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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2015 - 1:11 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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I first became aware of Wes Craven when I saw his first directorial effort, 1972's THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, while I was in college. Craven is credited twice, once as the film editor and another time with, “Written and directed by.” The film was produced by Sean S. Cunningham, Craven's lifelong friend. Craven had been teaching humanities in Eastern colleges before making the film, which he shot on a $90,000 budget. Most of the film was shot in Cunningham’s hometown of Westport, CT, using his office, family home, car, pet dogs and equipment to cut costs. Craven’s pet cat appears in a sequence shot on location in New York City. Craven also reported that he used a Super16 camera and had the film blown up to 35mm for release. Craven names his source of inspiration for the film as Ingmar Bergman’s THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960), which is also about the revenge of parents after the rape and murder of their daughter. Craven's son plays the little boy who has his balloon popped by "Krug Stillo's" (David A. Hess') cigar. Although a written statement appearing before the film claims that the events in the story are true, Craven and Cunningham have since denied the verity of that claim.
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RIP Wes.
These are the Craven-directed films I have seen:
Swamp Thing
Invitation To Hell
A Nightmare On Elm Street
The Serpent And The Rainbow
Shocker
The People Under The Stairs
New Nightmare
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
Scream 4
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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2015 - 1:01 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Someone at a company called Inter Planetary Pictures thought that Wes Craven, who had barely managed to escape having all of his theatrical films rated [X], was the perfect person to direct a television movie based on a book written for teenage girls. The book was 1977's "Summer of Fear" by Lois Duncan, which asked the question "Why is Rachel the only one to sense the evil that surrounds Julia?" Admittedly, the tale had some of the elements that might attract Craven, in that it told the story of a young girl's encounter with witchcraft when a cousin turns up at her house and begins using supernatural powers. The TV film, aired by NBC on Halloween night, 1978, was retitled STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE. This was star Linda Blair's first film after running into some trouble with the law the previous year. It would be her final starring role in a television movie. After having a successful television run on both NBC and CBS, the film's title was returned to the book's Summer of Fear, and it was given a theatrical release overseas.
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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2015 - 1:46 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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With the success of STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE, Inter Planetary Productions hired Craven again to helm their first theatrical feature DEADLY BLESSING. IPP reportedly financed the $3 million production by pre-selling worldwide pay television and syndication rights to Showtime and Viacom. This 1981 film was set in Amish Country, and opens with a voice-over narration: “The rolling hills of a simple farm community untouched by time. A gruesome secret has been protected for generations.” The film was shot in several Texas locations, including Dallas and its surrounding environs. A number of challenges were faced by the production, including drastically changing weather conditions, and a wagon accident that required hospitalization for actor Ernest Borgnine. Craven compared his work with Borgnine to John Carpenter's work with Donald Pleasance in the original HALLOWEEN. He stated that Borgnine was the first "big name actor" he had worked with and that he was at first intimidated by the actor. Unfortunately, Borgnine was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor for DEADLY BLESSING, but (fortunately, I guess) lost out on the Razzie to Steve Forrest for MOMMIE DEAREST.
Universal had planned to release the film, but treated it like a “hot potato,” changing its release date several times. United Artists ultimately released the film, which was not screened for the press prior to its release. Although it was first reported that John Beal would score the film, he was replaced by James Horner. The score has never had an official release.
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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2015 - 7:12 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET was writer-director Craven’s first “spec” script. The story was inspired by news reports of Laotians in various places across the United States who died after each had the same nightmare. Craven was dining with a friend when he was struck by the concept of a dead man getting to you in your dreams and the only way to escape him was to stay awake. During the four years it took to get the film made, Craven researched his story at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Dream Clinic. Craven completed the script in 1981 and tried to sell it to a major studio, but no one wanted it. He said that "It just flew around" for three years until New Line Cinema picked it up.
The inspiration for the character of “Freddy Krueger” came from several sources in Craven's childhood. Fred Krueger was a schoolmate of Craven with whom he had shared a paper route, and who had bullied him for several years. In THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, Craven also used this experience as inspiration, calling the villain “Krug.’ Freddy's appearance (especially the dirty clothes and hat) was inspired by a hobo who Craven saw staring at him through his window one day when he was ten. Robert Englund was not the first choice for the role of Freddy. Craven had initially wanted a stunt man to play the part. But upon testing several stunt men, he realized he needed an actor.
Craven had helped Sean S. Cunningham by working on a few shots for FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980). In turn, near the end of the production of this movie, Cunningham directed a few shots when several units were working at once. The thirty-day shoot was filmed at various Los Angeles locations and at TVC Studios. In its first three days on 377 screens, the film took in $1.77 million. By 1992, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET had a worldwide gross of $57 million, on a budget of only $2.5 million. Reportedly, the film saved New Line Cinema from bankruptcy. Unfortunately, Craven sold the rights to any sequels before the film was released and became a success. Charles Bernstein’s score was most recently released on CD by Varese Sarabande in 2005.
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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2015 - 7:54 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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According to Craven, 1986's sci-fi thriller DEADLY FRIEND came about as a direct consequence of Craven's agent saying to him, "You should do a studio film, because otherwise you'll be stuck doing small films for the rest of your life." In the film, "Paul" (Matthew Laborteaux) is a new kid in town with a robot named "BB" (voice of Charles Fleischer). He befriends "Samantha" (Kristy Swanson) and the three of them have a lot of good times together. That is, until Samantha's abusive father intervenes. Craven had a hand in selecting Bruce Joel Rubin to write a screenplay for the film. Rubin agreed with the director that the film should have a gentler tone than Craven's other features. Craven couldn't write the script himself because he was directing episodes of "Twilight Zone" at the time. The reason why Craven and producer Robert M. Sherman hired Rubin as screenwriter is because they read his (at that time) unproduced script for JACOB'S LADDER (1990).
Craven and Rubin's original vision for the film was for it to be a PG-rated supernatural film, something that was similar to John Carpenter's 1984 sci-fi fantasy hit movie STARMAN, with the primary focus being on the dark macabre romantic love story between Paul and Samantha, as well as a secondary focus on the adults around them and how they are truly monsters inside themselves. Craven filmed this version of the story and Warner Bros. decided to screen it to a test audience mostly consisting of Craven's fans. The response from fans was negative, criticizing the lack of violence and gore seen in Craven's previous films. The president of Warner Bros. at the time, Mark Canton, demanded Rubin write six additional gore scenes into his script, each bloodier then the last. The added scenes, re-shoots, and post production re-editing of the movie heavily changed the original story. Craven and Rubin expressed strong anger at the studio and thus disowned the film.
At the same time as he was filming the movie and having problems with the studio-forced re-shoots, Craven and his wife Mimi were going through a messy divorce. He also faced a $30 million lawsuit in court with a person who claimed not only to have written A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, even though Craven wrote that film alone, but that Craven stole the story. On top of all that, he was removed from two major projects, BEETLEJUICE and SUPERMAN IV: THE QUEST FOR PEACE, both of which were also distributed by Warner Bros. Charles Bernstein's score was released by Perseverance in 2007.
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Posted: |
Aug 31, 2015 - 8:11 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW (1986) was inspired by a book by Wade Davis, a Harvard scientist who investigated the voodoo society of Haiti and identified two of the drugs used for "zombification" - drugs that lower the metabolic rate of their victims so much that they appear dead, and are buried, only to be dug up later and revived. In the film, a Harvard researcher, played by Bill Pullman, ventures into the heart of voodoo and witnesses strange and gruesome realities. The film was shot in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and in Boston. Unlike some of Craven's previous films, his first cut of THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW got an [R] rating without any problems from the MPAA. The film grossed about $20 million in the U.S. on a budget of $7 million. Varese Sarabande released Brad Fiedel's score on LP, cassette, and CD at the time of the film's release, but the CD is somewhat rare.
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