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Post A: Initial Ideas

Characters:

All characters will be named after horror directors, as a sort of meta in-joke (much like when Tatum Riley says “You sound just like a Wes Carpenter film”)

Jennifer – Named after Jennifer Kent (The Babadook, 2014); this will be our protagonist after Karyn is murdered. She will be the final girl in my short film. She is strong, smart, capable, and doesn’t fall over things.

Karyn – Named after Karyn Kusama (The Invitation, 2015); after walking home from her boyfriend’s (after having sex), she hears him scream and runs back to find him dead, only to be killed herself. This is me using the red herring device Mr. Craven makes regular use of.

Sam – Named after Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, 1983); he is just a token character and part of the friend group; he will die.

Eli – Named after Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, 2002); he is dating Karyn.

The Killer - We don’t know who they are .

Messages, Values, and Themes:

I was watching a Cracked podcast (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzkOPBrdx0) about murderers and the like, one of which was Jean-Claude Roman, a man who pretended to be a medical doctor whilst actually conning people out of their money to afford his 18 year-long lie. When he came close to being discovered, he killed his wife and children. Now, the fear from this scenario doesn’t necessarily come from the fact that he was lying and was truly a monster, the fundamental fear in this situation, and any situation, comes from the not knowing. We take comfort in knowing the face of evil, it provides us with more knowledge to tackle an issue. So why not exploit that aspect in my movie? It seems for the longest time now that horror movies (particularly slashers) end with an expositional monologue detailing the evil’s motives; we see this in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. There is a direct correlation between the amount of information we know about Freddy and how intimidating he is. By the end of the original series we know everything about him, and he’s more of a pop culture icon no one is afraid of than an intimidating force of evil. Compare this to The Last House on the Left; we don’t understand the motivation behind the antagonists, we just know that they’re the bad guys and that worries us. It scares us that people could naturally that evil. Considering Wes’ favourability towards the subversion of audience expectations I feel it justified that I reveal no information about my murderer in an age where it is the norm.

Another aspect I wish to touch upon in my film relates to interior meaning. I would like to touch upon mental illness, which is worryingly present in teenagers in modern society. I needn’t look at statistics either, I can just look at my peers and see it. I would like to have my killer be a representation of a mental illness or a topic surrounding it (E.g. suicide) but it must be done in a way which takes a back seat to what is happening on screen, much like the Vietnam commentary in Wes’ debut film; it cannot be the central plot-line of the movie.

Basic Plot:

We follow Jen, a middle class white female in college as she suffers the trials and tribulations of being faces with a mysterious murderer who plagues the town, stealing people’s eyes after he murders them.

Micro-technical Features:

Cinematography:

Long takes/tracking shots, such as the opening scene of Scream

The shadow of the killer on the wall, much like Freddy is portrayed in A Nightmare on Elm Street

A close up of the murder weapon, much like that of Freddy’s glove

Obscured deaths/body’s

Shots from behind the protagonist, akin to the one in Scream which pays homage to POV shots of the killers.

Mise-en-Scene:

Memorable weapon and attire for the killer

Booby traps, which I learned Wes uses in at least three of his films (NoES, Last House on the Left, and The People Under the Stairs).

References to other films, such as on the TV or on posters, in the film. Obviously like Scream but also like in NoES, which features Evil Dead on the TV because Raimi featured a The Hills Have Eyes poster in it.

If I am to go down the road of discussing mental health issues, then perhaps it would be good to have some medication in certain shots.

Editing:

Long/Tracking shots

Long shots of uncomfortable moments, like the Mari’s rape scene

Jumpscares – a common horror convention used in all my focal films. This is also accounts for false jumpscares (E.g. It was just a cat making noise and jumping out of nowhere)

Montage: These are both used for showing booby traps in my first two focal films so perhaps I will use it in the same manner.

Sound:

Use of time-appropriate music like all of my focal films do; probably some upbeat indie-folk.

Possibly accented sound effects, like the principal’s scissors on Scream or Freddy’s gloves in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

I would like to compose a piece of music for my short film similar to NoES. I didn’t mention the music in my notes because I know Wes had nothing to do with it, but the music is heavily chromatic and I learned in Never Sleep Again that the main theme is in 7/8, an unusual time signature, which causes the viewer to feel strange.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-u9YDDrTFo - This video taught me that playing a low note and high note makes the listener want to fill in the gaps, because a low sound (lion) signifies danger, while a high note signifies something innocent and small (kitten). I can also use cognitive dissonance by applying something innocent (lullaby) over a sinister image - this was utilised by Nightmare on Elm Street.

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Post U: Creative Investigation - Final Draft

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Post T: Creative Investigation - First Draft

Essay – Is Wes Craven an Auteur?

In this essay I will be evaluating whether Wes Craven is an auteur by analysing his works in accordance to the late Andrew Sarris’ three premises: technical competence, distinguishable personality, and interior meaning. The three works I will be analysing are: his debut film The Last House on the Right (1972), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Scream (1996).

Firstly, I will be evaluating the use technical features used in my three focal films as technical competence is the first premise of Sarris’ of auteur theory. This includes the microtechnical and narrative features used by a director in a film to make it personal to their style. It is the opinion of many Craven fans that the man has re-invented the horror genre. According to Eli Roth in the documentary Scream: The Inside Story, “Wes Craven has influenced horror in the 70s, with ‘Last House On the Left’, in the 80s, with ‘Nightmare on Elm Street. You cannot overstate how incredibly influential Wes Craven has been to the horror genre and has continually made horror movies for different generations that feel so contemporary”. Such praise from a contemporary horror director indicates the influence Craven has had in the genre. After all, without predecessors like Wes to develop the genre what could contemporary directors work on?

‘The Final Girl’: “the one girl in the film who fights, resist and survives the killer-monster. The final girl…dominates the action, and is thus masculinised. [In] the slasher film like…Nightmare on Elm Street [1984] …the final girl becomes her own saviour.” - Christine Gledhill in The Cinema Book. Wes has used this common horror trope in several different ways across my three films. In The Last House on the Left, it appears Wes will use this technique, until he kills off his two female leads, a sort of red herring. As Jon Towlson’s Subversive Horror Cinema puts it, “Part of the film’s power is to create empathy between the audience and the villains, which makes it impossible for us to view them - despite their sadism - as inhuman. Conversely, the film shows the process by which normally empathetic people, such as the Collingwoods, can demonize others in order to justify acts of vengeance.”. This technique had not been used in a film before, so for Wes to use it in his debut film shows he is a strong contender for auteur status. He uses this same red herring again in A Nightmare on Elm Street, having Tina die early on only to be replaced with Nancy. However, as the Renegade Cut describes it in his video in which he compares the movie against the horror tropes listed in Carol J. Clover’s: Men, Women, and Chainsaws, “Nancy is the final girl, but she is not only the final girl. She is the character with whom the audience identifies”, in which he points out that Nancy is more than a trope, as many films have utilized female leads; she is a 3D character with relationships with people who are not just people in the film but actual characters with real connections. And finally, the technique is used again in Scream when we believe, then megastar, Drew Barrymore would be the protagonist, only for her to be tormented and killed in the opening 13 minutes of the film. The use of the trope does not end there, however. During Sid’s phone call with the murderer she says: “What’s the point? They’re all the same; some stupid killer chasing some big-breast who can’t act, running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. It’s insulting!” This is a reference to The Final Girl, a common horror trope. What makes this better is that when she is chased she does this herself. Obviously an argument which rises from discussing the use of tropes is that Wes is just a genre director, as opposed to a genre director, but Robin Wood argues, in an analysis of It’s a Wonderful Life and Shadow of a Doubt taken from Film Genre Reader III, “No critic, obviously, can be free from a structure of a structure of values, nor can he or she afford to withdraw from the struggles and tensions of living to some position of “aesthetic” contemplation”. This tells me that, despite being an individual filmmaker, people are still confined to some aspects of the process such as genre, indicating that Wes may still be a contender for auteur status.

Much of the evidence I am about to use was obtained through the careful eye of the creator of this source - Cristobal Olguin. (2017). Scream - Manipulating Expectations. He mentions how Wes creates tension to play with our expectations through the use of framing as she opens the closet after walking down the stairs, as it offers a prime opportunity for a jump scare, but does not act upon it. Furthermore, the camerawork of the shot following her to the couch (having the camera follow her) pays homage to the POV shot of killers popularised by other slasher movies.

Another use of misdirection is how the shot of Ghostface’s shoes in the bathroom stall is emphasised because he is wearing the same type of shoes as the police chief, which were emphasised while he put out a cigarette in the station.

The author states that the film sets Billy up as the murderer in the first 30 minutes, but uses other micro-technical techniques to make you question whether he is. For example, the use of emphasised scissor noises when the principal picks a pair up, the way Dewey holds up his flashlight to his face after asking to go for a walk alone with Gale Weathers in the forest. Billy’s position as the killer is disguised as a red herring but there is plenty of evidence to suggest he is from the start. When Billy is talking about his and Sid’s relationship a low angle is used and ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ is playing in the background, which is appropriate as Ghostface dawns a Father Death costume. The same is true for Stu. After Stu jokingly says, “I’ll be right back”, Randy responds with “You see, you push the laws, you end up dead. Okay. I’ll see you in the kitchen with a knife”. The next time we see Randy alone, Ghostface is creeping up behind him after exiting the kitchen, holding a knife. Another use of clever subtlety is how Billy and Stu are first seen wearing similar grey tops; grey is an unemotional colour thus conveying that they have been in cahoots since the beginning. When Billy enters through Sid’s window after she is chased for the first time, he enters wearing the same grey sweatshirt and a black jacket, accompanied by low-key under-lighting, which is a common technique used to portray antagonists. To mislead the audience into believing that Billy is innocent, he wears white tops (signifies innocence) and blue (conveys trust and loyalty) over-shirts, much like he did when we first saw him. This all stands as evidence to suggest that, despite Craven not writing the film, his use of microtechnical features and directing still present him as a contender for auteur status.

Distinguishable Personality is the second of Sarris’ premises and is important when considering what makes an auteur’s films individual and easy to separate from the rest.

Despite Wes’ use of microtechnical features and interior meaning in his debut film, I feel it important to mention that the film itself is not very highly rated. “The Last House on the Left was Craven’s debut film, it’s a notorious and quite shocking film but one that’s not actually that good. The film’s biggest flaw is the woeful misjudgement of the tone as the film’s jumps from the torture and humiliation of the girls in the woods to a pair of bumbling cops falling off a truck that’s full of clucking chickens”. I think it is important for a director to be able to balance social commentary with appropriate filmmaking techniques, which makes me question Craven’s auteurship. Conversely, according to Sarris: “directors, even auteurs, do not always run true form”, implying that an auteur will not always make a great film. Another factor to consider about the film is that, according to The Mary Sue, “the film is an acknowledged loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring”. I see no reason for this to interfere with Wes’ status as auteur, however, as established auteurs, such as Kubrick and Hitchcock, have adapted pre-sold works into films. Considering it is listed as a “loose remake” it appears that there are barely any similarities due to Craven projecting his own personality onto the film.

Another great example to analyse is Wes’ work on A Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels. The film has spawned 6 sequels, two spin-offs, and a remake. Wes worked on 3 of these: the original, Dream Warriors, and Wes Craven’s: New Nightmare. Firstly, it is important to discuss his work on the original, or rather the influence others had on him. According to Never Sleep Again, the producer, Robert Shaye, was important to the ending to leave audiences with a hook so sequels would be in the forefront of people’s minds. This ending was extremely confusing and ambiguous to many, and detracted with the empowering ending which left Nancy a hero. Furthermore, he sold the rights to New Line Cinema, just so they could afford the budget for the first film, which, in the eyes of many (myself included), derailed the series, causing the search for artistic value to be replaced with money-potential, which has led to the poor critical reception of many sequels. All except the ones that Wes was involved with. After the failure of the sequel, Wes was brought back on to refocus the series. This tells me that Wes can be considered an auteur as the universe which he created could not work without him. However, his script was altered by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont, who are now established horror writers. According to Russell, the script was originally a lot darker until they altered it, but this upset Craven as, according to him, “The fact that they made Freddy more and more jokey took him farther and farther away from that child-molester thing that kind of sticks to you in a way you don’t like”. Freddy was made to be more jokey and full of quips later in the series, which admittedly made him less threatening. In fact, it became apparent that the series started aiming their films at kids, thus making him even less imposing. This further supports my point that without Wes’ guidance, the franchise quickly declined in quality. This implies that his exposure to the horror genre for so long has made him, at the very least, a strong contender for status as a genre director.

Finally, I must comment on the fact that Wes did not actually write Scream; Kevin Williamson did. This creates quite a dilemma as André Bazin argues that “a director must at least co-write their films to be considered an auteur”. However, it could be argued that Craven was a perfect choice for the post-modern film due to his experience on the 7th installation of the Nightmare series, Wes Craven’s: New Nightmare. This film was extremely meta in its approach, having the cast members of the original film play themselves in a film ending with the “script within a script” trick. According to Paul Wells, as read in The Horror Film, Scream is undoubtedly a postmodern horror film, however, to him he feels strongly that by becoming self-referential post-modern horrors “abdicate [their] political responsibility to reflect upon, critique, or challenge its surrounding (and non-generic) culture”. If considered true, this contrasts very much with Wes’ earlier style, instead “Becoming preoccupied with genre conventions rather than external anxieties”. However, in Scream: The Inside Story, Wes specifically stated that we need to “stop externalising our anxieties”, and to look at ourselves.

Interior meaning is important when comparing auteurship by Sarris’ premises, as the depth at which microtechnical and narrative techniques are utilised by a director to convey meaning elevates a movie beyond simple entertainment.

Sexuality - There are several instances of sexuality present in my focal films, one of which is the use of on and off-screen rape in The Last House on the Left which is most likely involved due to the influence of William Cassey’s behaviour during the My Lai Massacre, in which he murdered 22 people and raped several women, as many of my sources have stated the subtle social commentary on the Vietnam, which I will expand upon shortly. Another theme in the film is puberty is mentioned in the film. When discussing the “I’ve changed this winter [...] My breasts filled out!”. This is important because it reoccurs in all three of my focal films, showing it to be of important to Wes as a director also present in A Nightmare on Elm Street. As the Cracked article Why the Nightmare on Elm Street Series was Deeper than You Thought points out, “The viewer is even present for a scene representative of Nancy's first period. As Nancy lays in the bathtub asleep, Freddy's clawed glove breaks through the surface of the water between her open legs. This isn't just one of the most intense scenes in horror history. It's clear foreshadowing of all the trouble that's about to happen between your legs.”.

The article rightly points out that Tina is the “You’re not cool unless you’re making out” friend (i.e. she is sexually active and is trying to pass that behaviour on to her less-developed friends), which is amplified by her loud coitus session with Rod contrasting with Nancy, who sleeps in a separate room to her boyfriend, with a crucifix above her door. The article also mentions how Freddy’s head poking through the wall is akin to a condom, signifying the looming presence of sexuality. More so, the use of the phone with the tongue emerging from it is significant as it Nancy reacts to it with disgust, “exactly how everyone still trying to understand puberty reacts when they first hear about tongue kissing”. It also ties in to the use of dangerous sexuality in the film, which is Freddy and his sexual urges.

Doctor Brickman, in her book New American Teenagers, contributes to this idea as “Nancy and Glen, who never consummate their relationship despite plenty of opportunity, can be understood better as brother and sister than as boyfriend and girlfriend, which, of course, would not preclude sexual desire”. Much like with his debut film Wes explores dangerous sexuality as well. According to a Craven in Never Sleep Again, they were required to “soft-pedal the sexuality” (i.e. Freddy’s sexual preference for children) of the movie due to multiple paedophile cases occurring at the time. Later, Heather Lagnenkampf states: “Nancy and Freddy’s relationship has always had a sexual component”, which she said about ‘Lust’ being written on the wall in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Finally, in Scream, sexuality is used more like a subversion of the horror genre than a thematic motif. When Randy lists the fact that “You can never have sex” as a rule to surviving horror, shots of Sidney and Billy having sex quickly follow this line.

One frequently occurring use of interior meaning relates to the use of social commentary in his films. This is the example that makes me want to consider Wes as an auteur. When reading Jon Towlson’s Subversive Horror, I found that this film has several instances of subtle social commentary relating to Vietnam, mainly the US’ reaction at the time. He wanted to show them the atrocities of the Vietnam war using the on-screen rapes and murders committed by William Casey. Not only that but he was heavily inspired by two photos which came out of the war: the image of children running after being struck by Napalm (which inspired Mari’s rape because of how disgustingly intimate it was) and the 1968 photo of the execution of Vietcong soldier Nguyem Van Lem - “That methodical execution style was translated right to the shooting of Mari at the lake”.

“Although the Vietnam footage was censored, Craven felt that it was candid about violence in a way that Hollywood cinema was not. Craven […] objected on moral grounds to the sanitization of violence by Hollywood, and saw it as part of the ideological apparatus that enabled the State to condition Soldiers for warfare. “The more you can know about violence, the more you can walk away from it and not be attracted to it.” Craven stated in 1999.”. I find this truly fascinating as Craven took the position he had to elevate his film above simply “a horror movie”. Lastly, So The Theory Goes states: “One of the more prominent themes within Craven’s work is that of the psychological idea of the villain. His films tend to subvert the idea of the villain/hero leading the viewer to believe they are completely aware of a situation before abruptly leading us in a different direction. One of the clearest examples of this can be seen in his directorial debut The Last House on the Left where our initial antagonists are Krug et al. However, by the end of the film, we see Mari Collingwood’s parents take on this role.”. This is obviously very representative of the sort of message Wes was trying to send to the American audience.

This established a common theme in Wes’ films: incorporating real-life inspiration into his films. Through Never Sleep Again, we learn that the story of the film was inspired by Asian teens dying without observable cause in their sleep. Apparently, they refused to go to sleep but their parents refused to listen and sent them to sleep anyway by using sleeping pills, a common piece of mise-en-scene used in the franchise. This attitude is carried over into those of the parents in the franchise. What’s more, Freddy was based around a man who persistently stared at Wes through his bedroom window one night. Wes described him as “enjoying putting fear into him”. It seems this was well translated into the film as Freddy has more of a quirky attitude and plays with his victims. He was named after Wes’ childhood bully, and his jumper came from an article Wes read stating that those two colours were the hardest for the human eye to pair together. Finally, the glove was based on a claw of a predatory animal as it is significant. While Wes was inspired by real-life events, he did have to adapt them using his vision as a director/screenplay writer. To even further support my point, Scream was based on the infamous Florida Killer. Between November 1989 and August 1990 Danny Rowling murdered 5 students and was dubbed the Gainesville Ripper. However, it is very important to note that Wes Craven did not write Scream, Kevin Williamson was responsible for that.

Is Wes an auteur?

To conclude, I must say that I do not believe him to be an auteur. He may pass Sarris’ premises, but only on a basic level. As So The Theory Goes states in their article Auteur: Wes Craven, “Wes Craven’s general style of filmmaking is visually similar to a number of horror film-makers. The conventional use of camera angles, editing to create scares and using lighting to enhance a scene are all evident within his work. However, […] his understanding of the genre and the conventions have allowed him to use them to his advantage”. Instead, I would consider him a horror genre auteur, having only one exception from the trend: the 1999 musical-drama Music of the Heart, as well as what Alexandre Astruc describes as a ‘camera-stylo’, which defines a director who uses the camera to tell a story. We have seen from analysing Craven’s work against Sarris’ first premise that he is technically competent for the most part, but nothing has ever stood out in his filmography that we haven’t seen before.

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janvba2film-blog · 7 years

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Post S: Essay Abstract

Essay Abstract

Hypothesis: Is Wes Craven an Auteur?

Subtopic 1: The themes and techniques of Wes’ used in The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street - important to Auteur theory

Subtopic 2: Wes Craven’s inspiration from real life and the messages and values in his films

Subtopic 3: Craven as a genre director

Subtopic 1: It is important for me to tackle this as discovering recurring motifs and themes in his films are essential in attempting to define him as an auteur. If they are present, and are unique to him, then he may be up for consideration

Point 1: Sexuality - There are several instances of sexuality present in my focal films, from the use of on/off screen rape in his debut film, as well as the mention of puberty “I’ve changed this winter [...] My breasts filled out!”. This is also present in A Nightmare on Elm Street. As a Cracked article discussing the themes of the film points out, “The viewer is even present for a scene representative of Nancy's first period. As Nancy lays in the bathtub asleep, Freddy's clawed glove breaks through the surface of the water between her open legs. This isn't just one of the most intense scenes in horror history. It's clear foreshadowing of all the trouble that's about to happen between your legs.”. Doctor Brickman also contributes to this point as “Nancy and Glen, who never consummate their relationship despite plenty of opportunity, can be understood better as brother and sister than as boyfriend and girlfriend, which, of course, would not preclude sexual desire”. It’s not just puberty either, according to a cast member they were required to “soft-pedal the sexuality” of the movie due to all of the paedophile cases going on at the time. According to Heather Lagnenkampf “Nancy and Freddy’s relationship has always had a sexual component”, which she said in reference to ‘Lust’ being written on the wall in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Finally, in Scream, Randy lists the fact that “You can never have sex” as a rule to surviving horror, while shots of Sidney and Billy having sex quickly follow this line.

Point 2: Subversion of Horror - ‘The Final Girl’: the one girl in the film who fights, resist and survives the killer-monster. The final girl…dominates the action, and is thus masculinised. [In] the slasher film like…Nightmare on Elm Street [1984]…the final girl becomes her own saviour. - Christine Gledhill, The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, Ed. Pam Cook & Mieke Bernink, Bfi Publishing, 1999. Linking back to subversion of horror, in The Last House on the Left, it seems as though Wes will use this technique, until he kills off his two female leads, a sort of red herring, as discussed previously. A Nightmare On Elm Street uses this convention, however, as the Renegade Cut describes it, “Nancy is the final girl, but she is not only the final girl. She is the character with whom the audience identifies”, in which he points out that Nancy is more than a trope, as many films have utilized female leads, but she is a 3D character, with relationships with people who are not just people in the film but actual characters with real connections. And finally, there is a complete subversion of this trope in Scream. There is even mention to it during Sid’s phone call with the murderer. “What’s the point? They’re all the same; some stupid killer chasing some big-breast who can’t act, running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. It’s insulting!” This is a reference to The Final Girl, a common horror trope. What makes this better is that when she is chased she does this herself.

Subtopic 2: Something I found in my research was how much Wes took inspiration from real life. I feel this is important to touch upon if I am to understand if he is an auteur as the messages and values they repeat through their films can define their auteur status. However, at the same time, it is important to see whether or not the use of real life inspiration is communicated through similar narrative beats (copying) or if it implemented through subtle social commentary.

The Last House on the Left: This is the example that makes me want to consider Wes as an auteur. When reading Jon Towlson’s I found that this film has several instances of subtle social commentary relating to Vietnam, mainly the US’ reaction at the time. He wanted to show them the atrocities of the Vietnam war through the use of on-screen rapes and murders, especially after hearing about William Calley’s murder of 22 people in My Lai. Not only that but he was heavily inspired by two photos which came out of the war: the image of children running after being struck by Napalm (which inspired Mari’s rape because of how disgustingly intimate it was) and the 1968 photo of the execution of Vietcong soldier Nguyem Van Lem - “That methodical execution style was translated right to the shooting of Mari at the lake”.

“Although the Vietnam footage was censored, Craven felt that it was candid about violence in a way that Hollywood cinema was not. Craven […] objected on moral grounds to the sanitization of violence by Hollywood, and saw it as part of the ideological apparatus that enabled the State to condition Soldiers for warfare. “The more you can know about violence, the more you can walk away from it and not be attracted to it.” Craven stated in 1999.”. I find this truly fascinating as Craven took the position he had to elevate his film above simply “a horror movie”. However, it is important to note that the film does not hold up from a filmmaking perspective. To quote Myerla’s Movie Reviews, “The film’s biggest flaw is the woeful misjudgement of the tone as the film’s jumps from the torture and humiliation of the girls in the woods to a pair of bumbling cops falling off a truck that’s full of clucking chickens”. I think it is important for a director to be able to balance social commentary with appropriate filmmaking techniques which makes me question Craven’s auteurship.Lastly, So The Theory Goes states: “One of the more prominent themes within Craven’s work is that of the psychological idea of the villain. His films tend to subvert the idea of the villain/hero leading the viewer to believe they are completely aware of a situation before abruptly leading us in a different direction. One of the clearest examples of this can be seen in his directorial debut The Last House on the Left where our initial antagonists are Krug et al. However, by the end of the film, we see Mari Collingwood’s parents take on this role.”. This is obviously very representative of the sort of message Wes was trying to send to the American audience.

A Nightmare On Elm Street: Through Never Sleep Again, we learn that the story of the film was inspired by Asian teens dying without noticeable cause in their sleep. Apparently they refused to go to sleep but their parents refused to listen and sent them to sleep anyway, which is carried over into the attitudes of most parents in the franchise. Freddy was based around a man who persistently stared at Wes through his bedroom window one night. Wes described him as “enjoying putting fear into him”. It seems this was well translated into the film as Freddy has more of a quirky attitude and plays with his victims. He was named after Wes’ childhood bully, and his jumper came from an article Wes read stating that those two colours were the hardest for the human eye to pair together. Finally, the glove was based on a claw of a predatory animal as it is significant. While Wes was inspired by real-life events, he did actually have to adapt them using his vision as a director/screenplay writer.

Scream: There’s not a lot to comment on in Scream apart from the fact that it was based on the infamous florida killer. Between November 1989 and August 1990 Danny Rowling murdered 5 students and was dubbed the Gainsville Ripper. I think it is also important to note that Wes Craven did not write Scream, Kevin Williamson

Subtopic 3: This, the conclusive section of my essay, is the discussion I set out to focus on. If I conclude that he is not an auteur, from my previous points, then he may be a genre director, although I will be balancing my discussion of the two viewpoints.

To quote Robin Wood, “No critic, obviously, can be free from a structure of values, nor can he or she afford to withdraw from the struggles and tensions of living to some position of “aesthetic” contemplation.” - This tells me that, despite being an individual filmmaker in their own right, people are still confined to some aspects of the process, such as genre. So even though Wes directs mainly horror, much like how Hitchcock mainly directed suspense thrillers, he may still be considered an auteur. However I think his lack of filmmaking technique makes him more of a genre director, as his style relates more to narrative structure and social commentary.

To prepare for my essay, I must find a way to better utilize my quotes and more carefully construct my paragraphs so they are concise, yet effective. There are also many more quotes and sources I must make mention of. I should also watch ‘Virgin Spring’ by Bergman to see if I can draw comparisons between that and Wes’ debut film.

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Post R: Collated Quotes

Never Sleep Again:

“Speaks to these adolescent fears of not having control“ + “you can only trust other kids of your own age“ - These delve into the messages and values of the film, thus relating to themes Craven may repeat in films.

“Universal theme of the bad dream, the nightmare, and the boogeyman“ - Robert Englund. Once again exploring thematic motifs of the film. This is important when approaching the topic of auteur as the theory suggests a director will repeat behaviours and themes across their work to enforce that they are an individual when it comes to filmmaking.

“I wanted to do a strong, female lead who didn’t trip over“ - Wes Craven: this is important as it is one of the classic horror tropes, and there is a line in Scream which directly relates to this. “The survivor girl, one of the classic leading ingredients in contemporary horror“ - Englund: this supports the point but the phrasing brings into question.

“A lot of monsters of the past were misunderstood - they were quite innocent - Freddy was not innocent” - This quote is significant because it brings Wes’ contribution to horror into perspective.

Apparently they had to “soft-pedal” a lot of the sexuality (such as the paedophilic aspect) in the film to get it passed the MPAA and audiences, showing me that sexuality is definitely a strong theme in Wes’ work.

[In regards to NoES 3: Dream Warriors]

“Using a sexuality trap” (in reference to Joey’s trap). This may establish a section on theme.

“If an original character is in the sequel usually they don’t last until the end because they either aged, or the studio would feel like “Now we have to have new characters”” – Craven. He believes this to be a feature of his direction, as an auteur (not self-professed).

“The fact that they made Freddy more and more jokey took him farther and farther away from that child-molester thing that kind of sticks to you in a way you don’t like” – Craven; Wes was not in control and so the character changed

[In regards to New Nightmare]

“Wes has a very narrow mind in the sense that “this is what will scare people” and a very broad mind to “extract”” – Mark Irwin (cinematographer). Commentary of Craven’s style.

“Nancy and Freddy’s relationship has always had a sexual component” – Langenkampf in reference to ‘Lust’ on the wall. Possible link to the topic of theme, in particular sexuality.

“I think it was the pre-cursor to, like, ‘Scream’. ‘New Nightmare’ was made for the people who made the film; kind of adults. ‘Scream’ was made for the audience who watches the film, and those were the central characters.”. An argument against Craven not being an auteur in regards to ‘Scream’, as Craven already had experience in this sort of field.

The Film Genre Book

“whilst drawing inspiration from influential films such as Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Virgin Spring’“ - This is not the first time Craven’s name has been attached to this director. He is obviously inspired by him, so I must explore how much influence has been taken in regards to auteur theory.

“His films…establish editor/writer/director Craven as an auteur…whose works tested both the censors and audience sensibilities and expectations of the horror genre.” - It is often mentioned that Craven reshapes horror and pushes its limits, perhaps it is not completely techniques that provide him with the titles and more to do with his attitude towards horror.

The book notes how previous horror monsters were a victim of circumstance, or had some sympathetic angle to them, but Freddy does not - “he is ugly inside and out”- yet he is a cultural icon. This not only links to Wes’ innovation but also the public’s contribution to Freddy and the series. “No longer was there a clear delineation between good and bad [after the 70s]. If we could no longer trust our leaders then why not cheer for Freddy?”

‘The Final Girl’: the one girl in the film who fights, resist and survives the killer-monster. The final girl…dominates the action, and is thus masculinised. [In] the slasher film like…Nightmare on Elm Street [1984]…the final girl becomes her own saviour. - Christine Gledhill, The Cinema Book 2nd Edition, Ed. Pam Cook & Mieke Bernink, Bfi Publishing, 1999. This is interesting because it raises the question of if Wes took inspiration or inspired it with his debut film.

Scream: The Inside Story

“We took every single horror rule and broke it.” – Wes Craven

“I think what makes the ‘Scream’ films original is the fact that they look at themselves and they look at the horror genre itself, and I think that was a very new concept” – Neve Campbell (Sydney Prescott)

“It was very, very acutely of aware of the genre and kind of slightly announcing to the audience, kind of: ‘We know what you’re thinking and you better hide under your seats because we’re gonna do something different’.” – Wes Craven

“Scream was so brilliant and so smart and funny, but it took the deaths and the scares very, very seriously” - Eli Roth, a new-gen horror director; “It was finally a movie where the characters had seen other movies”. Possible insight into fusion genre (Horror+comedy) or Craven taking horror itself in a new direction.

“One of the most successful elements of the movie was the mystery element, and ‘Scream’ taps into that, and it taps into that beautifully.” - Patrick Lussier. This is important in the exploration of genre as this delves into genre fusion.

Wes craven wasn’t interested for a while. He didn’t want to do “another slasher movie”. This just goes to show the power of ‘Scream’s misdirection and genre-bending. Although it was only because Drew Barrymore came on-board.

“Wes Craven has influenced horror in the 70s, with ‘Last House On the Left’, in the 80s, with ‘Nightmare on Elm Street. You cannot overstate how incredibly influential Wes Craven has been to the horror genre and has continually made horror movies for different generations that feel so contemporary.” - Eli Roth. Such praise from a contemporary horror director indicates the influence Craven has had in the genre. However, Wes did not write Scream, so can he truly be given credit?

Subversive Horror Cinema

As is mentioned in ‘The American Nightmare’, Wes’ disgust for the image of children in Vietnam running after being exposed to Napalm inspired the forced stripping and raping of Mari. Another example of Vietnam inspiring Craven was the 1968 image of the execution of Vietcong soldier Nguyem Van Lem - “That methodical execution style was translated right to the shooting of Mari at the lake”. This is important to me because it makes me wonder if Wes is concerned less with auteurship and more about testing his audiences.

“The Last House on the Left arose partly from the desire, on Craven’s part, to capture the same kind of raw reality as the documentary footage coming out of Vietnam that Craven suspected was being censored” + “It was a time when all the rules were out the window, when everybody was trying to break the hold of censorship“ - Craven relayed to David A Szulkin. This is reflected in the graphic nature of the scenes and truly speaks about what Craven intended his film to do.

“Part of the film’s power is to create empathy between the audience and the villains, which makes it impossible for us to view them - despite their sadism - as inhuman. Conversely, the film shows the process by which normally empathetic people, such as the Collingwoods, can demonize others in order to justify acts of vengeance. The film examines the way in which a nation casts its enemies as “other” in order to vindicate warfare; and at the same time, in creating empathy between the audience and the villains […], Last House on the Left reflects what Adam Lowenstein describes as the tendency of 1970s counterculture to identify with the demonized other”

The Horror Film

According to Paul Wells, ‘Scream’ is undoubtedly a postmodern horror film, however, to him he feels strongly that by becoming self-referential po-mo horrors “abdicate [their] political responsibility to reflect upon, critique, or challenge its surrounding (and non-generic) culture”. If this it true it contrasts very much with Wes’ earlier style. “Becoming preoccupied with genre conventions rather than external anxieties“. This contrasts with what Wes said - “we need to stop externalizing our anxieties and take a look within ourselves“

Wells goes on to complain that through the safety of franchising (or ‘MacDonaldisation’ as George Ritzer (1998) puts it) horror films lose there socio-cultural vitality and relevance. This is relevant as two of my films spawned sequels, and this is one of the valid comments of this approach.

He also mentions that ‘Scream’ is “sub-Frankensteinian” as its trivialisation of death through conventional arcs cause it to lose its meaning; it is now just a game for the initiated, thus causing it to lose all significance and appeal to the social anxieties of a wider audience. An example of this is Randy’s speech, or the fact that ‘Halloween’ plays during the final murder-spree.

Wes Craven’s Influence in Making the Horror Genre Subversive

“The horror genre, Stephen King once wrote, is innately reactionary, preying on fears of the evil outsider entering communities and lives uninvited. At first, that seems like exactly what Craven is doing here. Krug, with his charisma and hippie-ish affectations, is an obvious stand in for Charles Manson, who’d been convicted only a year before (although weirdly enough, the film is an acknowledged loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring). “Mothers, keep your girls at home,” to quote Nick Cave, appears to be Craven’s message.” - This contains a useful quote by Stephen King, a horror master in the eyes of many, which may be useful when writing about the genre and comparing it to Craven’s style. Not only that but there is a mention of Charles Manson, once again proving that he likes to take inspiration from real-life events. And finally, it makes mention of one of Wes’ key inspirations - Ingmar Bergman’s work - even mentioning that it is a “loose remake”.

“This sounds like it could be part of the same reactionary fantasy—the conservative traditional family unit meting out justice to that which violated it—but the way Craven shoots it, it’s not remotely triumphant.Instead, it’s the same sickness that their victims represent infecting them.” - This is very much related to Wes’ social commentary on the Vietnam war, in which there was no clear delineation between good and bad and there was all-out savagery on both sides. The article also argues that Craven speaking out against “right-wing vengeance that had taken hold in Death Wish-era America— [which] was almost completely lost in the shuffle” was later explored in the Nightmare series through the fact that the ‘wholesome’ neighbourhood burning a paedophilic child murderer alive was somehow okay. This also relates to Subversive Horror Cinema.

Origins of an auteur - Wes Craven

“Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left was released at a time film directors really began to push the boundaries to what you can show on screen. Much like what Wes Craven did in The Last House on the Left, Sam Peckinpah pushed the censors to braking point with a realistic depiction of sexual and violent content in his sadistic and controversial 1971 film Straw Dogs (which could so easily be mistaken as a Wes Craven film).” - Was this a style start by or adopted by Craven? Was he a product of the times?

“The Last House on the Left was Craven’s debut film, it’s a notorious and quite shocking film but one that’s not actually that good. The film’s biggest flaw is the woeful misjudgement of the tone as the film’s jumps from the torture and humiliation of the girls in the woods to a pair of bumbling cops falling off a truck that’s full of clucking chickens. The film was very low budget (about $78,000) and it shows with its crap sound and visual quality, but there are moments that would be deeply horrifying if Craven didn’t misjudge the tone of the film as much as he did.” - Wes came to become an iconic director for the genre of horror, showing that he had indeed learned from his mistakes, and as he went on he found the balance between comedy and horror showing that this is a recurring technique of his (important for genre), but this brings into question his auteur status when looking at his later films; the filmmaking must be of a higher tier than what is standard, which I fear for in regards to Wes.

“Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984 ($1.8million budget) which, like many films of that era (such as Friday the 13th and Halloween), dealt with sexual promiscuity in teenagers.” - Was Wes’ choice of subject a product of the times or did he already have something in mind beforehand?

“One underlying theme between all three movies is how middle class American suburbia deal with savagery.” - This is an important aspect to analyse in the case of whether or not he is an auteur. {…} “Once again, Scream is set in middle class America and once again deals with violence and once again focuses on a female character under attack by her male attacker”

The Cinema Book

“There have been important variations in the nature and volume of teenpics since the early 1960s. I the late 1960s and early 1970s, ‘youth movies’ rew much more on an imagine of counter-cultural rebellion than on an image of irresponsible juvenile delinquency. And as ‘the boundaries between counter (film) culture and mainstream (film) culture all but evaporated, (Doherty, 1986, p. 233), films like The Graduate (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces(1970) mounted serious critiques of the parent culture. Following a crisis wrought by overproduction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in the wake of a counter-culture in general decline, the industry resumed production of teenpicks in regular numbers in the late 1970s and 1980s. Some like Halloween (1978), Night of the Comet (1984) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), were low-budget horror, sci-fi and slasher films.” - Obviously I will Paraphrase this, but the basic idea is a question of whether or not Wes’ decisions for his film were of his own or a product of the time. This idea of Wes being inspired by the times is very obviously a key argument I can make in my essay as this idea is present in this source especially. I did not dedicate an entire post to this because I could only find one useful quote in the book.

So the Theory Goes - Autuer: Wes Craven

“Craven almost always worked within horror, with the only real exception being the musical drama Music of the Heart. However, his use of horror is always combined with a range of subgenres which can include thriller, fantasy, mystery or even some elements of comedy.” - This article seems to suggest that he is more of a genre director from my understanding, despite the title.

“One of the more prominent themes within Craven’s work is that of the psychological idea of the villain. His films tend to subvert the idea of the villain/hero leading the viewer to believe they are completely aware of a situation before abruptly leading us in a different direction. One of the clearest examples of this can be seen in his directorial debut The Last House on the Left where our initial antagonists are Krug et al. However, by the end of the film, we see Mari Collingwood’s parents take on this role.” - Many of the sources I have agree with this point.

“Wes Craven’s general style of filmmaking is visually similar to a number of horror film-makers. The conventional use of camera angles, editing to create scares and using lighting to enhance a scene are all evident within his work. However, […] his understanding of the genre and the conventions have allowed him to use them to his advantage. This is most notable in his film series Scream where he dictates to the audience the conventions of the genre which had become familiar to audiences and then used this as a way to drive the narrative, attempting to break each of these clichés. For example Scream’s Sidney loses her virginity despite the fact a friend has already noted that the No. 1 rule of horror-movie survival: “Sex equals death.” Yet this generic convention never comes to pass.” - It is important to note that the sex scene is inter-cut into the rules being explained. This whole paragraph is relevant to the argument of whether Wes is a genre director or an auteur.

The article describes Wes’ filmmaking techniques as generic, stating that it is in fact his use of unique storytelling and character development which offer him the place of auteur. “ With narratives that involve witty villains, the indication of convention, an ability to use sub-genres to great effect and his females are not the dim-witted, hysterical token characters so often seen within horror. Although Craven has directed films written by others, such as Red Eye, the films he chose to direct share similar themes to those he has written and therefore help to indicate his narrative preferences.”. First of all, this quote addresses the important aspects of his narrative style and directorial style (such as the use of subgenres), but, more importantly, it makes mention of the great counterargument for most auteur directors: that they did not write the story. Instead the article shows to us that Wes chose the like of Scream and Red Eye because it suits his directorial style. However, for the case of Scream it has been stated that he only finally came on to the project because of the inclusion of Drew Barrymore.

The article ends by using the term “auteur of the genre”, which is helpful because it offers a blend of both auteurship and genre director. I must do further research into this concept.

Film Genre Reader III

“No critic, obviously, can be free from a structure of values, nor can he or she afford to withdraw from the struggles and tensions of living to some position of “aesthetic” contemplation.” - This tells me that, despite being an individual filmmaker in their own right, people are still confined to some aspects of the process, such as genre.

“One of the greatest obstacles to any fruitful theory of genre has been the tendency to treat the genres as discrete. An ideological approach might suggest why they can’t be, however hard they may appear to try: at best, they represent different strategies for dealing with the same ideological tensions.” - This is relevant because it suggests that, while working within a genre, an auteur cannot help but follow the steps of it. This is important because Wes works primarily in horror, questioning whether or not he can reach the level of auteur.

“It is probable that a genre is “pure” (i.e., safe) only in its simplest, archetypal, most aesthetically deprived and intellectually contemptible form” - This tells me that piece of film may be more than just its genre if it strays far enough from its roots, while still confining itself to its roots. This is important because it saves Wes from being just a genre director.

“The strong contrast presented by the two films [It’s a Wonderful Life and Shadow of a Doubt] testifies to the decisive effect of the intervention of a clearly defined artistic personalty in an ideological-generic structure.” - This helps me because it argues that a director has the ability to take a film beyond its genre by adding in their personality. Could this reign true for a script (Scream) as well?

Trespassing Bergman

“I think more than almost anybody else he was very religious and it felt like a religion that felt similar to the one I had come out of so: very strict and kind of, um, and very channeled lives and, you know, not doing anything that would displease God and having your children in line.” - Wes felt a connection in the way that he used religion in his films. However, Wes defied religion while Ingram embraced it.

Wes Craven: the mainstream horror maestro inspired by Ingmar Bergman

“he was electrified by the work of directors like Ingmar Bergman: it was this that inspired him to go into film-making and he had the idea of remaking Bergman’s 1960 film Virgin Spring as The Last House on the Left in 1972″ - It brings into question whether or not Wes can claim his influential horror movie as his.

“Wes Craven could be said to have invented, or at least popularised the modern rape-revenge genre and ironically did so in the same era when the name “Bergman” became a widely understood talk-show punchline for jokes about Hollywood trash vs highbrow Europeans.” - Once again, Craven is linked to influence from Bergman.

The ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ Series Is Deeper Than You Know

“ The viewer is even present for a scene representative of Nancy’s first period. As Nancy lays in the bathtub asleep, Freddy’s clawed glove breaks through the surface of the water between her open legs. This isn’t just one of the most intense scenes in horror history. It’s clear foreshadowing of all the trouble that’s about to happen between your legs.”

New American Teenagers

“Nancy and Glen, who never consummate their relationship despite plenty of opportunity, can be understood better as brother and sister than as boyfriend and girlfriend, which, of course, would not preclude sexual desire”. This is important because I am aiming to support Robin Wood’s concept that a director’s personal touch to a film elevates it beyond a genre film. I plan on linking this to the themes of sexuality in the other films and arguing that this tendency to put violence and sexuality in his films is a rebellion against his repressed religious childhood upbringing.

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janvba2film-blog · 7 years

Text

Post Q: Completed Reference List

Main Films:

The Last House on the Left, 1972. [Film] Wes Craven, USA: Hallmark Releasing.

A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984. [Film] Wes Craven, USA: New Line Cinema.

Scream, 1996. [Film] Wes Craven, USA: Dimension Films.

Secondary References:

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy. (2010). [DVD] Directed by D. Farrands. 1428 Films. - This was very useful to me as it provided me with a lot of insight into the behind-the-scenes of the film, which was particularly useful in regards to auteur theory, because I learned which aspects were contributed by who.

At the Movies. (1994). Siskel & Ebert - Wes Craven's "New Nightmare" (1994). [Online Video]. 14 October 1994. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMbvJYSTnm4&index=8&list=PLvR8ZsaFQNScK1XB4UMVrVEJJwRuE9PpJ. - I thought this might have been more useful at the time, but having narrowed my field of study more has led me to believe it is not very useful; there are other sources which deal with the points he brings up in more depth.

Sanders, J., 2009. The Film Genre Book. 1st ed. Columbia University Press: Auteur Publishing. - This source aided me in recognising tropes of horror, such as the Final Girl, but also directed my attention to the fact that his debut film was a soft remake of Bergman’s The Virgin Spring. Furthermore, it first brought my attention to how Wes may be an auteur in reference to narrative writing.

Scream: The Inside Story. (2011). [video] Directed by D. Farrands. - Much like my first source, this provided me with great information regarding the background of Scream, and provided me with great points to make in my argument as the production company and the writer of the film had seemingly more input in the film than Wes.

Towlson, J., 2014. Subversive Horror Cinema. McFarland. - This source gave me so much insight into the social commentary of my director’s debut film and so became incredibly useful when studying Wes as an auteur.

Hutchings, P., 2017. The Horror Film. Pearson Education. This source didn’t have a lot of information for me to gather from but made a very strong argument against post-modern horror, which works very well into a counter-argument against Mr. Craven as an auteur as, according to Hutchings, it means movies become trivial instead of doing their job: analysing social fears.

Wes Craven’s Influence in Making the Horror Genre Subversive | The Mary Sue. 2017. Wes Craven’s Influence in Making the Horror Genre Subversive | The Mary Sue. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.themarysue.com/wes-craven-influence/. - This was useful because it commented on Wes’ famously subversive style, which is one of the areas I need to focus on for my argument for him being an auteur.

Myerla’s Movie Reviews.: Origins of an auteur - Wes Craven. 2017.[ONLINE] Available at:http://myerlamoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/origins-of-auteur-wes-craven.html. + Cook, P., The Cinema Book 2nd Ed. British Film Institute. - Despite the title, this article brings into question his auteurship and also his filmmaking techniques - it’s all well and good using social commentary but to be defined as an auteur you must also be able to hone your craft of your medium. I could only find one relevant quote from the book, which made me wonder if NoES was simply following the trend of the time by bringing parent culture into question. I paired it with the above source because it also makes mention of the film possibly being a product of the time.

So The Theory Goes. 2017. Auteur: Wes Craven - So The Theory Goes. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sothetheorygoes.com/auteur-wes-craven/. - This piece states him as more of a genre director when it comes to filmmaking but, much like other sources, uses his use of narrative as an argument for atueur status.

Cristobal Olguin. (2017). Scream - Manipulating Expectations | Film Analysis. [Online Video]. 20 January 2017. Available from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFbxip5WIIw&feature=youtu.be. + Renegade Cut. 2017. YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm2lRt5uz6c. - This video analyses the use of red herrings and foreshadowing used within Scream. This video is particularly useful to me because it outlines a technique that Wes implemented himself. And even if the screenwriter helped out with this technique it is still something Wes has used countless times in his movies (E.g. the replacement of protagonists in NoES). This could be a strong case for Wes as an auteur, as this is a reoccurring technique used in his films. I included the second source with the above one because it goes nicely with the other by touching upon the subversions of common horror tropes, and I believe this to be important as I will most definitely be touching upon this in my essay in regards to Scream. This essay references Carol J Clover’s: Men, Women, and Chainsaws - a book which helped to define the slasher genre in the popular consciousness. The author of the video argues that NoES meets and subverts the criteria of the book and goes through them to prove his point.

Keith, B., 2003. Film Genre Reader III. University of Texas Press. - This was extremely useful for creating a counterargument against Wes being simply a genre director as Robin Wood is one of the leading theorists behind auteurship. However, the fact that it focused simply on two films instead of a broader aspect of cinema was quite unfortunate, though I still managed to gather relevant information from the text when he discussed his two focal films.

Trespassing Bergman, 2013. [DVD] Hynek Pallas, Jane Magnusson, Sweden: Syndicado. + The Guardian. 2017. Wes Craven: the mainstream horror maestro inspired by Ingmar Bergman | Film | The Guardian. [ONLINE] Available at:https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/aug/31/wes-craven-the-mainstream-horror-maestro-inspired-by-ingmar-bergman. - There wasn’t much to write about here as Wes barely appears in the documentary, which was unfortunate considering his debut films was a soft remake of one of Bergman’s. Nevertheless I was able to gather some relevant quotes for when I discuss his influences. Since I was unable to gather much information from the above source, I paired it with one which touched upon the same topic. Together the sources bring into question how much Wes’ inspiration’s bled into his film, which is important to discuss when analysing auteurship.

Jane, B., 2014. New American Teenagers. Bloomsbury +

Academic.CRACKED.com. 2017. The ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ Series Is Deeper Than You Know. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-secret-message-hiding-in-elm-street-series/. - I thought that these two sources worked well together as they’re the only sources I could find which discuss the themes of NoES, and they both point towards the central theme of the film being puberty, even if the ‘quirky comedic’ tone of the Cracked article isn’t quite what I wanted. This is hardly surprising since the director and cast have all admitted that there are sexual undertones between Nancy and Freddy especially.

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