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Trivial Pursuit: Wes Craven
Listen up swatch dogs and diet coke heads:
With the recent release of Scream 4, which has taken in more than xty-eight million dollars worldwide, there has been a lot of talk whether or not Wes Craven has lost is magic.
He’s always been condered a trail blazer breaking new cinematic ground with “The Last House on the Left”, “The Hills Have Eyes”, and of course his iconic horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.
He’s managed to revamp his career every decade shocking new and old fans with his determination to keep entertaining audiences.
My personal opinion is that Wes Craven has always been and always will be a genius.
I don’t think people give him the credit he deserves.
It seems every time he makes a comeback there are people waiting in the shadows trying to knock his down.
He’s made something like twenty-nine films including: “The Serpent and the Rainbow”, “The People Under the Stairs”, “Shocker”, “New Nightmare”, “Scream” and “Red Eye” – all of which are absolutely fantastic.
Okay, I don’t want to post a rant defending Wes Craven – it’s hard to control myself.
I actually don’t want to talk about the work is he most known for.
I thought it’d be more interesting to talk about projects people rarely associate him with or projects that never bloomed.
In 1978, a year after “The Hills Have Eyes”, Craven directed a made for TV movie “Stranger in the House” starring Linda Blair and the televion debut of a very young Fran Drescher.
The film was about a teenage girl whose life is turned upde down after her coun moves into her house, and as time goes by, she begins to suspect that she may be a practitioner of witchcraft.
The film had such a successful run on both NBC and CBS that it was retitled “Summer of Fear” and released in theaters in Europe.
Make no mistake this film is no masterpiece, but it is rather interesting and gives you a good look at what Craven can really do as a director.
It’s a bare bones example of the talent he has.
This was an interesting bit of trivia.
Wes was originally slated to direct the 1987 sequel “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”.
He was replaced by dney J. Furie after having “creative differences” with the late great Christopher Reeve.
I wonder what a movie like that, which bombed at the box office taking in two million less than it was made for, would have done for his career back then?
Of course, if his 2010 flop “My Soul To Take” didn’t kill him – nothing will.
At one point, Craven developed a premise for the never released computer game “Wes Craven’s Principals of Fear”.
In 1997 the game won a bronze medal for Interactive Fiction when the prototype was demonstrated the Electronic Entertain Expo in Atlanta.
Sadly, due to the financial failure of the game’s publisher it was never completed.
The good news is there is a lot of chatter on the internet about some of the biggest horror franchises being turned into video games.You either love him or hate him, but it’s undeniable that Wes Craven has left his mark on film history forever.
Some might even call him the master of horror.
It should be really interesting to see what is up next for him.
"Horror films don't create fear. They release it." - Wes Craven
With the recent release of Scream 4, which has taken in more than xty-eight million dollars worldwide, there has been a lot of talk whether or not Wes Craven has lost is magic.
He’s always been condered a trail blazer breaking new cinematic ground with “The Last House on the Left”, “The Hills Have Eyes”, and of course his iconic horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.
He’s managed to revamp his career every decade shocking new and old fans with his determination to keep entertaining audiences.
My personal opinion is that Wes Craven has always been and always will be a genius.
I don’t think people give him the credit he deserves.
It seems every time he makes a comeback there are people waiting in the shadows trying to knock his down.
He’s made something like twenty-nine films including: “The Serpent and the Rainbow”, “The People Under the Stairs”, “Shocker”, “New Nightmare”, “Scream” and “Red Eye” – all of which are absolutely fantastic.
Okay, I don’t want to post a rant defending Wes Craven – it’s hard to control myself.
I actually don’t want to talk about the work is he most known for.
I thought it’d be more interesting to talk about projects people rarely associate him with or projects that never bloomed.
In 1978, a year after “The Hills Have Eyes”, Craven directed a made for TV movie “Stranger in the House” starring Linda Blair and the televion debut of a very young Fran Drescher.
The film was about a teenage girl whose life is turned upde down after her coun moves into her house, and as time goes by, she begins to suspect that she may be a practitioner of witchcraft.
The film had such a successful run on both NBC and CBS that it was retitled “Summer of Fear” and released in theaters in Europe.
Make no mistake this film is no masterpiece, but it is rather interesting and gives you a good look at what Craven can really do as a director.
It’s a bare bones example of the talent he has.
This was an interesting bit of trivia.
Wes was originally slated to direct the 1987 sequel “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”.
He was replaced by dney J. Furie after having “creative differences” with the late great Christopher Reeve.
I wonder what a movie like that, which bombed at the box office taking in two million less than it was made for, would have done for his career back then?
Of course, if his 2010 flop “My Soul To Take” didn’t kill him – nothing will.
At one point, Craven developed a premise for the never released computer game “Wes Craven’s Principals of Fear”.
In 1997 the game won a bronze medal for Interactive Fiction when the prototype was demonstrated the Electronic Entertain Expo in Atlanta.
Sadly, due to the financial failure of the game’s publisher it was never completed.
The good news is there is a lot of chatter on the internet about some of the biggest horror franchises being turned into video games.You either love him or hate him, but it’s undeniable that Wes Craven has left his mark on film history forever.
Some might even call him the master of horror.
It should be really interesting to see what is up next for him.
"Horror films don't create fear. They release it." - Wes Craven
dakotathomas
Friday 4/29/2011 at 03:05 PM | 75213
