Unpopular Movie Opinions: Part III

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by dvining

Wes Craven was a bad filmmaker

[dvining]

Originally Posted by Bugg

Last House on the Left, Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elmstreet, Scream

I don't think any filmmaker lucks out into making 4 classics.

The first two are not good. The cops in Last House are an embarrassment and they undercut the movie's most powerful moments. The extended Home Alone stuff all ends up feeling like space fillers.

The Hills Have Eyes is okay. It's competent horror.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is his best film. It's also the only movie he wrote that's any good at all.

Scream feels like a director for hire job, like he didn't screw up Kevin Williamson's script.

Shocker, Chiller, Summer of Fear, Night Visions, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn, all three Scream sequels, Cursed, My Soul to Take...

His bad films far outweigh his few good films (including The Serpent and the Rainbow and Red Eye, neither of which he wrote).

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by dvining

Wes Craven was a bad filmmaker who got lucky a couple of times.

I think just the opposite. And I'll say that I prefer his films Shocker and Deadly Blessing over the likes of Scream and it's sequels.

Also man...how could you do Wes dirty like that?

[dvining]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

I think just the opposite. And I'll say that I prefer his films Shocker and Deadly Blessing over the likes of Scream and it's sequels.

Also man...how could you do Wes dirty like that?

Cause I just went through all of his films and was pretty miserable most of the time.

Deadly Blessing's ending, though...it's final moment, was aces. The rest of the movie...pretty boring.

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by Damon1281

Season of the Witch is a better movie than Halloween: Season of the Witch.

You talking the Cage film or Romero's Hungry Wives/Jack's Wife?

[DR Herbert West]

Craven's Swamp Thing > The Dark Knight

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by dvining

Cause I just went through all of his films and was pretty miserable most of the time.

Deadly Blessing's ending, though...it's final moment, was aces. The rest of the movie...pretty boring.

I feel like there's a sleazy charm that runs through all his films. You can get a sense of the good boy gone bad since he was raised on Disney and had a sheltered life. But once hitting the industry he saw a whole new world.

I honestly think everything of his is superb other than Hills Have Eyes Part II (a desperate paycheck for a broke director), Vampire in Brooklyn (a vanity project for an actor battling tone with the studio) and Cursed (the Weinsteins can rot).
I adore the likes of stuff such as My Soul to Take and Swamp Thing. They're not as crystal clear and sheened like a Carpenter film but that's why I enjoy Craven's work.

Plus I do think almost every film he's made is ripe for a remake. or has gotten decent to good remakes.

[DR Herbert West]

New Nightmare is pretty solid, but it kinda falls apart in the last 10 minutes.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

New Nightmare is pretty solid, but it kinda falls apart in the last 10 minutes.

New Nightmare barely holds together, but I do like it. It's his other written work that I think is good (I kind of forgot about it a few minutes ago).

It's also emblematic of some of his issues. There are at least three major ideas running through it, and the middle section is kind of dull as the focus turns from Heather to her kid, muddying both the horror and what the film is about.

The first and last thirty minutes, though? Probably the best the Nightmare franchise ever got.

[Mikezilla3k]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

New Nightmare is pretty solid, but it kinda falls apart in the last 10 minutes.

Still better than Scream though.

[HipsterTrash]

Originally Posted by dvining

New Nightmare barely holds together, but I do like it. It's his other written work that I think is good (I kind of forgot about it a few minutes ago).

It's also emblematic of some of his issues. There are at least three major ideas running through it, and the middle section is kind of dull as the focus turns from Heather to her kid, muddying both the horror and what the film is about.

The first and last thirty minutes, though? Probably the best the Nightmare franchise ever got.

It was the right direction for the Nightmare franchise. I feel like if they had to do a remake/reboot they have to touch on modern day issues and explore not just nightmares but peoples fears and insecurities.

Hot Take: Freddy's Revenge > Dream Warriors

[Troll2fan]

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

New Nightmare is pretty solid, but it kinda falls apart in the last 10 minutes.

New Nightmare is my favorite of the Nightmare movies with the first a close second.

[-JKR-]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

Hot Take: Freddy's Revenge > Dream Warriors

Can't agree with that. Freddy's Revenge and The Dream Child are my least favorite entries in the franchise.

I'll take Freddy's Dead over both.

[dvining]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

It was the right direction for the Nightmare franchise. I feel like if they had to do a remake/reboot they have to touch on modern day issues and explore not just nightmares but peoples fears and insecurities.

Hot Take: Freddy's Revenge > Dream Warriors

Freddy's Revenge really tries to be about something. I don't think it succeeds, but I give it marks for the attempt.

Dream Warriors has the structure that the first film lacked while losing some of the uniqueness that Craven, unfiltered, brought to it. If Frank Darabont had cowritten the first film, I think it would have been as good as Carpenter's Halloween. Craven needed a really good writing partner, like how Billy Wilder had IAL Diamond and Charles Brackett.

[Mikezilla3k]

Freddy's Revenge, while not as bad as people said it was in the past, doesn't really deserve the love it receives nowadays.

It's just meh.

[Foggy]

I will disagree, outside New Nightmare, I think Freddy’s Revenge is the only one worth catching out the sequels.

I really don’t get the love for Dream Warriors, I find it really dumb. It’s watchable compared to the films that follow it, but that really starts the great descent into the franchise low points.

[Jay H.]

I think Craven made some great movies, a few good ones, and some garbage. His success rate isn't all that different from a lot of directors.

I definitely prefer his work to that of many other famous horror directors.

[Damon1281]

Originally Posted by HipsterTrash

You talking the Cage film or Romero's Hungry Wives/Jack's Wife?

Cage. But it wouldn't matter.

[DR Herbert West]

Freddy's Revenge > The Dream Master > Dream Warriors

[RandomMovieFan]

Spencer > Jackie