jail so he takes matters into his own hands and imprisons her in his own house to serve out her sentence.  Then we were like, meh, that is just too soft and it’s just like, it’s not enough. Then we thought, ‘What if it’s like he is trying to collect what she took away from him? What if he wants his kid back? and he’s gonna take it from her?’ Then we thought no, we don’t want him to be a rapist, per se, I mean, he is, but we didn’t want the audience thinking he took his pants off be cause you know, then, he’s just raping her. So, we dd research and that’s really how they do it. Home insemination, they recommend you take a turkey baster and you know that’s how you do that. So it really came out of the desire to  give The Blind Man a sort of moral code yet it makes sure that he goes far to get what he wants. In the movie he even says, “I’m not a rapist”

But people were reacting like, “How dare you!” acting like it was even worse than a rape scene. which is funny because you never see that happen, it never really gets there. it’s more the fear of what is going to happen. Secondly, the other things that happen in the film, people get shot at close range and that is a real thing that happened in the movie and nobody complains about that. It’s fine that we can kill all of these characters with a gun, and it’s talking about something that is a real issue, with the “stand your ground” laws in this country, and how could you execute a kid that breaks into your house, nobody cares about that but they care about implied rape with a turkey baster. It’s kind of shocking.

We Gave Fede a little gift since we were such big fans

HorrorBuzz. Favorite horror films?

Alverez.  Evil Dead, of course, and 28 Days later, that one really redefined the genre like brought so much to the table.

Sayagues.  Young Frankenstein. It took me years to understand that it was a comedy.

With that we closed the interview. Again, if you haven’t seen Don’t Breathe and you a re a big suspense fan, this is one you have to see. Get it on iTunes or buy the Blu-ray on Amazon tomorrow, 11/29!