Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Cravenwas a prolific and influential American film director, writer, producer, and actor known for his pioneering work in the genre of horror films, particularly slasher films. Due to the success and cultural impact of his works in the horror film genre Craven has been called the "Master of Horror"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth2 August 1939
CityCleveland, OH
CountryUnited States of America
A collection of masks, depicting historical figures in life and what I like to call the eternal repose.
I don't know where the limits of her range are. I certainly didn't find them.
She has a quality that is missing in a lot of American girls now ...
We have a romantic comedy, a road picture and a period piece that I've developed over the years, ... Now we're just putting them out there for consideration (by investors).
My whole family still lives there, ... I mean, where is Cleveland anymore? They're in Cleveland Heights, Burton, Willoughby, places like that. Mostly all over the eastern suburbs.
I said, 'I don't know how to write a scary movie,' and he told me, 'Just pull all the skeletons out of your closet,' ... Over the weekend, I wrote The Last House on the Left , and those guys (in Boston) loved it. We shot it in 16 mm. It caused a firestorm of controversy, and off I went.
For me with all this stuff, both the horror films and thrillers like this, the most interesting thing is what goes on inside people's heads, ... The rest is just the setting. She is sort of trapped in her seat, with this guy a few inches apart watching her facial expressions for clues about what she is going to do and it is just so oppressive. Even when he lets her go to the bathroom she doesn't get long to unwind.
If we shot them from the front, we had to be peering over the heads of the passengers in front of them.
There is an emotionality and vulnerability. She knows what is of value and what is not. And for another thing, she's a legend in her own time. I think everyone in Hollywood takes her very seriously.
Without being on the set, I was very closely involved.
Those are the only two films I've made in which I have significant ownership. So you can make a deal where a studio releases your film but doesn't have final cut. You have a lot of power that you wouldn't have otherwise.
It's kind of experiment time, ... We'll see if people get behind us, and if the picture's any good. But it has to be that people will experiment with me. If not, fine, I'll just go back to writing books or something. But I have the feeling I'm onto something.
It's a thriller, it's definitely not a horror film, but it has enough of the elements that also work in horror films like suspense.
You can't ignore the 800-pound gorilla: There's no shortage of post-9/11 jitters. I don't think anybody likes sitting down next to a stranger for five hours.