From Dreams to Horrific Reality: Wes Craven’s Vision
Wes Craven was a pioneer. For most he is known as the creator
of 1984’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” which birthed the horror movie icon Freddy Krueger. This is in addition to the
slew of important horror movies he directed—”The
Hills Have Eyes,” “The Last House on the Left,” “Scream”—which
influenced future filmmakers and spawned unavoidable remakes and spin-offs. When
Mr. Craven passed on August 30, 2015, at the age of 76, a big hole was ripped
into the canvas of horror cinema. And whilst many tributes have surfaced in the
last few days, most seem to fall into the fashion of simply listing favorite
Craven titles from over the years. There is nothing wrong with such an
outpouring of fandom, but for those interested in something deeper, a little
more probing is required.
In my latest video essay “In Memory of Wes Craven,” the
concentration on characters’ faces and emotion is given slightly more weight
and gravitas than some of the more grotesque imagery. This is because Craven
was more interested in what made us tick individually, and as a society, more
than he was interested in whatever new death trick Freddy Krueger had up his
sleeve. The “horror film” as a vehicle for this thesis is most apt because it
taps into that primal fear we all have of death. For some people death is a
jarring notion; for others it’s an inevitable fate, but when we’re thrust into
the unnatural state of murder (“The Last
House on the Left”) or are threatened by some supernatural force of evil (“My Soul to Take”), we are universally
bound by the immediate, sheer feeling of terror. Terror is an equalizer. Craven
understood this and he was a craftsman at building those scares, film after
film. The reason so many other horror filmmaker imitators come and go with
little impression is because they forgot the basic landscape and vulnerability
of the human condition.
Craven pioneered this landscape for decades and it’s hard to
imagine another filmmaker making any new headway in that territory anytime
soon.
RogerEbert.com VIDEO ESSAY: In Memory of Wes Craven (1939-2015) from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.
