Why would Wes Craven, who has been called the
“king of horror,” fail so miserably with the werewolf film Cursed (2005)? Perhaps his
reputation is a little overstated. Craven achieved greater box-office
success than Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre), John Carpenter (Halloween), and George Romero (Dawn of the Dead), but unlike
his rivals he has not made one true horror classic. I know many will
disagree.
Craven’s reputation began with the grim cult film
The Last House on the Left (1972), a violent thriller that only peripherally fits into the
horror genre. Two teenage girls are raped and murdered by a group of
escaped convicts, and the killers unwittingly stay in the house of the
parents of one of their victims. The plot is a bit farfetched, but it was
lifted from Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin
Spring (1960). It hasn’t aged well, but at
least it isn’t marred by the slasher clichés that became
prevalent after the success of Halloween. The Hills Have Eyes (1977) is considered a horror classic, but this Texas Chainsaw Massacre-style
thriller about a group of savages terrorizing a family is surprisingly
boring. Its sequel, The Hills Have Eyes Part
II (1985), also directed by Craven, ranks among
the worst films ever made. Deadly Blessing (1981) follows a similar pattern, but it is a bit of an
improvement.
Craven’s one great contribution to the horror
genre is the maniacal killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) in A Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984). The idea of a psychopath inhabiting the dreams of a group of
teenagers was clever, but the execution was slightly uneven. Craven
directed only one of the many sequels. He really hit the jackpot a decade
later with Scream
(1996) and its two sequels. Scream essentially spoofed the slasher genre, but in a violent
manner, by playing on all its clichés and conventions. The opening
sequence is the best thing Craven ever directed, but the ending is
painfully stupid. That isn’t a good launching pad for the two
inferior sequels.
Expectations ran high for Cursed, but it pales next to the modern werewolf classics, An American Werewolf in London
(1981) and The Howling (1981), and the more recent British cult film Dog Soldiers (2002). The storyline is
anemic, and the use of computer-generated werewolves diminishes its impact.
Craven recently shifted gears with the new theatrical release Red Eye. Can he handle a
non-horror thriller?
DVDs scheduled for release Tuesday (Aug. 30): Sahara, Monster-in-Law, The Purifiers, and Ong-bak.
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2005.
