Post: #1

Link here

Quote:Wes Craven, the famed writer-director of horror films known for the Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream movies, died Sunday after a battle with brain cancer. He was 76.

Craven, whose iconic Freddy Krueger character horrified viewers for years, died at his home in Los Angeles, his family announced. Survivors include his wife, producer and former Disney Studios vice president Iya Labunka.

Craven was a longtime summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard, where he moved permanently three years ago before returning to Los Angeles for work and health reasons.

Craven claimed to have gotten the idea for Elm Street when living next to a cemetery on a street of that name when growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland. His five Nightmare on Elm Street films were released from 1984-89.
Similarly, Craven's Scream series was a box-office sensation. In those scare-'em-ups, he spoofed the teen horror genre. The movies frequently referenced other horror movies.

Craven’s first feature film was The Last House of the Left, which he wrote, directed and edited in 1972.

Here invented the youth horror genre again in 1984 with the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street, which he wrote and directed.

He conceived and co-wrote Elm Street III as well, and then after not being involved with the three more sequels, deconstructed the genre a decade after the original, writing and directing Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which was nominated as best feature at the 1995 Spirit Awards. His own Nightmare players, Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon, played themselves in the film.

In 1996 Craven reached a new level of success with the release of Scream. The film, which sparked the phenomenal trilogy, grossed more than $100 million domestically, as did Scream 2 (1997).

Between Scream 2 and Scream 3, Craven, offered the opportunity to direct a non-genre film for Miramax, helmed Music of the Heart (1999), a film that earned Meryl Streep an Academy Award nomination for best actress.

“We had a very difficult time getting an audience into a theater on my name,” he once said about that film. “In fact, we moved toward downplaying my name a lot on Music of the Heart. The more famous you are for making kinds of outrageous scary films, the crossover audience will say, ‘I don't think so.’”

Also in 1999, in the midst of directing, he completed his first novel, The Fountain Society, published by Simon & Shuster.

Craven again pushed his genre boundaries with the 2005 psychological thriller, Red Eye, starring Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy and Brian Cox. And in 2006 he wrote and directed a romantic comedy homage to Oscar Wilde featuring Emily Mortimer and Rufus Sewell as a segment in the French ensemble production, Paris Je T’aime.

Craven then produced remakes of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Craven’s most recent written and directed film, My Soul to Take (2010), marked his first collaboration with Labunka, who also produced Scream 4.

Craven had recently signed an overall television deal with Universal Cable Productions and had a number of TV projects in development including The People Under the Stairs with Syfy Networks, Disciples with UCP, We Are All Completely Fine with Syfy / UCP, and Sleepers with Federation Entertainment.

He also was executive producing the new Scream series for MTV.

Craven had recently written and was to direct the Thou Shalt Not Kill segment for The Weinstein Co.'s Ten Commandments miniseries for WGN America.

He is listed as an executive producer of The Girl in the Photographs, which will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival next month.

Craven has always had an eye for discovering fresh talent. While casting A Nightmare on Elm Street, he discovered Johnny Depp. He cast Sharon Stone in her first starring role, for his film Deadly Blessing (1981), and he gave Bruce Willis his first featured role in an episode of the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone.

Craven was a nature lover and committed bird conservationist, serving as a longtime member of the Audubon California Board of Directors. He penned a monthly column, “Wes Craven’s The Birds,” for Martha’s Vineyard Magazine.

The loss of a legend. The Last House On The Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream, the list goes on. RIP.

Post: #2

There was a time when horror movies were more than just lame humor and cartoonishly fake gore. This man made movies that actually scared people.

Post: #3

A sad day for film. He, John Carpenter, and George Romero were part of the "old school" horror trio from the 1960s and 1970s.

I liked "The Serpent And the Rainbow" the most of all his movies. I don't think his movies were scary, and some of them were not very good. But he had style, and that counts for something.

.

Post: #4

Whoa! That's a shock. I had no idea he was sick. He was one of my favorite a horror directors.

Post: #5

(08-30-2015 09:49 PM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  A sad day for film. He, John Carpenter, and George Romero were part of the "old school" horror trio from the 1960s and 1970s.

I liked "The Serpent And the Rainbow" the most of all his movies. I don't think his movies were scary, and some of them were not very good. But he had style, and that counts for something.

Strangely enough, a mate and I have spent the last couple of weeks revisiting the 80's movies by all three during our downtime whilst cleaning out and restoring his dead brother's house to sell:

They Live. A Nightmare On Elm Street. Dawn Of The Dead. The Fog. Escape From New York. Knightriders. Starman. Deadly Blessing. Day Of The Dead. Deadly Friend. Martin.

It's been an enjoyable diversion in a dark time, but I'm also starting to see a pattern of how Hollywood was infiltrated and subverted by Political Correctness throughout the 80's. Might be worth another thread at some stage.

Even when Craven was bad, there's an interesting psychology at play in his work.

Have you ever seen 'The People Under The Stairs', QC? Whilst I wouldn't call it a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, it's hilarious when read as an exaggerated satire of what SJW's and the media believe race relations to be.

Post: #6

^^^

AB,
I've never heard of that movie. I'll have to check it out.
And yes, I agree that the 1980s was the first real big push towards political correctness. It really picked up steam then, and then just took over in the 1990s.

Post: #7

"Red Eye" is a tight and tense little film, one that I forgot he directed.

Post: #8

(08-31-2015 10:08 AM)Quintus Curtius Wrote:  ^^^

AB,
I've never heard of that movie. I'll have to check it out.
And yes, I agree that the 1980s was the first real big push towards political correctness. It really picked up steam then, and then just took over in the 1990s.

Like I said, I wouldn't ever call it a good movie, but it's a highly-watchable one, despite being one of his more obscure movies.

I never saw any appeal in 'Scream' whatsoever - I just saw a generic slasher film aimed at a mainstream non-horror audience with a meta-framework that was nowhere near as clever as it thought it was. Why watch some boring like that, when you could watch a tonally-insane cross between The Goonies, The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane, David Lynch and C.H.U.D.?

None of us will ever be as high as Craven must have been.

Post: #9

(08-31-2015 08:05 PM)AnonymousBosch Wrote:  

I always liked that movie, it was very well cast to.
I always got a boner when they put the pretty girl in the scalding hot bath... don't judge me -_-

Post: #10

Remember Everett McGill in "Under Siege 2"? What a raw deal for 'im.

Post: #11

(09-05-2015 06:36 PM)Mess O. Wrote:  Remember Everett McGill in "Under Siege 2"? What a raw deal for 'im.

I remember



Steven Segal remembers this

Post: #12

Fuckin' perrrrfect screenshots. At least McGill got in that snap-kick off of Seagal's head.

Post: #13

Shame. Scream was the first horror movie I saw as a teenager and I remember it being terrifying at the time. Seems tame now. RIP

Post: #14

(08-31-2015 11:49 AM)Rutting Elephant Wrote:  "Red Eye" is a tight and tense little film, one that I forgot he directed.

Just watched it tonight.

I completely agree -- tight and tense thriller. No wasted time.

I had to do a double take on Bryan Cox -- the guy who played Rachel McAdam's father -- because he looks like Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad (although the voice is completely different).

As a self-styled connoisseur of horror films, I definitely enjoyed this film. Superior to quite a bit of the drek that passes as horror or thrillers these days.

2Wycked verdict: 8/10, WWA (would watch again)

Post: #15

(04-02-2016 03:05 AM)2Wycked Wrote:  I had to do a double take on Bryan Cox -- the guy who played Rachel McAdam's father -- because he looks like Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad (although the voice is completely different).

Solid, underrated character actor. I'm old enough to remember when he originated a low-key, realistic Hannibal Lecter. (Hopkin's OTT version could only exist in a movie).