Daniel Knox
Wes Craven, the mastermind behind genre-defining classics such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, as well as transgressive works like The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes, has left an indelible mark on the horror genre. His reign of terror spanned decades and generations, captivating audiences with cult favorites like The People Under the Stairs and The Serpent and the Rainbow.
However, there’s so much more to Wes Craven than just his horror movies. In The Soul of Wes Craven, published by Harker Press, author Joseph Maddrey (Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film, Not Bad for a Human: The Life and Films of Lance Henriksen) offers readers a comprehensive look at the man behind the movies, not just his body of work.
While The Soul of Wes Craven is not the first biography on Craven, it is undoubtedly the most definitive. Maddrey has meticulously researched and interviewed over 80 people from Craven’s life, including professional collaborators, family members, friends, and college classmates, to provide an in-depth exploration of the man who gave us our nightmares.
Unlike typical biographies that skim over the subject’s pre-fame life, Maddrey dedicates a significant portion of the book to Craven’s early years. He delves into Craven’s upbringing as a latchkey kid with an overactive imagination, raised in a fundamentalist Baptist church that only allowed Disney movies. Maddrey explores how these early experiences shaped Craven and sowed the seeds for his future works.
Craven’s unconventional entry into the film industry at the age of 30, despite having a master’s degree in philosophy and two children, is a fascinating tale. His collaboration with future Friday the 13th director Sean Cunningham on The Last House on the Left and his brief stint in adult film under the pseudonym Abe Snake are just some of the intriguing aspects of his journey.
While you may be familiar with Craven’s career trajectory — from Freddy Krueger and Ghostface to troubled productions like Vampire in Brooklyn and Cursed — Maddrey’s book offers an unprecedented level of detail about his life and work.
One of the highlights of The Soul of Wes Craven is the revelation of unknown details about Craven’s unmade work, including his take on Frankenstein for Roger Corman, a remake of Village of the Damned written by fellow genre favorite Tom Holland, a Doctor Strange TV series for New World Pictures, and many more original concepts.
This 460-page book also includes appendices detailing Craven’s available screenplays (both produced and unproduced), his prose and poetry, and lists of his favorite movies, books, and music. It concludes with a heartfelt afterword by his son, Jonathan Craven.
Upon finishing The Soul of Wes Craven, I found myself mourning the loss of Craven anew. His passing in 2015 was a significant loss to the film industry, and Maddrey’s book serves as a touching tribute to the fearless filmmaker and generous human being that was Wes Craven.
The Soul of Wes Craven is now available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats.
