Why Wes Craven is a Genius Part 2: Red Eye
Wes Craven has always fascinated me as an academic and a filmmaker. He received his undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois, and a masters degree in Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Craven continued to work on his Ph.D., but the restrictive traditions of academia prevented him from completing it and he went on to make films instead. To say all that schooling was for nothing would be a gross understatement. Craven is intelligent and this keen intellect is the source of many of his films’ biting commentary. Take the Scream films for instance. At the beginning of Scream 2, Craven makes a big statement about the horror industry and the audience’s seemingly endless appetite for blood. To do so, Craven implicates us all in the death of Maureen, the film's initial victim played by Jada Pinkett Smith. As the ghost-faced killer knifes her, Maureen spins around to a sea of ghost-faced masks, making it impossible to distinguis...