The World Just Got A Little Less Scary... R.I.P. West Craven 1939-2015

Well, that's just depressing.

The man that helped put the scary, back into scary movies passed away today.

But Wes Craven leaves behind a legacy that is both impressive by the impact he was able to muster in just under 30 films.

It seems like he had worked on a lot more, but Craven put his all into everything he did, usually writing, directing and producing each feature.

Depending on when you started watching scary films will likely center on where you first were introduced to Craven's work.

The 1970s, he began with The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes.

I always saw those video boxes, but never saw the movies. I still don't think I've ever seen them, but they were some cool titles for movies.

Nope, I ran into Craven's work in 1984 when he unleashed arguably his greatest creation into pop culture: Freddy Krueger.

Now, I doubt Craven (or anyone for that matter) expected Freddy to take on the status that he would, but A Nightmare on Elm Street was scary as all get out when it was released, and it still holds up today. It also cemented Robert Englund as a horror movie icon for the ages.

My only complaint was the cheesy special effects shot at the end of the film, but that doesn't mar an otherwise exceptionally scary and slick horror film. Craven mastered the technique of suckering the audience in, and then we realized that the character was dreaming, or they were dreaming they were dreaming. With Craven and Freddy, we couldn't be sure!

He closed out the 80s with a movie that I saw once, and absolutely refused to ever watch again because of how creepy it was: The Serpent and the Rainbow.

:: shudder ::

Then the 90s came, and horror films were dying out, when Craven reinvigorated the genre by playing with all the conventions and tropes of the horror film, and turning them slightly askew with the movie Scream. Much like Freddy before him, now Craven had a new pop culture character with Ghost Face, and a franchise was born.

So successful was the Scream franchise, the Wayans brothers created a franchise of their own with Scary Movie which parodied the Scream (and all other horror films).

But even Wes Craven was able to prove that he wasn't a one trick pony. He directed Music of the Heart which earned Meryl Streep one of her 8 million Academy Award nominations.

Not a bad legacy to leave behind.

RIP Wes Craven.

Thanks for all the nightmares and goosebumps!

What's Scarier Than the Tax Man? "Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy"

1...2...Freddy's Coming For You...

Yeah, nearly 30 years later and it's STILL creepy!!!

The Story:

It's time to take a look back at the franchise that put New Line Cinema on the map, and created not only a horror franchise, but a world-wide phenomenon that is... Freddy Krueger.

First, this is a documentary made with love by Heather Langenkamp (Nancy!) from the first Elm Street movie.

It clocks in at an impressive 4 hours, but it goes by in an instant.  Each movie receives its own  screen time as they talk with as many actors and directors, producers, FX  personnel as they can.

Really, they've got Robert Englund and Wes Craven, so anything else is gravy.

That the only people that don't come and chat about it are Johnny Depp and Patricia Arquette, well apparently they're too important to remember before they were stars.

: )

The most interesting thing that this documentary uncovers is how Freddy Krueger paralleled the rise and fall of New Line Cinema.  For that, we are met with Bob Shaye, the man that created New Line.  It's hard to be sad at what was probably a very wealthy settlement when New Line was absorbed into Time Warner, but still...

For what New Line was created to do, you can see that a void was created when the studios start sucking up all the independent ventures that are happening in Hollywood.

I realized that I'm not as much of an Elm Street fan as I had thought because I have never seen anything past Part IV.

I may have to rectify that in the future! : )

This documentary came out before the remake, and let me just go on record as saying that the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street was utter garbage.

There was no excitement, no fun.

The only thing it got right, was better special effects at the end.

While it's true that you can put anyone behind Jason's mask (sorry Kane Hodder), there is only one Freddy, and that's Robert Englund.

Final Grade: B+

Would I Own It: Only if, and when, I own the series.  Wondering if I want to creep myself out an watch the original again?  Eeep!