Wes Craven - Love Him or Hate Him?

[E_C]

Last House On The Left and Nightmare On Elm Street are classics but I find him a bit overrated.

I don't hate him or anything I just think a lot of his stuff is average. But fuck he exploded someone's head with a basketball so I'll shut up because that's fucking awesome.

[Cobretti]

We$ Craven been riding the NOES gravy train first class for years. Just like Hooper with TCM. As a filmmaker it's a stretch to argue he's anywhere near being "good".

[E_C]

To be fair the majority of the "masters" are riding their past glories while producing rubbish flicks these days. But Hooper is easily the worst of the bunch.

[Godfatha]

edit: Holy necrothread
The man can make a decent film when the right conditions all come together, but he's missed the mark a lot more lately in my opinion than hit.
It seems when he's working on a low budget with no big names, the end results tend to be more interesting to watch.

[Aurone]

I have mixed feelings on his work. On one hand, he's made some fun films, my favorite has to be "The People Under the Stairs". Like wise, he's had mixed results, I'll admit to likeing Scream when I was younger but I was like 13 when i came out, the time when I latched onto whatever trend was populer. As for his most famouse creation, Freddy, while he's a legendary figure for Horror, he's kind of overrated.

[E_C]

I was a big fan of People Under The Stairs growing up. I don't mind Scream to be honest it's good fun, a little long for a slasher flick but enjoyable enough. New Nightmare is the best Elm St flick aside from the original IMO. It's been years since he's done anything really ground breaking like Last House or Elm St.

[Necromancer]

I think the man is over-rated. His newer stuff has been crap. True that his earlier efforts were ground breaking, but repeated viewings even his older stuff has lost it's edge. Only exception is People Under the Stairs

[damiansrules666]

My Soul to Take..nuf said....

[Splat]

People Under The Stairs

[lostforever]

My Soul to Take..nuf said....

It's a shame he wrote that too.

But I like Wes Craven: The Serpent and the Rainbow, Swamp Thing, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, New Nightmare, Red Eye (Cillian Murphy is a great actor and Rachel McAdams is good as well... doesn't hurt she's quite beautiful too). I don't think Cursed was entirely his fault. A ton of it was reshot later because of the constantly-changing script. What's amazing about that movie is how awful the werewolf looks.

[deathdream68]

I like some of Craven's earlier stuff and I have respect for him. I haven't seen all of his films - I heard that Cursed and My Soul to Take stunk - but I've usually admired his scriptwriting. Even in some of his stuff that didn't quite work - like Deadly Friend and Shocker - I could see hints of inventive ideas. And of course, N.O.E.S. and The People Under The Stairs were great. Scream 1 and 2 were good, too.

[BooBerry]

I agree with most here. He's a bit overrated but not blow my face off amazing. Just as many stinkers as he had hits. In all honesty, the horror "master" who I think has gone downhill mostly over the years is Romero.

[WickedNik]

I love some of his movies, and dislike others. It's like most directors, you can't love everything they do, there's bound to be some pieces of shit. All in all I would say he's alright. Lately his more recent movies have been shit, but since his name is attached I will always give them a watch.

[BornDeadDieAlive]

Abover average, but overhyped

[ThreadKiller]

Him I don't know or care. His films I love, except Freddies new nightmare that was appalling

[mosca]

Overall I'm not much of a fan, but I really dig Serpent and the Rainbow.

[Red]

For the most part I like Craven.

Though being a big fan of the Scream trilogy, more so the first two with 3 being in the distance.

I just finished Scream 4 and all I can do is quote the Angry Video Game Nerd...

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!?!?

Seriously did Williamson actually write this?!?!? Or was he replaced again by Ehren Kruger? I also blame Wes Craven/Dimension for bringing in a lot of no talent hacks like Hayden poopa poop or whatever her name is. She was supposed to be the equivalent I guess of Rose McGowan in the first movie and Hayden came off pretty terrible in almost every scene she was in.

The original cast were pretty mediocre with all of them looking like heavy phone in jobs. I've always felt David Arquette to be a pretty average/below average actor but by god. He really phoned it in here. Neve Campbell looks disinterested this time around and as I said. The 'new cast' by and large were all filler/bad/too many of them to waste time on in comparison to the original trilogy and its character limit.

They tried way too hard to pay homage to the original Scream all the while taking shots at the recent horror crazes over the last decade or so and it really came off like bitter sauce from Wes Craven since he hasn't really done anything even mediocre since probably Red Eye which itself was mediocre. That and the focus on social media while understandable, felt fucking forced and did nothing for the movie.

I wouldn't say Craven is Romero yet but he's gotta be close.

Really the only thing I liked was one line from Neve near the end of the movie and even that was a bit cheesy.

You forgot the first rule of remakes,

Spoiler...

Jill.

Don't fuck with the original!

[Scorpion_#701]

The man has come along and revitalized horror three times since the early 70s. I have to give him props for that. ANOES is one of the reasons why I became a fan of the genre. But, he is like half auteur and half hack. Outside of his commercial and critical successes, he has done a lot of jobbing gigs churning out God-awful shite. Other than his genre defining milestones - TLHOTL, THHE, ANOES & 'Scream' - I can only recommend a handful of his filmography - TSATR, ANN, 'Red Eye' and Scream 2 & 4.

[BurnetRhoades]

For the most part I like Craven.

Though being a big fan of the Scream trilogy, more so the first two with 3 being in the distance.

I just finished Scream 4 and all I can do is quote the Angry Video Game Nerd...

I finally made myself watch this the other day, made myself finish it when every instinct I had was telling me switch it off. I'm gonna have to disagree with you on Hayden, she's adorable, but otherwise it was completely unnecessary and felt like a rehash of a rehash. The self-referential circle-jerk was just so contrived and really unbearable. I shouldn't be feeling embarrassed for those involved while watching a horror movie.

[Primetimeloser]

I really didn't like My Soul To Take but Scream 4 was okay. Like most he has gone downhill. Hopefully he just knows when to walk away from horror.