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Category Archives: Wes Craven

Wes Craven movies

Movie review: The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007)

24 Friday Mar 2017

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Martin Weisz, The Hills Have Eyes, Wes Craven

ONE YEAR AFTER Alexandre Aja’s remake of Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes received (quite rightfully) positive reviews, it was almost inevitable that the films creators would start looking toward creating a franchise.

It’s main drive would come from the films’ original creator, Craven and his son, Jonathan.

And on face value, the initial premise that was laid out ignited a sense of passion in me. “I’d like to fucking see that!”, I proclaimed, until that is that on closer scrutiny, it was just a rehash of “Aliens” but instead of xenomorphs that an army faces up to, it’s a group of mutants out in New Mexico that need to be annihilated.

Wait, maybe that does sound awesome. Craven apparently even planned to have the surviving daughter, Brenda enlist in the army to overcome her demons only to go all “Ripley-esque” when called upon to go back into the wilderness to physically face them head to head, as she is the only person who knows their lay of the land.

Only problem was that Emile de Ravin, who played Brenda in the remake was committed to TV series, Lost at the time the film was due to go into production.

That’s okay, we’ll just create a new protagonist in Amber, who will walk the same path as had been intended for Brenda. Job done, yes?

So why then did the movie fall short and not launch this franchise into stronger territory?

Ironically enough, The Hills Have Eyes 2 would suffer the same fate as the original remake, The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 did.

Both films completely ignored the concept of a family pitted in terror against an unknown assailant that was both brutal and destructive, stripped down to the very essence of what it is to be human.

In a raw, animalistic approach to survival, the family has no option but to resort to drastic measures in order to live through the torment.

It is that rage that is buried within us all that rises to the surface when we have nothing else to fall back on and nothing left to lose.

That’s why the original movie resonated so strongly in societies ethos.

It cut out all the bullshit and crap that comes with our social make up and shone a mirror to our flaws and pretentiousness to convey who we all are underneath.

It’s why Aja’s version was so well received, because it managed to carry that same message and deliver tenfold on the anarchy.

By ignoring the very premise and notion or hunger for survival, you tear away all the drama and beauty that encapsulated the original movie and from there you will always fall short.

Yes, you should probably commend Craven for trying to push the story in a new direction.

Hell, they even teamed up with Fox Atomic comics to produce a stand alone comic called The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning, which also treads along the path of the army vs the mutants theme, but in this instance it creates and additional pet peeve of mine, in trying to humanise the mutants.

In doing so, it destroys not only the mystery behind them, but also the threat that they once posed in the original is destroyed in the process.

So, whilst it does strive to explore the universe further, in doing so, the essence of what made the world so great, just crumbles and withers away.

It’s a shame, because I feel there is still merit in exploring that world once more.

And there’s a lot of political commentary that is ripe for the picking if they chose that journey wisely, but it remains to be seen if the film industry will choose to go back into the hills once more.

  • Paul Farrell

Movie review: The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

23 Thursday Mar 2017

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Alexandre Aja, Emile de Ravin, Kathleen Quinlan, Ted Levine, The Hills Have Eyes, Wes Craven

WES CRAVEN must have felt pretty proud of this adaptation from his original movie.

The Hills Have Eyes was the second movie that he made following on from Last House On The Left and was a huge success for the director, paving the way for a smashing career in the horror realm.

For the remake though, Craven would step aside from directorial duties, focusing solely on his Producer role and allow Alexandre Aja take the helm.

Aja already carved success in his own right in the genre with Furia and Haute Tension, both bloody brutal films. (The less said about Mirrors and Piranha 3D the better).

And the frenchman doesn’t shy away from the gore and mayhem in this movie, much to our delight.

After watching the screening at the Horror Movie Campout in Sydney,  was reminded of how hard-wired, crazed, and fucked up this movie is.

Having dissected the original movie in a previous podcast, yo could clearly see the same paths being plotted out by our protagonists, but this version does allow for some more freedom and exploration when it comes to the ‘mutant’ family.

Craven had always ventured out to make  a savage insight into the good and bad side of America by polarising families on the opposite side of the spectrum and pitted them against each other in a bloody war of survival.

Much of that is apparent in this version, but Aja takes that concept and ups the ante by throwing the Carter family into a world of carnage and disarray, where it is anyone’s guess who if anyone will survive.

That raw energy transcends well and it’s the perfect recipe for a thrill ride of massive proportions .

If there is a flaw, it’s that our Carter family seem a little too polished when held up against the mutant family.

There are often times when you wished that more time was spent on fleshing out the characters than actually ripping the flesh off them, but who am I kidding?

This movie is fun, all the same and provides enough shocks, all-out-gore, and ferocity that not only make it a worthy of the original, but dare I say it?

A rarity in that it adds something additional to the Craven’s vision and expands on it in a positive way.

A decent stab in the open, vast and deserted landscape.

  • Paul Farrell

Flashback Friday: Mind Ripper (1995)

08 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by surgeons of horror in Flashback Fridays, Wes Craven

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Horror film, Horror movie, Horror movies, Lance Henriksen, The Hills Have Eyes, Wes Craven

mind-ripper
BACK IN THE MID 90’s, a little known HBO movie was released with little fanfare or critical reaction.

It has also been known as The Hills Have Eyes Part 3 despite the fact that the only thing that connects this movie with the franchise is that Wes Craven is billed as producer and his son Jonathan is credited as writer.

Yes it is primarily set in some abandoned quarry in the middle of nowhere, which can loosely connect the films but rather than be a collection of mutants infected by radiation poisoning and reeking havoc on a family, here we have a character, THOR, who has been experimented upon via re-animation. In fact it is probably more closely aligned with Frankenstein, Re-Animator, or Universal Soldier with its subject matter.

The movie doesn’t exactly offer anything new, with it’s team of scientists holed up deep underground to perform their experiments only to have the tables turned on them when their test subject becomes a blood thirsty killer, hunting them one by one.

It does though have some prominent star-pulling power in Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator) and Giovanni Ribisi (Boiler Room, The Gift) as the dropout son who comes good. And they both stand out in the cast for what is essentially mediocre characters.

In some places the dialogue is clunky but at the end of the day, this movie was never going to win awards for its high brow conversation piece. It’s an action-based horror movie that struggled to find an identity, aiming for Aliens but ending up more like The Mimic.

It’s entertaining enough, but never finds its voice or is strong enough to mark on the horror celluloid mantle of greatness.

– Paul Farrell

 

 

 

The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 (1985)

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by surgeons of horror in Uncategorized, Wes Craven

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Horror film, Horror movie, Michael Berryman, The Hills Have Eyes, Wes Craven

The Seventh and Last Feature for our Wes Craven Season 1 discussion centres on his first sequel and with it a potential to start a franchise.

Needless to say, The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 would not live up to expectations and the franchise would end up dead in the water despite reaching a cult status. Subsequently there have been 2 recent film adaptations based on the original and a comic book to boot.

Wes Craven has distanced himself from the project, citing it as an unfinished piece when he handed it in to the producers to review. The producers, aka the money and finance would accept the film as its first draft and push this out into cinemas with the need to market swiftly. The result speaks for itself.

As for Craven, this was no passion project. It did however, provide funds for him to create horror cinema gold, A Nightmare On Elm Street, (More on this in an upcoming season) and along with it the iconic character of Freddie Kruger.

When sidled next to A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 pales in comparison. The film picks up with survivor from the first film, Bobby, discussing the horrific events that unfolded and the devastating impact it had on him and his family.

Bobby now runs a bike racing outfit and endeavours to take them back out to the sticks for them to compete in a race, but this task appears to be too great an ordeal and he reluctantly chooses not to go.

So, it is down to fellow survivor, Ruby / Rachel (and the dog, Beast of course) to take our intrepid team of victims / youths to certain doom when they once again come face to face with the mutant family in horror poster icon, Michael Berryman reprising his role as Pluto and The Reaper (Papa Jupiter’s brother).

So much is inherently wrong with this movie. Bad characters, poor set up, and no plot. It’s a wonder that it got off the ground. Perhaps is it wasn’t resting on its stronger predecessor and Craven’s now recogniseable name attached to it, it probably wouldn’t have.

And with the already mentioned, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and its success, along with it cane a much longer lifespan for The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 would ordinarily have occurred.

Check out the surgeons of horror podcast below for more thoughts and views.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98518?visual=true

Also available in iTunes.

– Paul Farrell

 

Invitation To Hell (1984)

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

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barret oliver, Horror film, Horror movies, joanna cassidy, robert ulrich, soleil moon frye, susan lucci, Wes Craven

invitation-to-hell
INVITATION TO HELL MARKS another entry into the TV movie world for Wes Craven.
With all due respect to Craven, this certainly feels like a TV movie too.

It often feels like a paint by numbers outing for Craven and this may well be the case as he was knee deep in writing what would become A Nightmare On Elm Street and doing last minute sound edits for The Hills Have Eyes Part 2 at the time.

There is a fine array of talent on display during this movie too, with Robert Ulrich taking the lead role of family patriarch, Matt Winslow.

When the Winslows move to a new neighbourhood and Matt takes up his new job when he soon discovers that there is something sinister going on beneath the surface and it seems to be centred on the prestigious club, Steaming Springs.

Anyone who is anyone is fighting for a spot at membership.

And soon enough the family bow to the trappings of materialism and are drawn to all that lies within this world.

Only Matt remains dubious and holds on to his principals, not wishing to conform or be seduced by Jessica Jones played by Susan ‘ Queen of daytime TV’, Lucci.

Notable performances also come from Joanna Cassidy, Soleil Moon Frye, and Barret Oliver.
Overall though, there is nothing that invokes any real emotion from the film. The sense of threat doesn’t hold true and the result of which is that Invitation to Hell becomes a standard movie-watching experience.

Sure the concept of hell is the stuff of nightmares but we have seen this story told before and with a better outcome too.

Craven himself would create a form of hell himself with A Nightmare On Elm Street with its satanesque demon, Freddy Kruger warping the minds of teenagers throughout the world both in dreams and in reality.

For now though, this film does feel like a stepping-stone for greater things to come for Craven and we should acquiesce to that notion.

Craven enthusiasts might be intrigued, but that’s about all there the movie has to offer.

Check out the surgeons of horror podcast below for more thoughts and views.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98482?visual=true

Also available on iTunes.
– Paul Farrell

Swamp Thing (1982)

21 Tuesday Jun 2016

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Adrienne Barbeau, Horror movie, louis jourdan, Ray Wise, Wes Craven

AS WE CONTINUE WITH OUR SERIES – Wes Craven – The Early Years discussions, we now draw our attention to his fourth outing in the director’s chair.

Swamp Thing would be the first non-Batman or Superman related live-action movie for DC and it would fall on the shoulders of Craven to turn this around.

It would follow Richard Donner’s Superman movies, so there were a lot of expectations resting on the films success.

Once pointed out by film critic, Roger Ebert that Swamp Thing was a thing of beauty if you knew where to look, which I can’t help but feel that he may have been referring to a certain scene involving its leading lady, Adrienne Barbeau (Escape From New York, The Fog).
Joining Barbeau in the cast would be a number of other faces, namely Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and Louis Jourdan (Octopussy) the film drew heavily on the comics of the time and would generate another comic book series and even a sequel to the movie.

Essentially though, this was a ‘paint by numbers’ job for Craven who would took on the project to show Hollywood that he could handle set pieces and action sequences.

Essentially, it boils down to a man in a monster suit movie, arcing back to the days of Universal Monsters.

For more thoughts and views on Swamp Thing, check out the surgeons of horror podcast below.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98478?visual=true

Also available in iTunes.

– Paul Farrell

Deadly Blessing (1981)

07 Tuesday Jun 2016

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ernest borgnine, Horror film, Wes Craven

DEADLY BLESSING IS ONE of those movies that appear to have fallen completely off the radar. Craven himself has stated that whenever he mentioned this being one of his movies, he was met with blank stares.

It seems fairly odd that this would occur as Craven’s profile would grow, and it stars Sharon Stone in her first speaking role in a movie, but perhaps when put into connection with the negative reviews that the film would receive at the time coupled with Ernest Borgnine (Escape From New York, The Wild Bunch) getting a “Razzie” nomination for Worst Supporting Actor for his efforts.

Upon review the critical response feels a little harsh.

So, why the negativity?

Well, a lot of it has to do with the strong religious message that is firmly stamped all over it, with Borgnine’s character, Isaiah preaching the word throughout the entire movie.

When you look past this though there are some elements that prove fruitful and there’s enough ticking along to keep you wondering who or what is behind the foul play that is taking place.

And for keen horror enthusiasts there is a lot at play here that would feel familiar to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street in some of the shots that he would produce.

Most notably in the bath scene when a snake protrudes from between Martha’s legs ala Freddy’s glove. Although in this instance it’s a far more phallic image.

The cast pulls off a fairly adequate performance with Maren Jensen known for her role as Athena in the original Battlestar Galactica. Taking on the lead heroine, Martha.

Stone’s performance is also notable, but perhaps more so for the scene in the barn, which creates enough ambience to feel sinister and certainly feels as though Arachnophobia lifted a few shots and ideas from this scene.

Craven regular (Michael Berryman) also makes an appearance as William.

The movie certainly doesn’t deserve to be admonished and definitely warrants a viewing.

With old horror movies providing Hollywood execs with source material, Deadly Blessing has the chops to be revisited.

Check out the surgeons of horror podcast below for more thoughts and views.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98476?visual=true

Also available in iTunes.

– Paul Farrell

Stranger In Our House aka Summer of Fear (1978)

31 Tuesday May 2016

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Horror film, Horror movie, Linda Blair, podcast, Stranger In Our House, Summer of Fear, Wes Craven

Summer-Of-Fear
STRANGER IN OUR HOUSE WOULD BE Wes Craven’s third film as director and his first outing into the television arena.

This would allow Craven to be exposed to a more professional crew and access to equipment that he hadn’t had the privilege to use before such as a dolly.
It would also be the first time that he shot anything on 35mm.

Craven would use this valuable experience to his advantage, soaking up as much knowledge that he could muster.

Part of that experience would be to work with more known actors, among them was Linda Blair, who had just come out of rehab.

Blair was struggling on the social scene and despite still working in the movie industry, Stranger In Our House would be the last TV movie that she would be involved with.

Blair’s performance in this movie wouldn’t exactly turn heads but she definitely holds her own as Rachel Bryant, an All-American-Girl with a love of riding horses and is dating the local stud, Brad.

Her wholesome life is turned upside down however, when her long lost cousin, Julia comes to stay with them after her parents were tragically killed in an automobile accident.

But Julia (played by Lee Purcell in a noteworthy performance) is not all she appears to be.
Over time, Julia turns the tables into her favour and appears to have all the men waiting on her hand and foot.

Who is this Julia really?

What spell does she hold over the men of the town?

Is witchcraft be involved?

Sure this film is a TV movie and certainly has that feel about it when viewing. The make up and visual effects border on B-Movie style, but some of that lends to its appeal.

It certainly isn’t one of Craven’s finest entries to is resume but it’s certainly watchable and the 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes is a slightly tougher mark than this film probably deserves.

Check out the surgeons of horror podcast below for more thoughts and views.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98475?visual=true

Also available in iTunes.

– Paul Farrell

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

24 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by surgeons of horror in Wes Craven

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Dee Wallace, Michael Berryman, The Hills Have Eyes, Wes Craven

FOR HIS SOPHOMORE OUTING, Craven would explore similar ground to The Last House On The Left.

This time, The Hills Have Eyes would see a whole family being besieged upon by a family of mutants in the remote mid-west of the United States.

The Carters are on a road trip when they decide to take a detour to check out an old silver mine that has been bequeathed to them.

The detour would see them cross paths with The mutants. Thus anarchy is carried out upon the wholesome American family.

There’s the patriarch and matriarch figures leading the way, with their son, 2 daughters and a son-in-law in tow.

Oh and let’s not forget their protectors, 2 dogs by the named of Beauty and the Beast.

And so, in the world that Craven chooses to play in, he constantly plays with dark and light, good and evil and the thin line that seperates the two.

When the Carters are pitted into this extreme environment, a world truly removed from their own, they must turn to their animalistic instincts in order to survive.

Where this outing differs from Craven’s first directorial feature, The Last House On The Left, is that not only is he honing his craft but this time around he delivers a more commercial product. That’s not to say that The Hills Have Eyes is in anyway

Check out the surgeons of horror podcast below for more thoughts and views.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98474?visual=true

Also available in iTunes

– Paul Farrell

 

Last House On The Left (1972)

17 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by surgeons of horror in Wes Craven

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david hess, last house on the left, sean cunningham

 

OUR FIRST HORROR FILM LEGEND to enter the Surgeons of Horror theatre is the late Wes Craven.

It is our endeavour to scrutinise and dissect his film career and study how Craven became an auteur of his craft.

We start with a Season that we will call The Early Years, whereby we will take a look at the films that paved the way to marking him as an icon in horror.

The first movie in question is, The Last House On The Left, made in 1972 along with fellow horror legend, Sean Cunningham (Friday the 13th) who was the films producer.

Between them they made a movie that would send shockwaves throughout the cinema industry for it’s low down and dirty cinematography.
It was a film that wasn’t shy from turning away from what was dubbed as gratuitous but perhaps not by modern standards.

The movie would be banned in certain countries including Britain and caused pandemonium in the auditoriums as people allegedly rushed the projection booths in protest.

This was all gold dust to the films producers who were bold enough to give it a nationwide release.

And word of mouth wouldn’t let this movie lay down to rest and it resurfaced in the video bootleg and slowly became the stuff of legend.

It also coined one of the most iconic taglines in movie history, “To avoid fainting. Keep repeating. It’s only a movie… only a movie…. Only a movie…”

So how does this film stand up in our surgery?

Does it still stand the test of time?

Check out the surgeons of horror podcast below for more thoughts and views.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/player/episode/id/98471?visual=true

Also available on iTunes

-Paul Farrell

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