Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American filmmaker. Amongst hisprolific filmography, Craven worked primarily in thehorror genre, particularlyslasher films, where he mixed horror cliches with humor.[1][2][3] Craven has been recognized as one of the masters of the horror genre.[4][5][6][7][8][9]
Recalling his early training, Craven said in 1994, "Harry was a fantasticfilm editor and producer ofindustrials. He taught me the Chapin method [of editing]: 'Nuts and bolts! Nuts and bolts! Get rid of the shit!'" Craven afterwards became the firm's assistant manager, and broke into film editing withYou've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat (1971).[18]
Craven had a letter published in the July 19, 1968, edition ofLife praising the periodical's coverage of contemporary rock music and offbeat performers such asFrank Zappa.[19]
For several years, Craven worked in the pornographic film industry, which was booming at the time. He has a crew credit on the porn classicDeep Throat (1972), and served as assistant director and editor for a porn film directed byPeter Locke,It Happened in Hollywood (1973). He also edited Locke's 1975 sex comedyKitty Can't Help It, (akaThe Carhops).[20][21]
After earning a master's degree in philosophy and writing fromJohns Hopkins University, Craven briefly taught English and humanities at Westminster College and Clarkson College of Technology before deciding to pursue filmmaking. In an interview, he recalled that the transition from academia to cinema came from "a deep need to express the darker side of the human experience through art" and his fascination with the power of film to provoke emotion and moral reflection.[22] Craven stated that his early years were marked by both aesthetic experimentation and a search for "a personal vision based on the shocks and fears that define our modern lives."[23]
Craven’s first feature film as director wasThe Last House on the Left, released in 1972.[17] Craven expected the film to be shown at only a few theaters, which according to him "gave me a freedom to be outrageous." Ultimately the movie was screened much more widely than he assumed, leaving him temporarily ostracized due to the content.[24] Craven returned briefly to pornography, directing the 1975 porn filmThe Fireworks Woman under the pseudonym "Abe Snake." However, as one book on Craven put it, "the film presented many of Craven's nascent trademarks, including 'rubber reality' (dreams and hallucinations), the breakdown of the traditional family values via incest and the depiction of Christian religion as a force of oppression that asphyxiates the capacity of humans to be happy."[20]
After the negative experience ofLast House, Craven attempted to move out of horror with his partnerSean S. Cunningham, but they were unable to secure financial backing. On the advice of a friend, he wrote the desert-set horrorThe Hills Have Eyes (1977), which cemented his reputation in the genre.[25]
In 1984, Craven achieved mainstream success withA Nightmare on Elm Street, which launched the career ofJohnny Depp.[26] While directingDeadly Friend in 1986, Craven was introduced by producer Bob Sherman toMarianne Maddalena, who began working as his assistant.[27] Their professional partnership solidified during the grueling and dangerous shoot ofThe Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) in Haiti. Craven gave Maddalena her first producer credit onShocker (1989), later stating that the film marked a milestone for his creative independence and the birth of a lifelong bond:
This picture actually meant a lot to me because it was the first time I had sort of autonomy... and it was also the sort of the introduction of the partnership between myself and Marianne Maddalena, which has lasted now for I think 14 or 15 years and has created an environment for me making films that has been extremely beneficial and also a great friendship.
— Wes Craven,Shocker DVD Commentary Track (2001)
Throughout the early 1990s, the two collaborated onThe People Under the Stairs (1991) and the meta-horrorWes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). ForNew Nightmare, Craven credited Maddalena as a stabilizing presence during a production that earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Feature.[28] In 1996, following the massive success ofScream—during which Maddalena famously discovered the iconicGhostface mask while location scouting—the pair formalized their collaboration by founding Craven/Maddalena Films.[29]
The company allowed Craven to pursue projects across genres while maintaining a focus on character-driven stories and complex female protagonists.[30] This expansion led to the dramaMusic of the Heart (1999), which earned twoAcademy Award nominations.[31] Under their banner, they produced hits includingScream 2 (1997),Scream 3 (2000),Red Eye (2005), and the remakes of his early works,The Hills Have Eyes (2006) andThe Last House on the Left (2009). Their personal friendship and mutual trust remained the cornerstone of the company until Craven's death in 2015, with their final collaboration beingScream 4 (2011).[27]
In 2010, Craven took an unusual step by branching out from his longtime creative circle—including producer Marianne Maddalena, assistant director Nick Mastandrea, production designer Bruce Miller, editor Patrick Lussier, post-production supervisor Tina Anderson, script supervisor Sheila Waldron, and director of photography Peter Deming—to work with his new wife, Iya Labunka, who producedMy Soul to Take. Craven and Labunka reportedly felt it was important to do something creatively new with a fresh team, free from the opinions and habits carried over from his past collaborations.[32] The project, which Craven wrote and directed, was intended as a return to psychological horror but was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews and disappointing box office results—grossing only $21 million worldwide against a reported $25 million budget.[33] Critics noted that the film lacked the sharpness and creative cohesion that had characterized Craven’s previous team, with some suggesting that the shift to a new production environment under Labunka contributed to the film’s poor reception.
Ideas that come out of families which are fractured or disturbed in some way are the most profoundly terrifying things to me. And I've always felt that I was on solid ground when I was making movies about families. The first real terrors happen to us in the first five years of our lives and that's where we are—in the middle of our family. Quite often, for children, the most terrifying things are adults, and unfortunately often it's the parents themselves that are the most frightening.
Craven's works tend to explorethe breakdown of family structures, the nature of dreams and reality, and often feature black humor and satirical elements.[37][42] Ostensibly civilized families succumb to and exercise violence inThe Last House on the Left andThe Hills Have Eyes.A Nightmare on Elm Street,Shocker, and theScream films address the process of addressing family trauma.[16]
Several of Craven's films are characterized by abusive familial relationships such asThe Hills Have Eyes,A Nightmare on Elm Street,The People Under the Stairs, and others. Families in denial are a common thread throughout his movies, an idea Craven openly discussed:
The family is the best microcosm to work with… It's very much where most of our strong emotions or gut feelings come from… I grew up in a white working class family that was very religious. There was an enormous amount of secrecy in the general commerce of our getting along... If there was an argument, it was immediately denied. If there was a feeling, it was repressed… I began to see that as a nation we were doing the same things.[43]
The blurring of the barrier between dreams and reality, sometimes called "rubber-reality", is a staple of Craven's style.[44]A Nightmare on Elm Street, for example, dealt with the consequences of dreams in real life.[45]The Serpent and the Rainbow andShocker portray protagonists who cannot distinguish between nightmarish visions and reality. FollowingNew Nightmare, Craven increasingly explored metafictional elements in his films.New Nightmare has actressHeather Langenkamp play herself as she's haunted by the villain of the film in which she once starred.[11] At one point in the film, the audience sees on Craven's word processor a script he's written, which includes the conversation he just had with Langenkamp—as if the script were being written as the action unfolds.
InScream, the characters frequently reference horror films similar to their situations and at one pointBilly Loomis tells his girlfriend that life is just a big movie. This concept was emphasized in the sequels as copycat stalkers re-enact the events of a new film about the Woodsboro killings (Woodsboro being the fictional town whereScream is set) occurring inScream.[17]
The first scholarly collection of work dedicated to Craven was published by Edinburgh University Press in July 2023.[46]
Raised a strict Baptist, Craven was a 1963 graduate of Wheaton (IL) College, where he majored in English and psychology and was writer and editor forKodon (the school's literary magazine). He obtained master's degrees in philosophy and writing from Johns Hopkins.
Craven was married three times. Craven's first marriage, to Bonnie Broecker, produced two children:Jonathan Craven (born 1965) and Jessica Craven (born 1968). Jonathan is a writer and director.[17] Jessica was a singer-songwriter in the group theChapin Sisters. The marriage ended in 1970.
In 1984, Craven married a woman who became known professionally as actress Mimi Craven. The two later divorced, with Wes Craven stating in interviews that the marriage dissolved after he discovered it "was no longer anything but a sham."[54] In 2004, Craven married Iya Labunka; she frequently worked as a producer on Craven's films.[55]
^Wes Craven.A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Blu-Ray audio commentary, 1:20.
^Newton, Steve (November 7, 1991). "Terror titan Wes Craven on the horrors of family and being cast in the role of the scary guy".The Georgia Straight.
^Robb, Brian J. (1998).Screams & Nightmares: The Films of Wes Craven. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press. p. 14.ISBN0-87951-918-5.OCLC40150665.
