"The process is very gradual, you see. At first there's the tainted stage; they know what will eventually happen to them if they go on but they say, 'Oh God, don't do it to me do it again, please, please.'"
About this Quote
Coming from a director synonymous with mid-century British gothic (Hammer’s lurid moral theater), the quote reads like an x-ray of his era’s anxieties. These films were made under a culture of repression and censorship; they had to smuggle sex, appetite, and transgression inside capes and fangs. So Fisher frames damnation as incremental, almost polite. People “know what will eventually happen” - the punishment is not a surprise - yet desire rewrites the script in real time. The victim becomes an accomplice.
The intent isn’t to moralize so much as to weaponize ambivalence. He’s explaining how you keep an audience leaning forward: by making the character’s downfall feel like a choice they’re making, then failing to make, then making again. The horror is that the monster doesn’t only attack; it invites, and the invitation sounds like your own voice.
Quote Details
| Topic | Fear |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fisher, Terence. (2026, January 16). The process is very gradual, you see. At first there's the tainted stage; they know what will eventually happen to them if they go on but they say, 'Oh God, don't do it to me do it again, please, please.'. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-process-is-very-gradual-you-see-at-first-95061/
Chicago Style
Fisher, Terence. "The process is very gradual, you see. At first there's the tainted stage; they know what will eventually happen to them if they go on but they say, 'Oh God, don't do it to me do it again, please, please.'." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-process-is-very-gradual-you-see-at-first-95061/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The process is very gradual, you see. At first there's the tainted stage; they know what will eventually happen to them if they go on but they say, 'Oh God, don't do it to me do it again, please, please.'." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-process-is-very-gradual-you-see-at-first-95061/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
