Deon Taylor is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is the founder of Hidden Empire Film Group. Known for creating thrillers such as Nite Tales, Supremacy and horror comedy Meet the Blacks. He discusses the process of creating compelling thrillers and the importance for the characters to be real and familiar as seen in his new thriller The Intruder.
I had a good time watching the movie. In the theater people were cheering and screaming and they also wanted to fight the two main characters. They are living with this creep up in the house despite multiple warnings. So has there been anyone in your life that people have warned you about over and over and you just couldn't see what they're talking about until it was too late?
Deon Taylor: Every day of my life. You know what, the movie was purposely done that way, you know. I thought the movie has a universal message. There's a lot more under the tone of what the film really is. You know what I mean? And the reality is, here's a guy who is trying to come between a marriage and here they are, they have to actually stand up and figure out at the last minute like, Yo, this dude got us fighting each other. You know what I mean? And come together and become stronger. And that's the, that was the reason for the rings at the end, joining, you know what I mean? It was a moment there, but no man, it was built for this. It was built for the audience to go to the theater, sit back, chill out. Like all right, impress me. You know what I mean?
And for you to in 20 minutes and be like, okay, wait, happened? And then dive and go and go and go. And pretty soon you're invested. And you're right, you're arguing. You know what I mean? And once you do that, that means you care. Once you talk to the theater screen or talk to your friend that's in the movie, like, Yo, dude trippin man, they would never, you're in, you know what I mean? Because if you don't do that, that means you don't care. That means you not even trippin. But this is great man. And I just love it. I've been saying this all day, man. I love it for the culture. Like we, you know, with the exception of most recently Jordan Peele coming in with Us and Get Out. We never got this, man. We didn't have this, we didn't have the lane for a Michael Ealy, a Megan Good. And a Dennis Quaid. I've never seen this movie in my life, you know, and when you get opportunities to bend the culture. And push a message for words. It's not even about race, it's just about dope people. And a dope concept. But we get to see ourselves on screen.
Yeah. Look, you know, you're talking about breaking up marriages, right? We've seen movies before where you've got a crazy ass white woman trying to break up a white man's marriage, Fatal Attraction. You go crazy ass white women trying to break up a black man's marriage. We haven't seen a crazy ass white man trying to break up. Why do you think it’s taken so long?
Deon Taylor: Crazy ass people everywhere. No, I just think there's a rule where there are 10 movies that are constantly remade over and over again. Right? You can't reinvent the wheel. But what you could do is flip it and you could, I used to be like, you could put rims on it. And this concept I had never seen. Like, yeah, you've seen ideas like that and you've seen Fatal Attraction. Classic. Where you're like, Yo, this is nuts. She’s nuts. And I think this is on the level in terms of like what Dennis Quaid does. Like I think we've never seen this guy like that ever. And even if you watch Fatal Attraction and if you've ever seen the behind the scenes of Fatal Attraction, Glenn Close was not supposed to be cast in that film. I just think we did something special, man. I don't know. And now we've got a man, we've got a white woman. We got a black couple being broke up. Yeah. We got to find out what's the next crazy ass thing to do. Maybe it's a crazy ass dog. Crazy ass rottweiler.