Scene was set for Jeremy to become a director

He was in his late thirties, his wife was pregnant again and time was running out on his hopes of being a film director.

He'd made a film before, Murder Party, a comedy-horror movie released in 2007, that he'd self-financed after a good year in advertising, shooting six "atrocious, ugly American commercials" for Kraft food around the world. He loved making the film but it left him in "bad shape" financially.

In the years that followed he shot more ads, and then started work as a cinematographer shooting American indie films. By 2012 his day rates as a DP were rising . There was a career to be had. But the desire to direct was still there.

"An agent contacted me and wanted to sign me as a cinematographer. I'd got the paperwork but I wanted to drop off the map for one year and see if I can be a director.

"The window to make this movie was closing because my third daughter was on the way, there's an end date and I can no longer self-fund movies for the rest of my life going forward."

He wrote a script, cast his friend Macon Blair in the main role, gathered up money including his own and even some for his wife, returned home to Virginia to shoot in his parents home. The result is Blue Ruin, a film that starts in silence and ends in violence, a film full of grief and pain and blood and revenge, a film that gives genre cinema a good name.

We speak on the day the film goes on release on the US. "I have access to hourly box office reports, but I'm trying not to get obsessed," he admits. That the film is getting an international release suggests he'll cover his costs and more. That should make up for just how difficult the experience of making the film was. "The stress level was so high. The stakes were so high. It was among the most excruciating experiences of my professional life. There were some great moments but I didn't sleep more than two hours every night but once on a 30-day shoot. I was just a physical and emotional wreck."

You wouldn't know it from the movie. "This film for us was about holding nothing back and pooling all our resources so that if this was a swan song we'd at least end on a note we were proud of, something that was representative of the full extent of our capabilities at the time, as opposed to coming up with something compromised or half-assed."

Saulnier describes himself as "a Ronald Reagan kid growing up in the 80s" who watched action movies and made his own versions.

"The first film our collective made growing up was Megacop, half Robocop, half Miami Vice episode. I like to think it was more of an innocent time, the pre-Columbine era where playing with guns - which is what we did - had no harm or evil intent."

He and his friends grew up watching Scorsese videos and making Monty Python-style comedy skits and "good time zombie flicks."

Saulnier loved horror movies, watched John Carpenter movies and became obsessed with horror SFX and make-up. He drops names like Rob Bottin (who worked on Carpenter's version of The Thing) and Rick Baker (who turned David Naughton into a wolf in American Werewolf in London). He even went to college to study make up. Can you still do a good wound, Jeremy? "I can."

And yet for all its comic grace notes there's nothing snickering or frathouse about Blue Ruin, which might surprise the tiny number of people who've actually seen Murder Party. "The comfort zone for both Macon and myself is more the fun genre. But Blue Ruin is about being more vulnerable as artists and film-makers in that it was a raw, emotional story and we couldn't hide out with jokes or self-parody or hyper-violence. We had to make this raw, emotional story."

Promoting the film on the festival circuit he learnt a new phrase. "Elevated genre". He thinks it just means films with that exploitation element of violence that actually consider narrative and character.

"For me the perfect elevated genre film is Let the Right One In. Gorgeous. It's a vampire movie but it's not. And it's a total work of art above most of what I see in other highly regarded genres."

Elevated genre is what everyone wants to do, he thinks. "Exploitation films that don't stink."

Blue Ruin doesn't stink. There are flaws but in its best moments it sings. And it's being noticed. "There are lots of things in play," Saulnier admits. "I've just finished a screenplay and we've had an offer to fund it so it's exciting. Things are moving a lot easier and faster than I was trying to get Blue Ruin off the ground."

Jeremy Saulnier thought Blue Ruin was a last chance. Turns out it was just the start of the story.

Blue Ruin goes on selected release tomorrow.