Wednesday, August 19, 2020

CRAVIN' CRAVEN 01: LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT

A brand new podcast series has Patrick and Heather Wixson working their way through the filmography of Wes Craven, beginning with his first and most controversial movie.



Download this episode here. ( MB)

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts.

13 comments:

  1. Double dose of Horror BFFs! I'm super excited for this.

    I just started listening and paused to mention something: my team and I actually screened a 35mm print of The Fireworks Woman, Craven's porn (under the name Abe Snake), in Paris a few months ago, and there really is a lot to say about it (and we did, since the audience stayed for a good 30 mn discussion afterwards). So to be clear, it's definitely porn (meaning actual hardcore scenes), but it's a very stylish, dreamlike, at times sweet movie that has a very compelling eeriness to it. Plus: Craven cameo in a top hat!

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    1. I was at a convention in Pittsburgh in 2013 where Marc Sheffler was a guest. During his panel he talked about Craven working in adult films. He defended that side of Craven's career by saying that making a film is making a film: You need to know the technical side of filmmaking in any case.

      Craven was not the only one genre director who honed his craft in the porn world, either. Bill Lustig and Abel Ferrara directed adult features before making their breakout films.

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    2. Didn't Oliver Stone begin with adult films as well? They tend to omit those details from their Wikipedia page.

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    3. Coppola and De Palma also did skin flicks at the start of their careers. It wasn't such a big deal back then, but these days outrage culture and internet trolls could kill a promising filmmaker's careers if their early work was sexually explicit... right? 🥵🤓

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  2. Still recall my first viewing of OG Last House... Back in the nineties my local second hand market I discovered had a stall run by a guy who had all of the original video nasties, here in the UK this was before the BBFC finally allowed us a lot of these movies legally, and for a whole £5 he'd copy them for you onto a VHS and there was Last House and I knew of it, heck I'd read the making of book by David Suzlkin (a great read) and was a 100% Craven fan... so... I got my copy and headed home and boy was I both ready and NOT ready for that movie! I'll still say that sure it's roughly made though considering Craven said he knew nothing about film making I'd say it's nearly as well put together as the original Chain Saw, bar the editing and the sudject matter needs a strong stomach, unlike for me something like I Spit it has something to say and is made with a real intelligence behind it... In other words awesome podcast and cannot wait for the rest of the series! :)

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    1. Also I feel the transgressive moment you talk about is what really sold me that Last House is not just being made for cheap thrills and exploitation but the Craven had a voice and something to say, I weirdly still think about that moment...

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  3. Love some Craven love. Looking forward to digging in

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  4. Great podcast, you two! Looking forward to more.

    At some point in the future, Heather MUST elaborate on House II: The Second Story.

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  5. For the future Carpenter series, because nothing rhymes with Carpenter, how about, "Here's The Thing..."

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  6. I'm so excited about this new podcast! I have not seen Last House on the Left but when I'm in the right headspace I definitely want to see it now.

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  7. You weren’t kidding about the Booby traps!

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