13 Scary Wes Craven Films!
13 Scary Wes Craven Films!
Wes Craven was a talented and prolific filmmaker who made movies in several genres including comedy, action adventure and drama. He even managed to snag Meryl Streep her one and only Oscar nomination ever for Music Of The Heart. What ever happened to that one hit wonder of an actress Meryl Anyway? Anhoo this list has nothing to do with any of those non horror Wes Craven films. This list is the 13 scariest Wes Craven films. Least creepy to most!
#13 DEADLY BLESSING
Release Year (1981)
Starring: Sharon Stone, Mara Jensen, Ernest Borgnine, Lisa Hartman Black
(whatever type of psycho is after us can't be as crazy as me)
Any film that features a young Sharon Stone, Knot's Landing's Lisa Hartman Black and Ernest freaking Borgnine is going to be worthy of a look no matter who directed this motherfucker. Sorry. My dad says I say fuck too much in my writing and in real fucking life. But I figure it’s a healthier release of rage than say shooting someone in the eye with a acid filled enflamed arrow. Which by the way does NOT happen in this fucking film!
The Gore in this pretty tame for pre Scream Wes Craven flick. A dude gets crushed by a truck, a dude get’s stabbed in the back both are pretty gore-less. The scares are hit and miss. Spiders and snakes appear on screen menacing our cast but nobody gets bitten. There is little payoff.
(What exactly about me is creepy?)
Craven directed this movie in the years after his gory cult success of Last House and Hills Have Eyes but prior to the mainstream success of Elm Street. This in between phase causes Craven to throw every creepy thing you can think of at the screen. Spiders, Snakes, a slasher, religious sadist, prophetic dreams, Incubus, a shock ending. Craven’s sure hand guides a script and plot that is all over the place. A good film to watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon in October.
#12 DEADLY FRIEND
Release Year: 1986
Starring: Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson
When Craven showed his original cut of Deadly Friend to test audiences Craven fans were taken aback by the lack of blood and horror onscreen. So like John Carpenter did with The Fog 6 years earlier Craven relented and went back and shot new scenes of visceral horror to play to the market.
(Every year during Cheerleading tryouts Deadly friend walked out on the gymnasium floor and did this pose. And every year she didn't make the team.)
The results were mixed. Deadly Friend did become a sort of cult classic but not because of any amazing special FX or inventive kills. Although the baskeball kill became kind of iconic. Deadly Friend’s strength’s revolve around the main character Paul Conway (played by Little House On The Prairie”s (Matthew Laborteaux) and his attempt at saving his friend (Kristy Swanson) from her abusive father by inadvertently creating something far worse than simple death.
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#11 Scream 3
Release Year: 2000
Starring: Neve Campell, Emma Roberts,Courtney Cox
Cravens third time to the Scream watering hole proves not to be a charm but even an inconsistent entry from Wes Craven is still more entertaining than an ernest attempt by a lesser skilled filmmaker. The mystery this time involves resolving the identity of Sydney’s mother and possibly a long lost sibling.
The problem is the setting (a fictional movie set) is simply not scary or isolated enough to create any kind of mood. Thankfully Campbell, Cox Arquette and the newcomers have created likeable and interesting enough characters to carry the film through some stretches of non-scary tedium. A fun film for a Scream fan but not the creepiest entry in the franchise.
(My hair has it's own keylight)
#10 THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW
Release Year: 1988
Starring: Bill Pullman and Paul Winfield
Following the unexpected success of The first A Nightmare On Elm Street, Wes Craven was under a lot pressure to create a follow up worthy of the Legacy of Freddy. Rather than attempt to create another slasher franchise Craven made The Serpent and The Rainbow. A zombie film.
And not just any zombie film. Not the George Romero brain eating lumbering rotting Walking Dead zombies we have all come to recognize. This film harkens back to the golden age of zombie films like White Zombie or I Walked With a Zombie. Voodoo is used to kill, resurrect then enslave some hapless victims. Bill Pullman is on hand to make everything right again.
(No I have not had my coffee yet. What was your first hint?)
#9 SCREAM 4
Release Year : 2011
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette My personal favorite Scream sequel since the original, Scream 4 was an unsung unappreciated gem. A Nasty little slasher with many surprises a few scares and a talented energetic cast capable of both holding our attention and generating sympathy. Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette return in their now comfortably familiar roles and are joined by an intense Emma Roberts and and an amusing Hayden Panettiere to once again attempt to take down a Ghost Faced killer!
(I told you I buy my Avon products online damnit!)
Scream 4 kind of plays like a Scream greatest hits and at times in its attempt to lay out a mystery, ill it’s character’s off in inventive way and wrap up the original story that started back in 1998 Scream 4 gets a bit busy. Its best bits involve Hayden Panettiere as Kirby kind of the new and a return to some basic nasty slasher kills (Anthony Anderson’s knife to the forehead was pretty disturbing and unexpected) which are hallmarks of classic Wes Craven horror.
#8 REDEYE
Release Year-2005
Starring-Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy
The only film on this entire list that is not an actual horror film Red Eye none the less contains enough suspense and psychological (and psychical) terror to be counted among Cravens best. Rachel McAdam’s plays a Hotel manager who finds herself sitting next to a cunning and deadly assassin (played by Cillian Murphy) on a Red Flight from Miami. With only her wits to rely on McAdams starts a cat and mouse game with her adversary in an attempt to save herself, her father and some Hotel guests from terrorist.
While the first half of the film plays out almost like a political thriller/ quasi meet cute chick flick the second half (thankfully) morphs into a more straight on action suspense film sprinkled with many horror tropes, including a pencil to the neck, an unstoppable wheezing lurching knife wielding killer and a resourceful plucky Final Girl.
#7 Wes Cravens New Nightmare
After co-writing A Nightmare On Elm Street 3- Dream Warriors Craven did not write produce or direct another Elm Street Sequel for several years. When he finally did return to the franchise that he created he did so in style. Rather than attempt to make yet another sequel to a film franchise slowly running out of steam Craven instead decided to deconstruct the first film by having Freddy escape the pages of the script and go after some of the cast members of the first film.
This not only gave him the opportunity to reunite much of the original iconic cast including Heather Langenkamp and Robert England but to also return Freddy to the more sinister malevolent being he started out as. Cravens deconstructing of his own franchise was a precursor to what he would accomplish with Scream a few years later.
#6 THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS
Release Year-1991
Starring-Brandon Williams, Ving Rhames
Wes Craven certainly seemed to love Rube Goldberg like death traps. And having his victims setting traps and creating weapons out of simple household appliances. And Social commentary. Craven has explored theses idea in several films including A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Last House On The Left and The Hills Have Eyes.
The People Under The Stairs continues Cravens obsession with death traps. Thankfully This mildly successful flick has other things to offer as well including an appealing cast, an interesting urban setting and some not to subtle gentrification politicking.
#5 Scream 2
Release Year: 1997
Starring- Neve Campbell,Courtney Cox
Creating a second movie that can Live up to a critically and commercially successful the original is a rare thing but Scream 2 almost accomplishes this feat. By reintroducing the most likeable surviving characters from the first film and then killing some off Scream 2 manages to to give weight to a few deaths which ratchets up the suspense. Scream 2 also manages to recapture the fun and self aware humor that audiences responded so well to in the first film while still serving up some genuine scares.
The movie follows Sydney as she starts college and attempts to put her final girl past behind her. Unfortunately someone or someone’s is trying to recreate the original killings and it’s up to Sydney and Gail Dewey and some new college pals to stop the killer and save the day. Scream 2 works on almost all levels and while it lacks some of the surprises that made the first film so iconic the higher budget and familiar characters present allow Craven to go crazy on the chase sequences and set pieces making Scream 2 arguably the most exciting of the sequels.
#4 THE HILLS HAVE EYES
Release Year-1977
Starring- Susan Lanier, Michael Berryman
An instant cult classic upon release The Hills Have Eyes takes the sensibility of The Last House On the Left throws a bigger budget at it and sends it on the road as a sort of traveling Family Revenge Vacation Invasion flick. This time the victimized family is on vacation when they find themselves broken down at the wrong place and at the wrong time. The threat comes from a family of mutant cannibals that routinely trap kill and apparently eat hapless travelers.
The Hills Have Eyes has many shocks and scares particularly a van attack that surprisingly kills off almost half the cast in a matter of moments. Killing off main characters un-expectantly would be a trope Craven revisits in Scream and it is perhaps even more effective here because it was still so fresh.. The killing of women, the elderly and children is a tricky thing in horror films. The point is to ratchet up the stakes without pissing off the audience. The typical silence of viewers that follows scenes such as Drew Barrymore’s death in scream or the characters killed in the van attack in this film prove what Hitchcock knew to be true. Audiences don’t want everything spoon fed or telegraphed for them. They want to be shocked. They want to be surprised. Then they want to look away.
#3 THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
Not only is Last House On the Left Cravens most visceral disturbing films it also ranks up there with one of the most disturbing films ever made. A very basic premise (a parents thirst for vengeance following the brutalizing and murder of their daughter and her friend at the hands of a roving group of sadist) is enhanced by incredibly graphic violence, documentary style camera work before this type of thing became cliché and some disturbing yet sympathetic performances by some of the bad guys.
The Last House On the Left has the feel of a snuff film. The film almost feels dirty upon viewing yet Craven manages to never make the violence feel glorified or the female victims unduly exploited. The camera kind of sits and gazes at the ugliness unfolding. And then does it again.
#2 SCREAM
Release Year- 1996
Starring-By now you know..
The best example of a director deconstructing a genre by using self-aware wit to make fun of itself, Scream is both a riff on as well as a valentine to the slasher movies of the late 70’s and 1980’s that for a while seemed to dominate theaters. Pulling from his bag of tricks Craven combines the visceral disturbing horror he used in The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House On the Left along with the self-aware humor he touched on in New Nightmare with some of the mystery and character dynamics that made the Original nightmare On elm street so unique and served them all up hot and fresh in Scream.
Scream not only was a scary fun thrill ride in it’s own right, It’s success also helped create a template for the 90’s slasher film revival to copy and copy it did. Everything about the film from the casting of popular tv stars, to the plot being a who done down to the cast collage on the movie poster was emulated by films like I Know what you did Last Summer and Urban Legend for years and years after the first film was released.
#1 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM-STREET
Release Year- 1984
Starring- Robert Englund, Heather LangeLangenkamp
One of the most original and scary slasher films ever; A Nightmare On Elm Street came along near the end of the first slasher craze and somehow still managed to seem fresh and original despite being released in a sea of Friday The 13th and Halloween sequels and or rip offs. This is mostly due to the non-physical threat and almost inescapable playing field Craven puts his players on via their own nightmares.
The original A Nightmare On Elm Street had a lot more going for it than simply a unsettling original premise. For a movie to become this iconic it has to be firing on all cylinders and A Nightmare On Elm Street manages to work on several levels.
