Week 28: “A Tribute to Wes Craven”
As you may already know we last a great director on August
30th this year. He wasn’t
just a great director but an influential name in the pantheon of horror film
directors who created nightmares that haunted the last fifty years of our
dreams. His name was Wes Craven and I’d
like to take a few moments to appreciate some of my favorite films of his that
had a major impact on me.
The first film I’d like to mention is The People Under the Stairs (1991).
Why do you ask do I start off with this film? It just happened to be the first film of his
that I ever got the chance see on the big screen. It also happened to feature an African
American Brandon Quinton Adams as the main star and starred A.J. Langer, whom I
ended up having a crush on due to this film and her starring in the TV show Drexel’s Class. I actually saw the film several times at the
theater and then it became one of my regular Halloween fixtures once it hit
video. Craven has always featured
intelligent characters in his films and this film is no exception. Even now this film holds up extremely well
considering its age.
Brandon Quinton Adams would again appear in another Craven
project which was the short lived Nightmare
Café (1992) which I also found compelling and different and of course it
starred Robert England in another great role as Blackie. This was an interesting anthology style
series in which not only starred England but Lindsay Frost, another great
actress most familiar to fans of Dead
Heat (1988) and Monolith (1993). The real shame is that no one was tuning into
this series and it was cancelled after a single season.
Next up is Swamp Thing
(1982). This is the Craven film I didn’t
know was a Craven film for the longest time growing up. This would be on constant replay on HBO and
other cable stations and I must have seen the film a million times. It also spawned the USA TV series from
’90-’93 and Return of Swamp Thing (1989),
but the less said about the sequel the better.
The movie was a great introduction for me to the comic book which I’m
still a fan of to this day. Despite the
infamy of the film now, this was one of my favorite films growing up because it
didn’t just have a cool monster as a hero of the film but it starred Andrienne
Barbeau, whom has been in some of the best horror and sci-fi films ever made
including The Fog (1980), Creepshow (1982), Escape from New York (1981), Two
Evil Eyes (1990), and The Convent
(2000), to name a few. This film got a
lot of replay value with me.
Another guilty pleasure film that lies in infamy with fans
of Craven’s work is Deadly Friend
(1986). If you see a pattern that
Craven’s lesser known films were what I watched a lot of as a kid growing up
then you’ll see why this film is on the list.
Many consider this one of his worst films because the gore was edited
out and the story barely makes much sense and it’s all edited poorly but I say
a film that starred Kristy Swanson can’t be all that bad. This was the first film I remember seeing her
in but it wouldn’t be the last. I would
follow her career from the psychological horrors of Flowers in the Attic (1987) to the ridiculous Mannequin: On the Move (1991) to the even more infamous Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), The Chase (1994), The Program (1993). Higher
Learning (1995), and The Phantom
(1996), to name a few. By the late ‘90s
her career was dying a slow death and even though she would continue to be in
many films her starring roles would continue to dwindle. For me, the magic would survive through this
first film in which her performance is raw and unrefined but she was relatable
as a teenager.
Now I head into Craven’s most famous film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) which
would be higher on my list but unfortunately I was a Michael Myers fan growing
up and therefore I really didn’t watch and love this film as much as I should
have. What this film does have the
benefit of being is the most suspenseful of the major horror franchises which
includes Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(TCM), Halloween, Hellraiser, and Friday the 13th.
Craven is the best of the horror masters at suspense and keeping the
audience on the edge of their seats without relying on the “jump scare”. TCM
has its off-screen visceral horror; Halloween
was a moody horror film all about what hides in the shadow; Friday the 13th was all about
the “jump scare”; Hellraiser was
about the gore and style and makeup FX.
Craven used all these elements to create a whole atmosphere that left
audiences in suspense from beginning to end and had intelligent heroines to
boot. Craven would have a hand in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream
Warriors (1987) but it would be New
Nightmare (1994) in which he would bring new life to Freddy Krueger in a
film that commented on the Elm Street franchise and Hollywood while also
bringing a fairytale quality to a horror film.
Unfortunately, this film would also not do as well at the Box Office
(but it still got my money).
The Serpent & the
Rainbow (1988) would be another one of my favorites because it was the very
first zombie film I ever saw that was based upon the voodoo zombie and not the
undead zombie. As a kid I was expecting
the undead zombie but I was completely surprised when I first saw this
film. I had never been exposed to the
voodoo zombie before this film. George
A. Romero’s zombies were zombies to me up until this film but this film opened
up my entire mind to the endless possibilities out there. By this time I was well aware of who “Wes
Craven” was and I had seen most all his major films up until then.
So when Shocker (1989)
was released it was one of the few films of ’89 that were on the top of my
“Must Watch” list. Unfortunately, I
missed this one at the Box Office (as it would be another couple years until
the release of The People Under the
Stairs) but I must have seen the film a hundred times when it found its way
on video. This film is the rare Craven
film on this list that was not suspenseful but more on the level of being an
exciting and vibrant action-horror hybrid with all kinds of supernatural events
going on. I’m also a huge fan of the
soundtrack for this film and I must have played it a thousand times growing up
(I still have my copy on cassette if you can believe that).
Before I go any further I’d like to backtrack to the film
that usually gets glossed over which is The
Hills Have Eyes (1977). I actually
saw its sequel The Hills Have Eyes Part
II (1984) first but I enjoyed that one so much I searched out the first one. After watching the first one, which I did
love more, the sequel continued to be a guilty pleasure that had introduced me
to another of one of my favorite Craven films.
Now The Hills Have Eyes may
not be one of Craven’s best films; it’s certainly one of the most dated but it
has a raw charm to it that I just love and whenever I’m in the mood to watch
this film I watch its sequel as well (and now I’ve added the remake for a
triple feature). These films are usually
at the bottom of any Craven fan’s “Best of” list but I would take both of these
films over much of Craven’s output post late ‘90s.
The last two major films on my “Best of” Craven’s list will
include Scream (1996) and Scream 2 (1997) because they re-kicked
started Craven’s commercial career in Hollywood. After a string of underperforming and
mediocre films the original Scream
became one of Craven’s biggest successes spawning three additional sequels and
now an MTV television series. The
original Scream is just what Craven
needed to put himself back on the map and prove to Hollywood that he still had
what it takes to appeal to young audiences.
It was also a shot in the arm for the horror genre as the film was smart
and the characters were smart and the film was suspenseful and kept audiences
on the edge of their seats from beginning to end while also providing plenty of
laughs when and where needed. Scream 2 heightened these aspects from
the first film and made them even better.
With a higher budget, more celebrities and better production values this
was a horror film with the look, feel, and budget of a major Hollywood
film.
I didn’t really care for either of the other sequels Scream 3 (2000) or Scream 4 (2011), which is unfortunately Craven’s final film. Both were technically fine but neither was as
shocking or interesting as the first two but that’s the nature of diminishing returns
for sequels. The same can be said of the
Elm Street sequels as well. Cursed (2005) is one of Craven’s worst
films for many different reasons (I could dedicate a whole article on this)
while Red Eye (2005) is the odd
duckling of the bunch. It’s technically
a great film and the performances are also great but it doesn’t feel like a
Craven film. It feels like a film that
any other horror director could have handled.
Craven’s style is absent from this film.
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) is its
own mishap and has never been on my list of Craven films to watch despite
looking and feeling like a Craven film.
The comedy falls flat and most of the actors seem bored to be in this
comedy-horror hybrid.
I can appreciate the ground breaking The Last House on the Left (1972) and what it did for Craven’s
career but this is a film I’ve always hated.
I’ve given it several watches over the years and I still hate it. I prefer the remake over this film and in
fact have watched the remake more times.
I’ll not mention Craven’s TV movies as none of them are on the same
level as his theatrical films and I skipped over Music of the Heart (1999), which is actually a pretty decent film,
and the highly forgettable and uninteresting My Soul to Take (2010), which lacks the “pop” and excitement of
Craven’s best films.
The only films of Craven’s I’ve yet to see are Deadly Blessing (1981) and Night Visions (1990) so I won’t comment
on those.
All in all Wes Craven has had a long career of crafting some
of our most unforgettable nightmares.
His career had its ups and downs but he continued to be successful and
produce quality films till the end. He
also managed to produce a lot of films and continued to influence the next
generation of horror film-makers including his own son Jonathan Craven. The horror genre has lost one of its greatest
contributors and we should all take a few moments to reflect on that.
I wish Mr. Craven safe travels in wherever his spirit finds
a home and we will all continue to marvel the dreams and nightmares that he
gave us all.
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