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6 Essential Wes Craven Films

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With the passing of the great Wes Craven (1939-2015) comes great feelings of sadness and loss within the horror community. Many of you, with myself included, have decided to pay homage to the legendary filmmaker by having movie marathons in his honor. To add to the appreciation for our lost icon, here areĀ 6 Essential Wes Craven Films that deserve a rewatch in the coming days. If you haven’t gotten the chance to but are planning on having one this weekend, here are some great ideas. Even if you’re not planning on having one, maybe this can change your mind.

 

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)[youtube id=”TV8za5nWxwo” align=”right”]

New Nightmare is a great film with a great idea behind it. The Freddy Krueger in this film takes on a new appearance and more menacing attitude like Wes had originally planned for him to be. The whole idea of taking Freddy out of his own film and coming to life in the “real world” was a great decision, and breathed new life into the franchise. Personally, I am a huge fan of Freddy being darker, as he is in this film.

The Last House on The Left (1972)[youtube id=”n_HUvEpwL1I” align=”right”]

A very violent exploitation film, this movie had been the subject of much controversy since its release, and understandably so. The sexual violence in this film is incredibly hard to stomach, but that’s what makes it so terrifying. It doesn’t rely on fantasy and monsters to create nightmares. The monsters in this one are simply people, like you and me. Except, I’m not a horrible, violent, rapist, and I hope whoever reading this is not either.

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)[youtube id=”EPWTvbTWhZc” align=”right”]

Wes Craven’s franchise films have been so successful, that the common person outside of the horror community may have forgotten many of his other gems, and I find that incredibly unfortunate. The Serpent and the Rainbow is one of the films that falls victim to this injustice, but you can help! Watch this movie, and show everyone you know! We need more Haitian zombie films.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)Ā [youtube id=”edn5EzHXVBU” align=”right”]

Michael Berryman!Ā MICHAEL BERRYMAN!Ā Come on, who doesn’t love this guy? I sure do. Yet another film by Wes Craven that has garnered a lot of controversy around the violence. A classic film for people of all ages in which an innocent family is hunted down by savages in the desert. Now isn’t that just so sweet?

 

Scream (1996)[youtube id=”23jmjs-rMGI” align=”right”]

An extremely clever film, with so many horror movieĀ references that it’s hard to count, although I’m sure somebody has, and I’m sure you could find it on Wikipedia or something. This film keeps you guessing the entire way through, and the payoff at the end is absolutely worth it. There have been three sequels, but the original is undeniably my favorite.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)[youtube id=”jdb_HSvf2Zk” align=”right”]

Robert Englund stars here in his first role as Freddy Krueger. It’s scary. It’s gory. It’s amazing. This film has instilled the love of the horror genre in so many people over the years, that it is hard to comprehend. Thank you, Mr. Craven. Thank you for Freddy. Thank you for everything.

 

Wesley Earl Craven, 1939-2015. You will be missed dearly.

 

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the SĆ©bastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.ā€

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abramsā€™ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turowā€™s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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