It seems to me a lot of them are aiming for retro – trying to capture something that once was but in a more glossy way. A lot of the movies that these modern films are inspired by were made at a very specific time, in a certain political and social climate and were made by very intelligent people who really knew what they were doing. Films by the likes of Wes Craven or George A. Romero, these guys took a social stance in their work. They were intellectuals. Craven was an academic before making films and Tobe Hooper (director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was an avant-garde artist. A lot of art made over the centuries has been made out of a very violent instinct, but there’s a difference to making it and copying it.

I don’t make violent movies, but I do make films that can me violating – which is very different. The violence in my movies is painful because violence is painful. Sex is difference in cinema because everyone does it – or should be doing it – whereas violence is much easier to fantasize about because we shouldn’t be doing it, therefore it becomes fetishized. We tend to find it much more stimulating for our fantasies, much more of an outlet.

Art is an act of violence – weather it’s pleasant or unpleasant. The act of creativity is violent and I don’t mean just physically but also mentally. It can be disturbing or uplifting but it can be violating. You can violated in a positive way or negative way. That’s what art can do. It can penetrate the defenses you put up. When we see something that penetrates us, we’re shocked.

NICOLAS WINDING REFN’S MOST SHOCKING FILMS

THE KILLING OF AMERICA (1982)

I was fascinated by this documentary about violence in the States in the late 1970s/early 80s. It’s shocking because it’s so nihilistic.

THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASACRE (1974)

I was 14 when I went to see a double feature of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. I’d never seen any thing like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, let alone in a movie theatre, and I remember this scene so vividly. At the end I just remember thinking, ‘oh my goodness…’

COME AND SEE (1985)

This is a Soviet movie about the Germans trying to invade Russia during the Second World Wars and it follows the failed invasion through the eyes of a little boy. There’s a scene at the end where he finds a portrait of Hitler and as he shots into the portrait and all this archive footage of the war plays backwards until we see pictures of Hitler as a baby. I thought it was so provocative.

IRREVERSIBLE (2002)

THE HAUNTING (1963)

I must have been about nine years old when I saw this on TV, because we’d just moved to New York. There’s a scene with two women on a bed and they’re huddled up because the door handle to the room they’re in is being pulled from the outside – and it just frightened the hell out of me. That not knowing what’s there, with an aggressive, demonic force behind the door – that really shocked me.

MAD MAX: THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981)

I persuaded my nanny to take me to see this film when I was about ten. I think I was shocked by the whole movie but I loved every fucking second of it.