His past career is only a Craven image

BARRYBgB@aol.com sent me an e-mail on Friday with the following admonition:

“I read your DVD review for ‘Red Eye’ this morning and I have some comments about Wes Craven . You said that he wasn’t the person you would think would be able to do a big budget suspense film. His career is steeped in it, minus the big budgets. As for saying that he shows he can be an A-list director, this is something his fans, other critics, and anyone who knows him and his career have known for decades. He’s already shown his talent for it for over three decades. No one ever gave him the chance until recently because he was so pigeonholed. All his films have incredible suspense in them. The best in the horror/thriller genre. You write it as if this is something new for him. It isn’t.”

And my reply:

You, of course, are right that the Wes Craven of “The Last House on the Left” isn’t the same Wes Craven of recent years. Still, you have to admit that “Red Eye” has more in common with, say, “Flightplan,” than it does, say, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream.” Until “Red Eye,” his films have been horror films that boast suspense. “Red Eye” is a suspense film that uses aspects of horror to best effect.

In any event, I confess to my own prejudices. As someone who still remembers watching “Last House on the Left” and “The Hills Have Eyes” when they played the drive-in circuit, I will say that I have problems seeing Craven as an A-list filmmaker. As the decades pass, though, he is proving me wrong.

Below : “The Last House on the Left,” a classic splatter flick, began Wes Craven’s film career.

MGM photo