Wes Craven: Freddy in “Scream”, the cult horror – The Obs

It is always a terrible irony to see a name of horror cinema ad patres go. The talent of Wes Craven to play with death in his films do not have the forearmed against the grim reaper: the filmmaker died yesterday afternoon, Sunday, Aug. 30, at his home in Los Angeles, carried away by cancer brain. He was 76 years old.

A native of Cleveland, Wes Craven studied English, psychology and philosophy, and even teaches a time as professor at the university, before performing “Last House on the left “, in 1972. Tour for a ridiculous budget and quasi-amateur conditions, this story of two friends struggling with a bunch of guys and sadistic rapists – Craven says she was inspired by the” Source “Bergman – traumatizes the public. Of all the classic horror films that have reinvented the genre in the 1970s – “Night of the Living Dead,” “The Exorcist,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “Halloween” – remains today still the most unhealthy and disturbing.

Freddy and “Scream”

But it is with “Elm night “in 1984 that will have a lasting Craven collective imagination: it invents the character of Freddy Krueger, the big bogeyman burned face and gloved hands blades, which kills his victims in their dreams. The creature, great, is both executioner and victim, mirror of our childhood fears (to protect themselves, we must prevent sleepiness) and product of a sick society (born of rape, Krueger, of his lifetime was a child killer, the parents in her neighborhood were burnt alive).

“The Elm Street” marks the first appearance of Johnny Depp (in a small role) and won the Critics Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. He invented especially a cult monster will be many suites (Craven will accept to sign one, the seventh, “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”), a TV series, comics, games video …

Twelve years later, Craven portrays the script by a young screenwriter Kevin Williamson, horror fan. Banco! “Scream” returns the genre to date with its post-modern approach (early two years ago by Craven himself in “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”) which allows the filmmaker to entertain codes that it was involved in erecting and attract a new generation of viewers.

Storyteller unmatched

Back to the top the box office, now celebrated by Cahiers du Cinema, Craven took the opportunity to change register and sign a musical melodrama starring Meryl Streep in violin teacher with disadvantaged kids. Commercial Bide, “Music of my heart” is an Oscar nomination for Meryl Streep – and allows Craven met Bill Clinton, which he will film the last days in the White House.

Sentenced to a genre that did visibly inspired, Craven has spent the last fifteen years of his career to capitalize on the franchise “Scream” (three unworthy suites), to miss his other films and co-produce remakes of his classic initiated by Hollywood – that we remember from “The Hills Have Eyes” by Alexandre Aja, higher than the original.

Wes Craven was not a great stylist but a storyteller and outstanding ambianceur. It has continued to anchor his films in the newspaper of a provincial America and families apparently without history, to make them switch to the nightmare of violence and revealing tainted values ​​on which they are based. His tribute to horror films is immense.

Nicolas Schaller