David Winning detests graphic violence. Instead, the Calgary filmmaker places his violence offscreen, and leaves the rest to the imagination of the viewer. "I don't adhere to the belief that violent movies are somehow cathartic," he says. "In fact, I believe someone who is violent will only be enticed by what they see on the screen." Violent visuals or not, Mr. Winning seems to have found a way to attract millions of viewers. Last month he accepted two awards at the International Television Movie Festival in New Jersey for directing two episodes of the television series "Friday the 13th," broadcast throughout North America. It was a long way from the Super 8 films he made as a 10 year-old. "To be honest," says Mr. Winning, "the thought that my work was going out to over five million people simply boggles my mind."

Mr. Winning makes it sound easy, but the reality of filmmaking is a lot different. "You have to be very patient and believe in yourself," he says, reflecting on his rise to fame, "because it will take a long time to get the money and resources together and then a long time to complete the work." It was 11 years ago that he worked for Access Television in Calgary making educational programs, hoping for the chance to create his own work. After attempting to sell scripts to producers without much success, he decided to make his first film, Storm, on his own, with actors and technicians taking an equity position.

It took six years for Mr. Winning to complete Storm in May of 1985, at a total cost of $72,000. But the film immediately attracted attention. A wilderness thriller in the Deliverance tradition, Storm won five Alberta Motion Picture Industry Awards, including Best Dramatic Feature and Best Production. Cannon Films International Inc. picked it up and paid $50,000 more to shoot additional scenes and boost its length by 20 minutes. To date the film has sold over 16,000 copies in the video market and earned almost $1 million, paving the way for Mr. Winning's unique interpretation of horror.

Frank Mancuso Jr., producer of the "Friday the 13th" series and son of Paramount president Frank Mancuso Sr., saw a copy of Storm and asked Mr. Winning to direct two episodes in Toronto. Faced with larger budgets and eager staff, the Calgarian didn't know how to react. "It was such a culture shock to go from a nothing budget where I was doing everything to a $500,000 budget where everyone was doing things for me," he says. "But everyone was so professional and competent that I just did my bit and enjoyed it all."

So did his viewers. At the International Television Movie Festival his Scarlet Cinema won Best Fantasy/Science Fiction and The Sweetest Sting received a Special Merit Award. Five million horror fans saw his Scarlet Cinema, the story of a college student obsessed with 1940s horror films who eventually blurs the line between fantasy and reality and becomes a werewolf himself. The Sweetest Sting is a story of a crazed beekeeper who keeps killer bees in an attempt to create a truth serum. Yet Mr. Winning insists he is more a thriller enthusiast than a horror fanatic, and that the two episodes of "Friday the 13th" were very tongue in cheek. "It was a great deal of fun because I was free to concentrate on the expression rather than the technical aspects of the episode," he says.

Mr. Winning's next project, Killer Image, is closer to the style he loves, and the director he idolizes: Alfred Hitchcock. He compares it to the weighty director's film North By Northwest. "I love Hitchcock's work, and Stanley Kubrick, and films like Marathon Man," he says. "I'm also a very big fan of John Carpenter, whose first film Halloween earned $96 million but was produced for only $360,000--making it the most successful independent film ever."

For this project, which will begin shooting in Calgary around Christmas, Mr. Winning has a budget of just under $1 million. The film is financed by Pay Television, the Alberta governmenet and an undisclosed Canadian distributor, and tells the story of a rebellious photojournalist. There's no werewolves in this film, just a convoluted plot that sees the hero caught up in a political scandal after his brother is murdered--and he himself is framed with another.

Sometimes, admits Mr. Winning, making a thriller can be as harrowing as the film itself. While the funding has increased for his movies, it has also brought more people into the production, and a degree of his freedom has been lost. "Because someone is giving you more to do the film they would like to see certain changes, and someone else contributing wants other changes, and soon the original idea begins to get overwhelmed," he explains. "Nonetheless, the part I love is when they hand me the means to do my work and I'm out on the set, because then I'm off to the races, doing what I love to do best." In Mr Winning's movies, that doesn't mean keeping you in your seat. It means keeping you on its edge.