I'm a lucky guy. It's not often that you get to meet your role models. It's not often that they turn out to be just as incredible as you imagined them to be. It's not often that they lived long enough to work for four decades, changing the genre you live and breathe irrevocably three distinct times in three separate decades.
Wes Craven was all that and more. He was a visionary, a teacher, a kind, generous, funny man. And he passed away this week at the ripe old age of 76. His loss is a devastating blow to the horror community, and to cinema at large. Without him, postmodernism would never have found its way to the silver screen. Without him, New Line Cinema - the company that made Lord of the Rings - would be just another footnote in the annals of of failed distribution companies. Without him, 80's horror cinema would never have found its brain.
And without him, I would absolutely not be the person that I am today. Scream was the film that ignited my passion for the genre that I work in, and I owe a massive debt of gratitude to Wes Craven, a debt which I repaid only a meager sliver of with my heartbroken obituary on Arrow in the Head. If you like, please feel free to explore my previous reviews and articles about the man who shaped my work and try to remember him any way you can. Through the good films and the bad, his world, his creativity, and his genius mean the world to me and I hope my massive, still growing oeuvre of admiration can speak that to you more than these simple paragraphs can.
The Last House on the Left 2009 (producer)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (story treatment)
Heard late last night; quite a loss indeed. But he leaves behind a solid legacy.
ReplyDelete