Farewell to Wes – Guest Blog: Jeffrey Reddick
Like so many filmmakers and fans, I was devastated by the loss of genre/film icon Wes Craven. Sunday, August 30th, was a sad, surreal day. I did a podcast that morning talking about the profound effect Wes Craven and A Nightmare on Elm Street had on my life and career. I went home and took a nap.
For the first time since my mother’s passing in February, I had a nightmare about her passing. I woke up soul-sick and disturbed. I wondered why, after all of this time, I had a nightmare about mom’s death. Then I noticed that my phone was blowing up with texts about Wes Craven’s passing.
As a person of faith, I don’t believe in coincidences. So, it was a strange intersection of death and nightmares. The most important person in my life reminding me in a dream about death – only to find out that my creative idol had passed was like a punch in the stomach.
I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street with a group of buddies when it was playing at a second-run drive-in theatre in Eastern Kentucky. We were too young to get in without our parents. But my friend lived in front of the theatre, so if we sat on his dad’s truck and turned on the CB, so we could pick up the sound. We watched the movie and it changed my life.
In my opinion A Nightmare on Elm Street was a Wes Craven masterpiece. I know it was his passion project and he fought for years to get it make. This was a story he was damned determined to tell, and his passion shines through. Aside from being an imaginative, mind-blowing film with a terrifyingly original villain in Fred Krueger, Wes also gave us one of the most proactive, well-defined female protagonists in a genre film with the wonderful Nancy Thompson.
Everyone I know who had the pleasure of knowing him intimately, and even those who only met him a few times, like me, can attest to his warmth, intelligence and humor.
This intelligence and humor are evident in all of his work. His movies were subservice, of the times and sometimes ahead of their time. He dealt with how a normal nuclear family could be driven to barbarism in The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House on The Left. He dealt with issues of class and race in The People Under the Stairs. He showed how the sins of the parents could come back to haunt their children in A Nightmare on Elm Street.
With Wes Craven, you knew you were getting more than just a standard horror film. And with Kevin Williamson’s script for Scream, Wes showed he was still a master director at the top of his game. And just like he did with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes once again reinvented the genre with Scream, creating a new brood of horror fans and inspiring a whole new generation of filmmakers.
Wes was a true visionary and true gentleman. He touched millions of lives, and the legacy he left will never be forgotten.
Wes, rest in peace. Thank you for the wonderful dreams you inspired so many people to follow. And thank you for the exquisite nightmares.
— Jeff Reddick
With the tragic passing of Wes Craven, literally everyone in the industry has been reeling and expressing love for the man and his work. Several people have been writing in to Dread Central to ask if it would be cool to post their thoughts. So this Farewell to Wes feature will be their opportunity to share their feelings and their thoughts with you, the horror community.
Some will be long, some will be short, but all are important and will be featured with love and caring. It’s our honor to be able to do this for the man who gave us so very much.
Categorized:News
