[7] Paizs first developed the "quiet man" character concept because budgetary limitations largely forced him to appear in his own films instead of hiring a lead actor, but he disliked the sound of his own voice and did not feel that he had any acting talent.
[7] Following Crime Wave, Paizs worked primarily as a television director on various series until returning to film in 1999 with Top of the Food Chain, a sendup of science fiction B-movies in which an incompetent scientist tries to thwart an alien invasion.
[9] Paizs was a key influence on Guy Maddin, who cited The Obsession of Billy Botski as inspiring him to make his own short film debut with The Dead Father in 1985.
[7] In 2008, Toronto's Royal Cinema mounted a retrospective of Paizs' films, including Springtime in Greenland, Crime Wave and Top of the Food Chain.
His features offer straight-faced deconstructions of film noir and 1950s sci-fi tropes, with characters operating on just the wrong side of self-awareness as they navigate increasingly bizarre situations.