Wes Craven Movies
One of the horror genre's best-known and most celebrated directors, Wes Craven has been widely credited with reinventing the teen horror movie. Initially gaining fame and notoriety for his Nightmare on Elm Street series in the 1980s, Craven enjoyed a second wave of popularity in the 1990s with his phenomenally successful Scream series, which spoofed the teen horror genre even as they revived it. The films kicked off a trend in teen horror films, inspiring any number of imitators that, for the most part, failed to live up to Craven's own work.A product of a strict Baptist upbringing in Cleveland, OH, Craven received a B.A. in Psychology and Education from Wheaton College and earned an M.A. in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University. After teaching humanities for awhile, Craven plunged into filmmaking as a production assistant and editor for several "B" companies. He made his directorial debut with Last House on the Left (1972), a gruesome little effort that, to put it mildly, affected different people in different ways. Some viewers found this repellently staged "revenge for rape" story profound, citing the fact that Craven based the movie on Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring; others, including such mainstream commentators as Leonard Maltin, have condemned Last House on the Left as utter excrement. No matter how one felt about Craven, however, one could not deny his power to manipulate his audience. This power was further evidenced with The Hills Have Eyes (1977), which again met with radically divided opinions -- and made a fortune.
With Swamp Thing (1982), Craven graduated to big budgets, and also revealed a gift for comedy. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was an equally effective blend of gore and grim humor which spawned several sequels and served to introduce the world to Freddy Krueger, vengeful specter par excellence. The popularity of the film and its sequels established Craven as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, although he was only directly involved with two of the six sequels. In 1994, he directed Wes Craven's New Nightmare, a Pirandellian affair in which he and Nightmare cast regulars Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, and John Saxon played "themselves" -- as did Freddy Kruger!
Two years later, Craven experienced another milestone in his career with Scream. The success of the film and its numerous imitators effectively established Craven as a hot mainstream commodity, and he followed the film with the equally successful (though not as critically praised) Scream 2 the following year. In 1999, he effected a radical departure from the genre with The Music of the Heart, a sentimental drama that starred Meryl Streep as a violin teacher who brings music to the lives of children in Spanish Harlem. The film was quickly dismissed by audiences and critics alike, and, in 2000, Craven returned to more familiar territory with Scream 3, the latest in his in saga of hip, ironic terror. When production difficulties and poor audience reaction resulted in Cursed failing to do for werewolf films what the Scream franchise did for slashers, Craven quickly switched gears to Hitchcockian suspense for the airborne thriller Red Eye. Lean, mean, and ultimately fairly forgettable, Red Eye did manage to keep viewers on the edge of their seats for (a scant) 85 minutes even if it didn't exactly have the legs to leave a lasting impression. Nevertheless, Red Eye did hold a special place in Craven's heart as during filming the director was wed to film producer Iya Labunka.
Back on the writing block, Craven would adapt Kiyoshi Kurosawa's apocalyptic 2001 shocker Pulse for American consumption before allowing his 1977 screenplay for The Hills Have Eyes to be updated by High Tension screenwriting duo Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur. The updated version was such a success that it gave birth to a sequel, The Hills Have Eyes 2, which was released in 2007.
Craven has occasionally curbed his stomach-churning tendencies (though not his willingness to run viewers through an emotional wringer) with his television work, including selected episodes of the Twilight Zone revival of the mid-'80s. In 1989, Craven produced a sitcom, The People Next Door, about a cartoonist who had the ability to imagine his drawings into existence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This satire follows the exploits of a young hippy who goes looking for Life's meaning in Central Park. There he is accosted by a corpulent black woman while he watches a young man moon an old woman while she curses at him. He then goes on to have more adventures that lead him to marry a kindred spirit, get a job, and begin raising a daughter. Things are fine until he loses his job, gets abandoned by his wife, and must raise his girl alone. He ends up back in the park pondering the meaning of it all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wes Craven's first film was a crude but shocking horror opus that, like George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), became a grind house hit largely because it went much further than terror films before it had been willing to go. Often compared to Ingmar Bergman's stark medieval rape drama The Virgin Spring (1960) (though one wonders whether this was influence or just coincidence), Last House on the Left follows a group of teenage girls heading into the city when they hook up with a gang of drug-addled ne'er-do-wells and are brutally murdered. The killers find their way to the home of one of their victim's parents, where both father and mother exact a horrible revenge. Like Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre two years later, Last House on the Left was an unrelievedly dark vision of contemporary horror that inspired many future films which copied its effects without achieving its visceral impact. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Horror auteur Wes Craven followed his threadbare but horrifically compelling cult classic Last House on the Left with this wonderfully demented morality fable about a bloody war of attrition between two extremely different families. The story opens on the journey of the Carters, a mildly dysfunctional extended family led by patriarch "Big Bob" Carter (Russ Grieve), as they travel across the California desert in search of an inherited silver mine. When a broken axle leaves them stranded in the middle of a former nuclear testing site, their attempts to find help lead them unwittingly into the territory of a savage family of cave-dwelling cannibals, the apparent progeny of the bearlike Jupiter (James Whitworth) and an abducted prostitute. Jupiter's eldest son Pluto (professional movie weirdo Michael Berryman) leads the first brutal attack on the defenseless Carters who, through necessity, are driven to equally extreme measures in order to survive. Though the film is not overtly bloody, the scenes depicting this confrontation are rendered with an unflinching directness, and the violations visited on the Carters are so brutal as to make the survivors' regression into savagery all the more convincing. No one is spared from the nightmare: Jupiter's boys have even kidnapped the youngest member of the Carter family -- a mere infant -- to serve as fodder for their next barbecue, and the baby becomes the main point of contention between the rival clans. Craven nevertheless refuses to take the easy way out by depicting his "monsters" as soullessly evil; parallels between either family's "values" are clearly drawn as the differences between the two clans begin to blur. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, (more)
Notable as an early effort from renowned horror filmmaker Wes Craven, this made-for-TV occult thriller was loosely adapted from a novel by Lois Duncan. Star Linda Blair -- whose film career had taken a detour into TV-movie territory after her legendary bow in The Exorcist -- returns to the demon-possession genre as a teenager who can't seem to convince her parents that her visiting southern-belle cousin (Lee Purcell) is an evil witch. Purcell's diabolical meddling seems focused entirely on the innocent Blair, who loses both her prize horse and her boyfriend to the scheming sorceress before the rest of the family catches on. Though Craven's well-known extremism is curbed by the limitations of television, his talent at generating high-intensity suspense is still evident, making this a modestly entertaining horror item. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
Deadly Blessing, a disappointing effort from famed horror-film director Wes Craven, tells the story of a woman's fight against a religious cult which will not stop at murder. Martha (Maren Jensen) lives alone near a conservative, repressive religious cult led by Isaiah (Ernest Borgnine). Martha's husband was murdered under mysterious circumstances after he left the cult. Martha and her two visiting friends Vicky (Susan Buckner) and Lana (Sharon Stone) find themselves being pressured to live in the area and they begin having nightmares and accidents. Soon more murders begin, and the woman fear for their lives. Craven gets good performances from his cast and bases his plot on the interesting premise of persecution and retribution, but the unsatisfying and implausible ending ruins what suspense he has built. While on the whole, the film is a failure, it has outstanding cinematography by Robert Jessup and a beautiful score composed by James Horner. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maren Jensen, Susan Buckner, (more)
Director Wes Craven, who went on to fame as the force behind blockbuster horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, departed from his favorite genre to film this unique cult classic -- a spoof on the mad scientist movies of the 1950s. Adrienne Barbeau stars as Alice Cable, a government agent sent to replace a man who has disappeared while guarding a secret experimental lab in the middle of the Louisiana bayous. Dressed in heels and a skirt, Cable professes unease at her strange new surroundings, but she is soon wooed by Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise). Holland is working on a concoction that combines plant and animal cells. Arcane (Louis Jourdan) is the criminal mastermind who is trying to steal the secret recipe for the potion. When Arcane and his mercenaries break into the government camp, they kill Holland's sister Linda (Nannette Brown) and the scientist is accidentally doused with his own formula and bursts into flames, then dives into the swamp. Arcane's men pursue Cable, but she is rescued by a mysterious green man. It takes several rescues for her to understand that the Swamp Thing (Dick Durock) is Dr. Holland, transformed by his own formula. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, (more)
A decade of wisecracking sequels have not diminished the power of this striking horror film from the director of Scream. Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter (Heather Langenkamp) traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger (Robert Englund), who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. The teenaged leads are sympathetic and intelligent, unlike the dumb victims presented in most films of the period, and they are ably backed up by veterans like John Saxon and Ronee Blakley. Director Wes Craven creates moments of real dread by examining the line between nightmares and reality, as well as the "sins of the parents" theme, and although the film is quite gory, it never resorts to cheap bloodletting for its effect. A unique and disturbing experience, this film is highly recommended for horror buffs. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Saxon, Ronee Blakely, (more)
This minor made-for-TV effort from horror auteur Wes Craven is one of the oddest attempts at seriously blending supernatural horror and science fiction elements, which amounts to a muddled but amusing failure. The convoluted plot involves scientist Robert Urich's experiments with a new spacesuit designed to detect non-human lifeforms for a proposed expedition to Venus. When a sultry succubus (Susan Lucci, who was born for such a role) begins exerting her demonic influence on the members of a country club -- including Urich's wife and children -- he dons the completed suit for a literal journey into hell itself to rescue them. Craven's skill manages to elevate this loopy premise slightly above the level of pure nonsense, but low production values and the constraints of TV censorship prevent it from being adequately explored. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Lucci, Robert Urich, (more)
This atrocious sequel to the 1977 horror classic is padded with so much of that film's footage that it seems more like a rerun than a new story. The entire cast seems to have lengthy flashbacks of the previous movie's events, including -- in what must be a cinematic first -- the German shepherd dog. The remaining screen time is spent on an uninvolving battle between some bland motocross bikers and the cannibal hillfolk. To be fair, director Wes Craven has stated that the film was extensively tampered with prior to release. That may get Craven off the hook, but doesn't make this muddled mess any easier to watch. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Berryman, Tamara Stafford, (more)
This made-for-TV effort from horror director Wes Craven and Salem's Lot producer Richard Kobritz involves a case of cryogenic suspension gone horribly wrong. A wealthy industrialist (Michael Beck) arranges for his body to be kept on ice in a high-tech cryonic chamber with specialized instructions regarding his revival at a future date when medical science can restore him to life. Thanks to a computer malfunction, these instructions are not followed properly, and Beck emerges from the frozen crypt as an empty, soulless creature and a vessel of pure evil with an appetite for destruction. So evil, in fact, that his own mother (Beatrice Straight) decides he must be destroyed and sets out to do the deed herself. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Sponsored by the publishers of Fangoria magazine, this documentary explores the world of horror-film conventions. Interviewed are such celebrities as make-up expert Tom Savini and directors Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
With the over-the-top gruesomeness of The Re-Animator to compare it to, Wes Craven's Deadly Friend limps into the second tier, coming across as a Frankenstein tale lost on Elm Street. Paul (Matthew Laborteaux) is a teen computer genius who has recently moved to a new town. The quiet and peaceful milieu permits him to continue experimenting with his life's work -- a human-like robot named Bee Bee. But Paul becomes smitten with the comely girl next door, Samantha (Kristy Swanson). For Samantha, however, the small-town life is less than quiet and peaceful; she is the victim of an abusive father, who she dreams of killing. During an argument, her father pushes her down the stairs, and she lapses into a coma. Paul, with the help of local paperboy pal Tom (Michael Sharrett), decides to implant Bee Bee's microchips into Samantha's brain to re-animate her back to life. But Samantha, restored to life and with the strength of an inhuman robot, decides to exact vengeance upon her father and the rest of the townspeople who have done her wrong. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, (more)
Based on the popular novel by V. C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic centers on such chancy topics as incest and misguided religiosity. When their father is killed, teenagers Cathy (Kristy Swanson) and Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams), together with their preteen siblings Cory (Ben Ganger) and Carrie (Lindsay Parker), are put in the care of their religious-zealot grandmother (Louise Fletcher). Grandma has never approved of the wanton lifestyle of the kids' mother Corinne (Victoria Tennant), and she has no intention of extending her love to the children. Even worse, Corinne is anxious to win back the love of her estranged father, who, knowing that Corinne and her late husband were cousins and thus incestuously linked, would never approve of any children from this union. Thus, the four children are locked in their grandmother's attic, far from the view of their unforgiving grandfather. How the kids cope with their imprisonment is the heart of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Fletcher, Victoria Tennant, (more)
The best of the Elm Street sequels, this creepy, surreal fantasy features terrific effects, a fine young cast, and an air of grim fatalism that sets it apart from its giggly successors. Patricia Arquette stars as Kristen, whose nightmare leads to a slashed wrist which looks suspiciously like a suicide attempt. She is placed in a hospital psychiatric ward with a group of six other troubled teens who all dream about the same horribly burned man (Robert Englund) trying to kill them. Perhaps the most unusual thing about this picture, however, is the unexpected depth of sadness running through it. There are some achingly sweet moments in this otherwise frightening film which, though not disruptive, are impossible to analyze. The first and most bizarre of these is Heather Langenkamp's entrance, which inexplicably causes most viewers to get misty-eyed, and there are several similar scenes throughout the film. One answer can be found in the sensitive direction of Chuck Russell, who emphasizes the tragedy and utter hopelessness in these kids' lives and manages to wring some unexpectedly perceptive turns from his cast. This is a film in which a great deal of care was obviously lavished on individual scenes (the sets are outstanding) and performances. The results are well worth repeated viewings, and prove that sequels don't necessarily have to be inferior films. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, (more)
Horror maven Wes Craven attempted a slight change of pace from his usual slasher movie milieu with this chiller loosely based on a true story. Bill Pullman stars as Dennis Alan, a Harvard researcher sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate the zombie legend and any possible connection it might have to a rumored drug that could be used as a new breed of powerful anaesthetic. Once on the Caribbean isle, Alan is aided by a good voodoo priest or "houngan" (Paul Winfield) and his daughter (Cathy Tyson), who runs a local clinic. Alan's search also pits him against an evil houngan, Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae). Peytraud also controls the Tonton Macoute (the Haitian secret police), who are involved with soon-to-be-deposed dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The Serpent and the Rainbow was based on the book of the same name by Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist whose real-life hunt for the zombie drug was credited with cracking the medical mystery behind the myth. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, (more)
- 1988
"It's My Party and You'll Die If I Want You To" was one of the earlier entries of the 44-episode TV anthology Freddie's Nightmares. If you've guessed that this syndicated series was a spin-off of the Nightmare on Elm Street films, you're right. You're also right if you've deduced that the hideous Freddy Krueger -- aka Robert Englund -- is the host. This time out, Freddy materializes at his 20-year high school reunion. After a few wretched puns about death and murder, Freddy introduces us to the evening's drama: the story of a high school nerd's revenge, two decades after the fact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wes Craven's Shocker takes media manipulation to a new level in this story of an evil force emitted from television sets that has the power to kill. The film centers on high school athlete Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg). His estranged father is homicide detective Don Parker (Michael Murphy), who has been working on capturing an elusive serial killer plaguing the town. One night, during a particularly vivid nightmare, Jonathan dreams that while Parker is away on an assignment, his family is murdered by the serial killer. In the dream, Jonathan can identify the killer -- local television repairman Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi). Amazingly, it turns out that Jonathan's nightmare was reality. Using Jonathan's dream as evidence, Pinker is brought to trail, found guilty, and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Before his execution, Pinker makes a pact with the devil so when he is electrocuted, the electricity from the chair will give his spirit powers of evil. At first, Pinker's murderous spirit travels in and out of people's bodies, prompting the host to commit murder. But when it seems more effective to communicate with people by television signals, the spirit is willing and soon people suddenly become possessed by Pinker's spirit through TV screens and engage in murderous atrocities. All this is done by Pinker to exact retribution upon Jonathan, who was responsible for sending him to his death. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Berg, Michael Murphy, (more)
- 1990
Night Visions is a serial-killer-at-large TV movie starring James Remar and Loryn Locklin. Remar portrays the tough LA cop on the case. Ms. Locklin is a psychic, engaged by the police in a desperate effort to ferret out the killer. Unfortunately the psychic borders on the psychotic; her visions seem tinged by her own miserable past experience--and by the fact that she has multiple personalities. This reasonably original premise rapidly dwindles down to predictability; its happy ending was dictated by the fact that the film was the pilot for an unsold series. Night Visions was directed by Wes Craven, who was required by network edicts to tone down the gleeful gore which permeated his Nightmare on Elm Street films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
No one should have been surprised that the Nightmare on Elm Street horror-flick series would spawn a weekly TV anthology. Nor was anyone amazed that the TV version wasn't quite up to the gory level of the original. Still, the 44-episode Freddy's Nightmares had plenty of shocks and scares for the unwary. On this evening's program, the repulsive Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) explains how he became the bon vivant and fashion plate whom we know and hate so well. Freddy's ramblings lead into the evening's drama, all about a fellow who decides that the best way to get ahead is to stomp on everyone in his path. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Freddy's Nightmares was a two-season TV anthology, loosely inspired by the Nightmare on Elm Street movie series. Robert Englund hosted as the unspeakable Freddy Krueger, spiked glove and all. The TV program was never quite as gruesome as its movie counterpart, but it was still not to be watched alone on a gloomy night. In "Lucky Stiff", Freddy prattles on about a young woman who wins a lottery. As the subsequent drama unfolds, we learn that our heroine's windfall was anything but lucky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
To allay potential criticism of the Freddy's Nightmares TV anthology, executive producer Wes Craven attached a disclaimer. Unlike the Nightmare on Elm Street films that spawned the series, Freddy's Nightmares would never depict the murder of anyone under the age of 18. Thank goodness for small favors. In this 60-minute episode, the unspeakable Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) decides to celebrate Halloween with a few "friends". He throws an impromptu party in a medical school morgue, whereupon the script segues into the evening's drama, all about a trick-or-treat scheme which goes horribly awry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
"Dreams That Kill" is an episode of the syndicated TV anthology Freddy's Nightmares. You've guessed it; the series was spun off from the popular (and gruesome) Nightmare on Elm Street films. Robert Englund repeats his screen role as the hideous Freddy Krueger, though he's not quite as homicidal on the small screen. In this 60-minute installment, Freddy announces that he wants to become a talk show host. This devices segue into the evening's drama, a story of...well, of dreams that kill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wes Craven wrote and directed this surrealistic horror-comedy, which was inspired by a true story of parents keeping their children locked in a basement for years. Fool (Brandon Adams), an African-American teen, breaks into the home of the wealthy landlords who evicted his family from a ghetto tenement. A fortune in gold coins is rumored to exist inside, but Fool discovers that the mansion is a chamber of horrors presided over by a pair of incestuous, serial killer siblings (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie). The twisted couple has also tried to raise a succession of kidnapped boys. Each botched effort is handled the same way -- the victim's eyes, ears and tongues are removed, and he's sent to live in the sealed-off basement, where a colony of similarly deformed "brothers" resides. Fool is able to avoid the evil lovers as he moves through the house's maze of hidden passageways. He discovers that the occupants have a daughter, Alice (A.J. Langer), who has survived their abuse, so he rescues her and they attempt to free the "people under the stairs." Adams, who made his feature debut with in film, was familiar to viewers as the star of rock singer Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (1988). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, (more)
