Wesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter and producer. 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] Craven left the academic world for the more lucrative role of pornographic film director. In the documentaryInside Deep Throat, Craven says on camera he made "many hardcore X-rated films" under pseudonyms. While his role inDeep Throat is undisclosed, most of his early known work involved writing, film editing, or both.[20]
Craven's first feature film as director wasThe Last House on the Left, which was 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, and to go into areas that normally I wouldn't have gone into, and not worry about my family hearing about it, or being crushed." Ultimately the movie was screened much more widely than he assumed, leaving him ostracized due to the content of the film.[21]
After the negative experience ofLast House, Craven attempted to move out of the horror genre, and began writing non-horror films with his partnerSean S. Cunningham, none of which attracted any financial backing. Finally, based on advice from a friend about the ease of filming in theNevada deserts, Craven began to write a new horror film based on that locale. The resulting film,The Hills Have Eyes, cemented Craven as a "horror film director" with Craven noting, "It soon became clear that I wasn't going to do anything else unless it was scary".[22]
Craven frequently collaborated with Sean S. Cunningham. In Craven's debut feature,The Last House on the Left, Cunningham served as producer. They pooled all of their resources and came up with $90,000.[citation needed] Later, in Craven's best-known film,A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Cunningham directed one of the chase scenes, although he was not credited.[17] Craven had a hand in launching actorJohnny Depp's career by casting him inA Nightmare on Elm Street, Depp's first major film role.[23]
Although known for directing horror/thriller films, he worked on two films which are outside this genre:Music of the Heart (1999) andParis, je t'aime (2006) (as one of the 22 directors responsible for it).[20] Craven designed theHalloween 2008 logo forGoogle[25] and was the second celebrity personality to take over theYouTube homepage on Halloween.[26] In the mid-1980s, Craven worked briefly in the television industry by directing seven episodes of the 1985 reboot ofThe Twilight Zone, including an episode that was written byGeorge R. R. Martin.[27][28]
Craven createdComing of Rage, a five-issuecomic book series, with30 Days of Night writerSteve Niles.[29] The series was released indigital form in 2014 by Liquid Comics with a print edition scheduled for an October 2015 debut.[29]
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.[31][36] 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.[37]
The blurring of the barrier between dreams and reality, sometimes called "rubber-reality", is a staple of Craven's style.[38]A Nightmare on Elm Street, for example, dealt with the consequences of dreams in real life.[39]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]
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."[47] In 2004, Craven married Iya Labunka; she frequently worked as a producer on Craven's films.[48]
^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.
