Horror films aren’t given nearly enough credit by audiences. Granted, some horror movies feel more like a cash grab than an actual movie, but that’s true of any genre. Making a truly scary movie takes time, effort, and a great deal of skill.

Dan Curtis had a great deal of care for horror, but he also wasn’t afraid of calling out those who used the genre purely for profit.

Curtis was well known in the horror genre, directing films such as The Night Strangler (1973) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1974). Curtis was celebrated not only for his ability to scare audiences, but also to make them sympathize with cinema’s most notorious villains.

During an interview with the Associated Press, Curtis denounced producers who were only interested in being scary for the sake of earning a few cheap screams. The director and producer understood that terrifying audiences was a fine art and required the utmost care.

“Some producers don’t care about the story,” Curtis. “It’s just an excuse to get a couple of quarts of blood on the screen. That’s not what scares. It’s a mood, a feeling, a whole ambiance.”

Curtis understood that in order to make a horror film, it couldn’t be all scares all the time. A good movie needed a mix of both light and darkness if it had any hope of succeeding. More than anything, Curtis maintained that a good scary movie needed something vulnerable, a piece of a monster that audiences could look at to see themselves.

“It has to have more elements than those that frighten,” said Curtis. “You must have certain human dimensions that make you care, or, in my opinion, it fails.”