Wes Craven: From the Last House to a Scream

As I stated earlier the older I get the more often I have to say goodbye to my heroes and inspirations ant that includes the ones that I always admired and helped me move forward in my career and aspirations.

Wes Craven was one of those individuals that gave me that direction. As I stated on Social Media this week that I don’t know where I would be without his visions and words and I meant every part of that statement.

I choose not to go into too much details but the story is that there was a tramatic event in my life that I needed to deal with and on one of those evenings Nightmare on Elm Street was on USA and my issues seemed to go away for two hours and it is Craven that I had to thank for that as well as another time where Scream served this purpose as well. 

Professionally I often cite many of the audio commentaries on his films that helped me along the way to what I am now as a filmmaker.

Wesley Earl Craven was born in Ohio 1939. Due to his parents strong religious beliefs the only films that Craven was allowed to watch were approved Disney films and nothing else and in his childhood he witnessed a vagrant walking down the street past his home wearing a dirty sweater and a fedoria.

When he became aware that he was being watched he starred at Young Craven who soon hid from the window and soon after waiting and being sure that the man was gone he went back to the window only to find that the man was still standing outside the window and soon walked to the door seeming to relish in causing fear to this child.

This incident would in the future serve as one of the inspirations for Freddy Kruger.

Craven would go on to become a teacher ranging in instruction of English to Humanities at colleges and soon began to make his own films on 16mm.

Looking for a new direction Craven took a job making industrials before meeting Sean Cunningham and collaborating on their first feature film.

Last House on the Left was essentially a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring telling to story of two teenage girls who when going to a concert are soon kidnapped, raped and murdered by three escaped criminals who in a twist of fate find themselves seeking refuge at the home of the parents of one of the girls who deduct the fate of their daughter and the revenge that they take on her killers.

To avoid fainting keep repeating, It’s only a Movie, It’s Only a Movie was the add campaign used for the films and Last House on the Left was unflinching in it’s content and later served as an inspiration for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre with it’s documentary feel and was often edited in theatres leading to various cuts that are floating around in the world and the film was banned in the UK.

Craven and Cunningham’s follow-up to Last House on the Left didn’t disappoint viewers. Telling the story of a vacationing family that runs afoul of a band of cannibalistic Bandits in the Nevada Desert.

The Hills Have Eyes again shocked viewers and made Craven a well-known face among  Horror Aficionados and was the beginning of the “In Jokes” Between Wes Craven and Sam Raimi as in Hills Craven has half a poster of Jaws to symbolize that Jaws is Half as Scary as Hills and Sam Raimi in Evil Dead showed a quarter of the poster of Hills to say that Hills was a Quarter as scary as Evil Dead. This Joke would be a back and forth between these Masters of Horror for years to come.

Craven went on to work on many other films around this time including many Made for Television Films as well as Deadly Blessing which was shot in my old stomping grounds of Waxahachie, Texas 

Craven brought life to the comic hero Swamp Thing with Dick Durrock and Adrianne Barbeau.

In 1984 a struggling distribution company approached Craven to direct their first feature film to be released inhouse. Inspired by both the incident with the vagrant as well as an article about the death of a young Cambodian refugee that had earlier refused to sleep Craven penned the script about a group of teenagers that are stalked by an unseen entity in their dreams only to find that the culprit is a man that their parents murdered years prior.

While these children are being picked off one by one by this villain in a dirty hat with knives for fingers it all falls to Heather Lankencamp’s Nancy Thompson to face off against this monster.

A Nightmare on Elm Street was by far Craven’s most successful film and not just took Craven’s career to the next level but launched the careers of Bob Shaye, and Johnny Depp as well as making New Line a major Studio in Hollywood and “The House that Freddy Built”.

The films antagonist Freddy Kruger became an Icon of Horror and Robert Englund became synomious with the character through 5 sequels, a spinoff, a television series, a crossover film, comics, video games, and a best selling Halloween costume among other Halloween sales as well as the less recieved 2010 Remake.

With the exception of writing the third film Craven largely distanced himself from the franchise as he felt that Freddy had become a wisecracking “Bafoon” in the sequels and he also took issue with the sales of the costumes as Freddy was a Child murder and now children were dressing as him.

After Nightmare Craven became a better known face in the genre and in main stream entertainment as well bringing more iconic films to life In this era of his life.

The Films have a following in their own right. 

Shocker tells the Story of a executed criminal Horace Pinker that manages to move from body to body while not a big hit upon it's release it has gained it's following in recent years. 

Using the backdrop of an urban house of horrors The People Under the Stairs gives us particularly evil villains that  not only torture their victims but keep their tenets in the houses that they own under torment as well. 

 The Serpent and the Rainbow is regarded as one of the most frightening films of the 90s educating us on real zombies and voodoo in Haiti. 

In 1994 with his name above the title Wes Craven brought life back to Freddy Kruger with New Nightmare. A different direction for the franchise New Nightmare followed the makers of the Nightmare series being stalked by a demon that has taken the form of the horror icon. The only one that can face off against this entity is Heather Lankencamp herself while Craven tries to write the story to keep this monster at bay.

New Nightmare is one of those films that is a dividing line between the Nightmare fans as the traditionalists hated the flick and others like myself loved the direction that the film took.

As I stated earlier that the 90s were not a good time for the Horror genre as the slasher craze had inflicted much damage to the art but that was all about to change.

Kevin Williamson one night after watching a television documentary about The Gainesville Murders in the early 90s soon found the inspiration that he needed to create a new type of horror film that would revitalize the genre as well as the industry for years to come.

Writing a script about a series of murders in a small town that have been inspired by various horror films essentially making the characters aware that they are in a “Scary Movie” which was the original title of the film.

Williamson soon sold the script to Dimension Films and with Williamson’s lack of directorial experience the studio felt that it needed a more experienced genre director to helm this project and they found that director in Wes Craven.

Scream told the story of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) who was the central figure in the film dealing with the murder of her mother in the town of Woodsboro and the stalking from a killer wearing a ghostface mask who taunts her with calls from a cell phone.

A breakthrough hit in 1996 winning massive awards and quickly finding it’s audience with the MTV generation Scream quickly found it’s imitators and a sequel was inevitable and quickly put into production.

With Craven and Williamson once again at the Helm Scream 2 followed Sidney and the other survivors in College being stalked by another killer donning the Ghostface attire with a strange connection to the first film.

While Scream 2 was a massive success it was plagued with issues including security as the original script was leaked on the internet and rewrites had to be done on the fly and many of the cast and crew didn’t even know who the killer was until it was shot and even had bets among themselves on the outcome.

After Scream 2 Craven felt to branch out and take a hiatus from horror and helmed the Meryl Streep starring film Music of the Heart which under his direction Streep received an Oscar nomination. This was Craven’s only non-Horror Film.

With Williamson unavailable to continue with the Scream films Craven chose to remain on as director to conclude the trilogy that he had helped create.

Scream 3 finished out the trilogy with Sidney and the other characters going to Hollywood to face off against the third incarnation of Ghostface and his ties to the entire series.

After Scream 3 Craven focused most of his efforts as an executive producer with Wishmaster , They and the Dracula 2000 series which was helmed by Scream editor Patrick Lussier and many other writing efforts such as 2006’s Pulse he did however return to the directing reteaming once again with Kevin Williamson to make the Scream styled Werewolf flick Cursed as well as the less received My Soul to Take.

Looking more toward the Thriller Genre Craven also directed Red Eye telling the story of a young woman being held captive by a Terrorist on a flight in order to facilitate an assignation of one of her clients who is an upcoming politician.  

In 2011 Craven once again returned to Woodsboro to reunite with Neve Campbell as well as franchise stars David Arquette and Courtney Cox to helm Scream 4 and introduce a new cast of characters to a new audience making reference to the recent trend of Remakes.

While originally planned as a new trilogy Scream 4 became a stand-alone entry to the franchise and the decision was made to turn Scream to a television series on MTV with Wes serving as a Executive Producer.

On August 30th 2015 Wes Craven passed on bringing to an end the life of a Man that entertained and frightened generations as well as taught us various lessons in our culture and reality in general.

Soon after his passing was announced the outpour on social media from all of his fans and collaborators thanking him for his inspirations and the Honor of working with him.

Like many filmmakers Craven has in fact found a form of immortality as where ever Freddy Kruger is seen you will always think of Wes Craven and people will always see that white ghostfaced mask every Halloween in various incarnations and that is not his only Legacy.

New Generations are discovering his films on Bluray and streaming Media Scream Factory is due to release Shocker, The People Under the Stairs and many of his other classics among others.

So tonight sit back and toast with a beverage of your choice and turn on one of the flicks and enjoy the life of a man that honored us with his presence and his visions and Nightmares.

I know I always will.

Goodbye Wes Craven…You are already Missed.