Torture not fun for horror flick director

Dressed all in black, his depleted gray hair swept back, Wes Craven perched on a stool onstage… Dressed all in black, his depleted gray hair swept back, Wes Craven perched on a stool onstage to speak to Pitt students and faculty Monday night, looking the way a distinguished film director is supposed to look. His reflection appearing in the many ornate mirrors of the William Pitt Union Ballroom, Craven talked about his career, the film industry and that great American nightmare personified, Freddy Krueger.

Breaking down the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” villain’s name, Craven explained that “Freddy” was an antagonistic former co-worker on a paper route and “Krueger” is a corruption of a Nazi arms factory name. The character’s burned skin serves as a mask that shields his humanity, while his nails are an extension of a claw, the most primal sort of weapon. The olive-green and red colors on his striped sweater are the most difficult pigments for the retina to process, and his lair in the boiler room is a representation of the fiery chasm of Hell.

A dream warrior, Krueger kills teenagers in their sleep — an idea inspired by three newspaper stories about Southeast Asian children who immigrated to America and died during nightmares. Craven elevated this reported phenomenon in a very Chuck Palahniuk-esque way, representing the story as a loss of consciousness of life. The main character, Nancy, emerges into “a hero’s journey” by refusing to fall asleep and leave herself vulnerable to the mutilated incubus.

Craven traced the presence of monsters back to the heroic saga of “The Odyssey,” seeing fear and the battle against evil, and figures like mythical creatures, as representatives of primal human struggles.

Craven said he puts the fears that a culture espouses into characters, depicting “the flip-side of humanity.” He spoke of the darkness of human nature that can lurk anywhere, and he referenced writer/director David Lynch’s (of “Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive” and surreal soap opera “Twin Peaks”) incorporation of evil into the mundane.

Craven said his brand of terror works from the fears that people bring with them into the theater, but that the true virtue of a horror film lies in people’s ability to share the experience. Craven described seeing “Night of the Living Dead” as an amazing experience.

“The whole audience was together in a way I’d never felt before,” he said.

Although Craven’s career has focused on inspiring fear to help the audience confront fright, he said he wants to work in other genres, like he did in “Music of the Heart” with Meryl Streep and in his upcoming psychological thriller “Red Eye,” starring the meanest “Mean Girl” Rachel McAdams.

Craven spoke of his disdain for torture and for extremely sadistic characters — although “Scream” featured a character who was forced to watch her boyfriend’s intestines spill out of his stomach and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” presented Johnny Depp, in his first film appearance, being savagely eaten by his bed amid gallons of splattered blood.

In this regard, Craven referenced “Sin City” — even though the movie’s character, Junior/Yellow Bastard, threatens to usurp Krueger as America’s choice child molester — and described being disturbed during the notorious ear scene in “Reservoir Dogs,” which caused Craven to exit the theater because “it seemed like the director enjoyed the torture.”

Craven described the European New Wave directors, such as Francois Truffaut, as huge influences on his work and said he loves the films of John Huston. He also admires the work of young directors such as Wes Anderson (“Rushmore,” “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”) and Spike Jonze (“Being John Malkovich,” “Adaptation”), and he described them as two of “the very few guys who are actually making their own, very personal films.”

In response to this comment, a student asked for Craven’s thoughts about why female directors were underrepresented in the realm of quirky films. Craven responded with a treatise on the digital revolution.

Asked how he felt when his film “Scream” was spoofed in “Scary Movie,” Craven said, “Watching it was the weirdest feeling I’ve had in a long time,” but he added that it was “a great form of flattery.”

Through more student-posed questions, the audience learned that Craven is still scared by some films, that he jumped out of his seat during “Wait Until Dark” and that he does not believe in ghosts. A former college English teacher, the esteemed director said that when he hit the workforce, he was far more interested in writing than filmmaking, but he got the movie bug when he bought a camera.

“I just kept going for something that fascinated me, and I thought it would be really fun to do,” he said. He stressed the importance of a good work ethic, adding, “If you need to, you can get in by sweeping floors at the studio.”

After all, Freddy Krueger was a janitor.