Funny, he has no fear of plunging back into horror

Q. This is something of a return to form for you.

A. Yes, horror is where I got my start. When I was 19, "Evil Dead" was my first movie. I started making it in 1979, but it didn't come out until 1982 because we kept running out of money. This is pretty much the first horror film I've made since "Evil Dead II" in 1987.

Q. Why now? With the success of the "Spider-Man" movies, you're an established Hollywood director. Why bother?

A. I want to keep working in this business, and it matters very much to me that I enjoy what I'm doing. Most everyone I know begged me not to make another low-budget horror film. Agents and attorneys said to me, "Sam, you've reached a level of respectability that you're able to make more artistic films." But I never looked at my "career" in quotes. I've always tried to entertain the audience. If I fail, at least I've gone down fighting.

Q. Why do you think horror isn't taken more seriously as a genre?

A. Because horror films are not looked at as great pieces of art or as socially important.

Q. Name a horror film that is a great piece of art.

A. Robert Wise's "The Haunting," which is based on Shirley Jackson's novel "The Haunting of Hill House." Wise uses the camera to give the audience the tools to be part of the movie. He doesn't insult the audience. He almost lets them create the monsters. It's as if you're making the story together. There's a French filmmaker named Jacques Tourneur, who made "Curse of the Demon." I tried to employ some of his techniques in making "Drag Me to Hell," suggesting horror through sight and sound.

Q. Who are some of your other influences?

A. I'm a product of all of the films I've ever seen. Every film we see teaches us how to make shortcuts and to understand visual language. I've been influenced by the brilliant films of Alfred Hitchcock and the work of Spielberg, and I admire the work of Fellini and Bergman. It's very hard to say exactly who my influences are.

Q. I was scared by "Drag Me to Hell," freaked out, actually. But a lot of folks in the theater were laughing. What response were you hoping for?

A. I intentionally put a lot of dark humor and outrageous ideas into the film. I want to energize the audience. Horror is a close cousin to humor. I often find myself tittering in horrific situations. Setting up suspense is similar to setting up a joke: There's an unexpected conclusion. There's an involuntary scream or burst of laughter that is a communal experience of the audience. That's what I'm after. We all agree to suspend disbelief as we sit in the darkness of the theater and go on this journey.

Q. This movie screened for the sophisticates at the Cannes Film Festival. How did it go over?

A. It showed at midnight and I was worried about the exact thing you're talking about. I thought the very educated critics at Cannes would look down on the film and think it besmirched their fine festival. But they didn't. I was reminded that Cannes is really a crowd of cinema lovers. They can be very critical and even boo a film, but they came in wanting to love something.

Q. The movie is about greed. Alison Lohman plays a sweet young girl who makes a bad decision and pays for it. Dearly.

A. Yes, it's a morality tale. I wanted the main character to be someone who's pleasant, someone the audience can identify with and like. She's a minor loan officer at a bank and she does one bad thing. All of us, when we do something bad, tell ourselves it's just this one time, and we justify it under the rules of whatever organization we work for, whether it's a newspaper, the military, a bank, whatever. Well, she chose the wrong person to do something bad to, and she has to do awful things to save herself.

Q. Oh, that poor kitty.

A. [Laughs] Yes, sorry about that.

Q. I also like the talking goat.

A. He speaks quite highly of you, too.

Q. What's next for you?

A. Well, I'm finishing up "Drag Me to Hell" - there are so many DVD elements, the TV version, and the airline version. And once I'm done with that, I'll be plunging headlong into the next "Spider-Man" movie.

Q. Another one?

A. Yes. I'm a guy who likes to return to the same characters and mine them on a deeper level. I've made [two] "Evil Dead" movies and, who knows, I might make another one.