|
Wes Craven on The Last House on the Left
By Fred Topel | Images property of Rogue Pictures
The Last House on the Left
Wes Craven Back to The Last House on the Left
"I think during the making of it, the first word was, 'Oh God, why are they remaking that?’" Craven recalled. "But somebody told me fairly recently that The Maltese Falcon was a third remake of an original film, so it kind of liberated me from the feeling like there’s something bad about a remake. The way [director] Dennis [Iliadis] and I are talking about the material, it’s the material, the story is so powerful that it’s all right. Look, in theatre people, new directors, take on the same material all the time. Death of a Salesman is done ten billion times and it’s still powerful. So it much more of a feeling like that, it’s just a really good piece of material and you can take it and apply it to probably a hundred good directors, except there aren’t a hundred that are operating at the level that Dennis is, it’s very rare."
The premise of Last House on the Left predates Craven anyway. The tale of rapists who find themselves in their victims' parents home comes from a medieval folk tale, on which Ingmar Bergman based The Virgin Spring.
"I think the Bergman, Craven, two films were kind of similar. I haven’t had access to the medieval tale, but I just have read that it does exist too, which was interesting. I think the both of us thought it was a core story that was so powerful and was relevant way back then and it’s relevant now, that I think we both felt like we weren’t doing a remake so much as a reimagination by another director of this story basically, which freed Dennis from having to think [that] I was worrying about how he was going to do my film. It was more like, do that story, but make it totally your own."
While Iliadis had more of a studio budget to work with, they still had to shoot in South Africa to cut costs. "We had had experience there. [Producer] Marianne [Maddalena] had produced a film, I think I was executive producer on a film called Breed which was shot there about a pack of dogs that were possessed. More importantly, Dennis had shot there doing three or four commercials so he was very familiar with it. He wanted to be sure he had a place where he could shoot where the weather would be beautiful for all of the daytime stuff. He felt it was very important to him to have that contrast between horrible events taking place and nature being beautiful. So he felt confident that the weather would be good and he could have that. That was basically the reason for going there."
Luckily, a house in the woods looks like a house in the woods anywhere, right? "They built that entirely. South Africa doesn't look, in the details of it, doesn't look exactly like America at all. You have to build a lot but the terrain, the trees and so forth, you can find enough that looks, especially with the pines, that look like America."
The Last House on the Left opens to theaters on March 13th.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the The Last House on the Left Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Images property of Rogue Pictures
Contact
© 2004 Minds Eye One, All Rights Reserved
The Can Magazine™ is a trademark of Minds Eye One
All movie titles, movie icons, movie stills/clips/trailers/other media... are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of stated holders
CanMag.Com banners contain movie/gaming icons that were created by individual holders
Home > Movies > Wes Craven on The Last House on the Left
|
|
|
Add to Heffee!
