Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery
Blog.
Wes Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio on August 2nd,
1939 with incredibly strict Baptist parents. His parents’ method of raising him
was so strict that they refused to show him anything other than Disney movies
due to their religious beliefs. After leaving his constrained Midwestern
upbringing, Craven went to Wheaton College in Illinois and from there, his mind
was opened beyond than what his parents had allowed him to see. While he had to
take a year off due to his illness, he was able to get back into the swing of things
and eventually became an editor and contributor for his college’s literary
magazines. Craven explored writing during his time at college, even while
earning his master’s degree at the John Hopkins University in 1964.
For a while, Craven had multiple teaching positions. He
initially taught English at Westminster College, then Humanities at the
Clarkson College of Technology. He additionally taught at Madrid-Washington
High School and during this time, he purchased a 16mm film camera and started
crafting short movies. From there, Craven managed to land a job as a sound
editor for Harry Chapman and began living in Manhattan. These events gave way
to Craven’s bright future of filmmaking, directing, and editing.
One of his least noted accomplishments was having a helping
hand in the popular porno movie, “Deep Throat”. What this part is, no one is
for certain. However, this role could have been under a pseudonym – just like
the many other hardcore X-rated films that Craven worked with. Craven became a director for the classic
horror film, “The Last House on the Left” (1972); this movie later inspired his
other iconic flicks, “The Hills Have Eyes” (1977) and “The Hills Have Eyes II”
(1985) (as well as their remakes in 2006 and 2007).
Following these movies, Craven decided to cement himself in
the horror genre by crafting his well beloved franchise, “Nightmare on Elm St.”
(1984). This movie was not only inspired by a strange phenomena of men dying in
their sleep, but also launched Johnny Depp’s career. Freddy Krueger would later return in other “Nightmare”
films, including “Freddy vs Jason” (2003). Craven barely became involved with
any of the “Nightmare” sequels despite the fact that he wrote the screenplay
for the third film in the franchise and briefly worked on “New Nightmare”.
Craven stuck to his horror roots when crafting “Scream” (1994), the remake of “The Last House on the Left” (2009), and “My
Soul to Take” (2010). The final movie he worked on and directed before his
passing was “Scream 4” (2011). At one point, Craven even attempted to create a
humor-horror hybrid flick called “Vampire in Brooklyn” (1995) which was nothing
when compared to “Scream” and “Nightmare”’s success.
However, Craven wasn’t all horror and terror; in fact he did
work on some rather non-mortifying projects. Craven directed “Music of the Heart” (1999)
which was well received and gave Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for
her work in the drama. Craven also directed the suspense thriller “Red Eye” in
2005 which starred Rachel McAdams. Craven was also one of the twenty two
directors involved in the film anthology “Paris Je T’aime” (2006). Craven even
had a cameo as himself in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001). He also
worked on different mediums separate from movies altogether such as the comic
book series, Coming of Rage and 30 Days of Night which is set to have a print
release this October with a digital release already available. He even had a
letter published in Life Magazine in
1968 discussing the periodical’s coverage of rock music.
Craven was a creative, fear inducing man and what better way
to illustrate this point by the awards he won? In 1977, Craven received the
critic’s award at the Stiges Film Festival for “The Hills Have Eyes”. Twenty
years later, Craven was granted the Grand Prize from the Gerardmer Film
Festival for “Scream”. In 2012, Craven was given the Lifetime Achievement Award
by the New York City Horror Film Festival.
Wes Craven led me into my first horror movie franchise,
“Nightmare on Elm Street”. With the combination of his excellent storytelling
and Robert Englund’s fantastic acting, I found myself under the spell of that
horrifying, but intriguing series. To this day, I love it when Freddy Krueger
murders Spencer using the Nintendo Powerglove and proclaims, ”Now I’m playing
with power!". It’s such a thing that Freddy would do : torment his victims in a
unique manner while having fun before dealing the finishing blow. This series also caused me to explore the
horror genre further, stumbling upon old Vincent Price movies that I love
dearly, “Halloween”, “Friday the 13th”, “Chucky”, and many others.
Had I never watched “Nightmare on Elm Street”, I wouldn’t be the horror loving
woman that I am, and for this, I couldn’t be more thankful to Craven and also
deeply heartbroken that he has left our world. While he leaves his legacy of
horror movies and his children, Jonathon and Jessica, and his wife, Iya Labunka,
this world will never be the same without him.
Rest in peace, Wes Craven. You are but another wondrous soul
who we have tragically lost this year and with your passing, we will remember all
you have done. How many times you’ve scared us with Freddy’s antics or
Ghostface’s killing sprees, how many moments we endured while cringing at your
effects, how many times we became victims to your masterful macabre skills
we’ll never know or regret. With every scream and scare, we grew to love your
work more and more to the point where it has become a part of us.
Thank you Wes Craven, for being a dreadful delight to our
lives and adding a little scare in our step.
And thank you for reading this evening’s entry. If you
enjoyed it, feel free to comment, critique, share, and subscribe.
So tell me, what’s your favorite Wes Craven film and why?
