Dennis Cooper Discusses New Film Room Temperature and Novel I Wished in ArtReview Interview

Dennis Cooper's latest film Room Temperature began a limited cinema run in November 2025, exploring a family terrorized by an abusive father obsessed with creating the ultimate haunted house. The writer-director collaborated again with visual artist Zac Farley, following their 2015 work Like Cattle Towards Glow. Cooper's 2021 novel I Wished revisits his childhood friend George, the real-life inspiration for his earlier George Miles cycle from the late 1990s. Known for disturbing narratives about violence and sexual abuse, Cooper describes his complicated relationship with objectification, noting how beauty damages those perceived as attractive. In the ArtReview interview conducted via video call from Paris, Cooper explained his fascination with haunted houses as an art form that fails ambitiously. He emphasized structure and control in writing, while embracing the incremental, changing nature of filmmaking where scripts evolve during production. Music significantly influences his writing, though he requires quiet while composing. Cooper values silence in literature, aiming to create affective pauses despite the difficulty of controlling readers' minds. His characters often confuse art with murder, using distancing devices that provoke emotional responses. The ghost in Room Temperature represents the only truly scary element of the haunted house, unknown to other characters.