Yesterday, the devastating news arrived that a master of horror has left us. After succumbing to brain cancer at the age of 76, Wesley Earl Craven (aka Wes Craven) passed away, leaving behind a legacy of thrills, from his debut The Last House on the Left to still-running franchises such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream to airtight thrillers like Red Eye (and even a few outside-the-box choices such as Music of the Heart and his Paris, je t’aime short “Pere-Lachaise,” seen below).
To celebrate his storied career, today we have a 45-minute, career-spanning interview with director, conducted for Fangoria’s Screamography series. Beginning by discussing his Christian fundamentalist upbringing, he credits his lack of film knowledge as a child and teenager to stronger success as a storyteller, as he was able to get a sense of stories by strictly reading books. Touching on his formative experiences watching To Kill a Mockingbird and French New Wave films, he goes further into his career, including coming up with the iconic imagery from Elm Street.
Check out the fascinating interview below (with a hat tip to /Film) along with an excerpt from Edgar Wright‘s remembrance of the director:
Like many film fans who grew up in the 70’s and early 80’s, Wes Craven’s name became to me synonymous with cutting edge horror. When I grew up in a VHS less house, I really could only dream of the horrors behind the forbidding posters or video box art of movies like ‘The Last House On The Left’, ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ and ‘Deadly Blessing’. These were films I was not really allowed to see, but as a young horror obsessive I needed to know everything about them.
What was your favorite Wes Craven film?