THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 30, 1995 TAG: 9510280055
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
SOMEHOW, we expect him to have long fingernails, wear a fedora and flash a menacing smile.
Instead, Wes Craven wears a down-home plaid shirt and speaks softly. We're getting him confused with his most famous creation, Freddy, the hero of all those ``Nightmare on Elm Street'' flicks.
``I'm used to saying that I don't look anything like what they expected,'' Craven said as he sat down for the interview.
For example, did you know that Craven holds a master's in writing and philosophy from Johns Hopkins University?
And all this time, we thought things like ``Deadly Blessing,'' ``The Hills Have Eyes'' and ``Last House on the Left'' were written with crayons. This is the man who created ``The People Under the Stairs,'' ``Shocker,'' ``Swamp Thing'' and the ``Nightmare on Elm Street'' craze.
His new film, ``Vampire in Brooklyn,'' contains the combination of Eddie Murphy starring and Wes Craven directing.
``I don't think it's so unusual,'' Craven said. ``Horror is very close to humor. The thing is I wanted the humor in `Vampire in Brooklyn' to come from the story - from the plot, not from Eddie. I wanted Eddie to be essentially a serious character. What I didn't want was just a black version of `Love at First Bite.' I didn't think `Love at First Bite' was very funny. I didn't want the comedy to be nearly that broad.''
Murphy's people called Craven and asked him to direct. Seems that Eddie has been a big fan of Craven's horror flicks.
Max is the last of the vampires and must find female blood if the race is to continue. A New York cop, played by Oscar-nominee Angela Bassett, is the only female known who has the right blood type to reproduce. Therein lies a plot, but is there a comedy in it?
``Maybe my sense of humor is a little dry, or subtle, or whatever, but people seem to get it. I kept encouraging Eddie to play it straight.''
So where did Freddy come from? Where was the first nightmare on Elm Street?
``I drew Freddy from the memory of a man who scared me when I was a kid, about 10 years old, in Cleveland. The man wore a hat, like Freddy's, and he glowered at me through a door when I ran into our apartment house. He had a menacing grin. We lived on the 22nd floor, but I still thought he might get up to my window and glower through it. I suppose he was just a drunk.''
But those fingernails? What kind of a mind would conceive nails like that?
``It's just an extension of the edged weapon idea,'' Craven said. ``All weapons for horror characters are hard-edged - daggers and things.''
So, what movies scared little Wes in the formative years?
`` `Wait Until Dark,' '' he answered. ``When Alan Arkin jumped out at Audrey Hepburn from the dark, I fell into the aisle. I literally jumped out of my seat. Then there was `The Exorcist.' It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Straight up. And I liked `Alien' and the energy of `Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' ''
One of his favorite genres, though, is the vampire field. ``It's the old theory,'' he said, ``that once you let the genie out of the bottle, it's going to get you. When it works, things get more and more enclosed. Claustrophobia is the best means of scaring people. Something in your bedroom that is taking you over. You are most vulnerable when you're asleep.''
Hey, it's getting scary talking about it.
``It's mirrored in real life,'' Craven rushes onward. ``The Jim Jones case. Give them a taste of power and they'll take over your soul.''
It sounds here like we're two boys sitting around the campfire, telling ghost stories. But Craven makes millions at it.
After Wheaton College in Illinois, he got a job teaching in high school, then at Westminster College in upstage New York. Things changed when he bought a simple camera. ``I began to think visually,'' he said.
He has two children and many ideas for future projects. He plans to do a remake of Robert Wise's classic ``The Haunting'' (a film that was a hit in the sadly defunct Virginia Beach Friends of Film series). He then plans to do a dark comedy, very dark, to be called ``Monster Butler'' starring Malcolm McDowell. A big estate. An evil butler. Get the idea?
Craven images abound.
KEYWORDS: INTERVIEW by CNB