Masters Of Horror! (Wes Craven)

Y'know, even he's said that his obituary and tombstone will read "the guy who invented Freddy Krueger".

We should all be so lucky to have something like that.

Anyway, this'll be another easy-breasy one like John Carpenter....


Last House On The Left (1972)

See here, here, and here (for the link to "The Virgin Spring").


The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

I've finally seen this, and...it's entertaining, but it doesn't scare me at all.
Worth one watch. *Shrug*

More interesting to me is this story...
"Hills", has in it a torn "Jaws", poster.
Not the movie poster, but a blown up photo of the shark from "Jaws".
Sam Raimi, when he made "The Evil Dead", took that as a symbol that meant "screw 'Jaws', this is REAL horror". So, he put a torn "Hills", poster in "Evil Dead", to one-up Craven

So, Craven put the audio to "Evil Dead", into "Nightmare On Elm Street".

So, Raimi put the Freddy glove in "Evil Dead 2".

Then, someone somewhere in production design noted this connection, and put the Necronomicon and Deadite-dagger in "Jason Goes To Hell".

Then, the writers of "Freddy vs Jason vs Ash", used that as an actual connection between the 3 characters.

Ball's in your corner, Wes, hit it back!


Swamp Thing (1982)

See here, and here.

Adrienne Barbeau, she connects it all together.
She was in this, she was in "Creepshow", which was a King/Romero joint, and she was in "The Fog", and "Escape From New York", by John Carpenter, who she was also married to.


A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

See here.

So, yeah, wow, exploring this franchise started off the whole Halloween thing I'm doing right now.
Full circle.


The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985)

So, Wes had to sign away the rights to "Nightmare", to get it made, so he didn't get any gravy off that train (this would later be rectified) so he had to get right back to work, and do something that guaranteed a cash flow.
So, that's why this exists.


Deadly Friend (1986)

So, a geek makes a robot, then the girl he's crushing on gets beaten to death by her abusive father, so he puts his robot's chip in her brain, and she comes back as a killer.

Regarded by most as one of the dumbest horror films ever.


A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: 
Dream Warriors (1987)

See here, and here.

Okay, he just did the first draft, and Frank Darabont polished it up, and directed it.

But, it was enough for New Line to put words to the effect of "the creator of the first Nightmare returns!", on the VHS box.

So, this washed "Hills 2", and "Deadly Friend", out of everyone's mouth.


The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988)

See here.

This was fairly well received back in the day, but...eh, I don't think it's that great.


Shocker (1989)

See here.


The People Under The Stairs (1991)

See here.


Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

See here, and here.

So, with this one, he settled up with Bob Shaye, and retroactively got the residuals, and merchandising stuff he missed out on.

So, it's all good now.


Vampire In Brooklyn (1995)

See here.


Scream (1996)

See here.


The other Screams (1997-2011)

Ditto.


Music Of The Heart (1999)

His one total breaking out of the horror genre.

I never even knew this was a Craven.
They never sold it that way.

It was well received by critics, has a high tomato rating, it's a shame he never got more of these.
Hollywood is a rough (and sometimes outright nasty) business.


Cursed (2005)

Oh, shit, I left this out of "Werewolf-wingding".

Anyway, this was a tremendous flop, and one critic said it was actually worse than "Wolf".
Ouch, warning heeded.


Red Eye (2005)

Okay, haven't seen this one, but apparently, it more than made up for "Cursed".

You're forgiven.


My Soul To Take (2010)

Ssss...oooh, then he turned right around, and ruined it.

Meh, fuck does he care, he's got Freddy and Scream 1 to coast on.


Never Sleep Again (2010)

See here, and here.

He was interviewed for this, and it was pretty cool.


I Am Nancy (2011)

Ditto.

It's where I got the "Nancy tripping", story I threw into "Swamp Thing".


And, that's Wes Craven.


Up next, George Romero.