In a career spanning more than three decades, Wes Craven has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon in film, television, and literature. He reinvented the youth horror genre in 1984 with the classic A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, which he wrote and directed, and in the next decade, he deconstructed the genre again with the mega-successful SCREAM trilogy. These two franchises alone have earned nearly a billion dollars and serve as a powerful demonstration of Craven’s profound understanding of the often-unconscious desires and fears roiling in the human psyche.
“He’s a terrific storyteller, a compelling writer and a wonderful director,” says HILLS producer Peter Locke, who produced, financed and distributed the original film in 1977. “He’s the master of the horror genre because he had early success in it and he’s figured it out probably better than anyone around.”
Craven’s success in probing the nature of fear began in 1972 with his first film, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, and was taken to a whole new level of mastery with his second film, THE HILLS HAVE EYES which quickly became part of the cultural zeitgeist with its unflinching tale of a mutant family preying on travelers in a government atomic zone.
Craven wrote the script after being inspired by the infamous true tale of Scotland’s 17th Century Sawny Beane family, who ambushed travelers on lonely village roads, killed them in unspeakable ways and then, shockingly, cannibalized their victims, living off their remains. The story recounts that through inbreeding the Sawny Beane family numbered as many as 48 members and murdered countless travelers. King James I of Scotland ultimately sent in some 400 soldiers and bloodhounds to hunt down the family’s hiding place: a blood-soaked cave of horrors. After they were captured, the King had the entire family executed in the same manner as they had killed their victims.
For Craven, this powerful ancient story seemed to tap right into our most resonant modern fears – fears about the clash between our yearning for civilization and our human propensity for unthinkable brutality and mad behavior. Moving the story into 20th century America, Craven also saw an opportunity to explore what he terms “the shadow side” of the American family – as his suburban clan faces off against the far more primal members of the mutant family.
These were the days before big-budget horror movies, and the original version of THE HILLS HAVE EYES was made with a skeleton crew of just 15 members for a paltry $325,000 in the desert community of Victorville, CA. Things were so tight that producer Peter Locke drove the cast to locations in a beat-up Winnebago and the crew wore garbage bags for rainslickers when the weather turned stormy. Props were scavenged from Tobe Hooper’s horror classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and an abandoned gas station was found to create the film’s key set. The film was shot with a handheld 16mm camera, lending it a gritty look that only heightened the terror.
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