Wes Craven

The horror community mourns tonight.

Farewell maestro, and thanks for all the nightmares.

The Road Leads To Nowhere...

Earlier this month we lost David Hess. He was 69 years old.

In Wes Craven's Last House On The Left and Ruggero Deodato's The House On The Edge Of The Park, Hess gave us two of horror's most unforgettably unpleasant villains in Krug Stillo and Alex.

The sleazy, deadly charisma with which Hess imbued these two iconic sociopaths made them perfect cinematic reflections of Charles Manson - albeit a more muscular, macho interpretation of the man - complete with devoted followers in tow, ready to do anything to please their murderous leader (most memorably Giovanni Lombardo Radice in Park).

Of course Hess was also a gifted musician, and his oddly inappropriate score for Last House really helps to accentuate the film's nasty vibe of bad acid and the Summer of Love gone very wrong. Sweet, folksy numbers like "Wait For The Rain" and the opening credits track (reprised in "Blow Your Brains Out") are just dripping with a kind of haunting, saccharine melancholy that gives the depravity and carnage on screen an extra dose of hallucinatory menace. Whatever the relative merits of the Last House soundtrack, it certainly still rates a mention just for being one of the strangest horror scores around.

However, removed from the disturbing context of pants-pissing and chest-carving, these sad songs are appropriate for spending a few minutes contemplating the life and achievements of one of horror's most undersung participants.

R.I.P. David Hess. Here.

"Why don't you take your social regulations and shove 'em up your ass"

Remember what I did
Remember what I was
Back on Halloween

But what's in between
Where are your ideas
You sit around and dream
For next Halloween

Why not everyday
Are you so afraid
What will people say

After Halloween

Argento At The Chauvel

Horror fans living in the Sydney area are in for a rare treat next month as the always genre-friendly Chauvel Cinema is hosting a season of double-bills comprised of Dario Argento's entire output from '75 to '85 (minus Inferno), each one followed by a choice pick from Romero, Hooper or Craven.

The season runs over four Fridays (February 26th to March 19th) and opens with a crushing double: Suspiria and Dawn Of The Dead. I saw a print of Dawn at the old Third Eye in Surry Hills years ago, but two of the reels were so damaged as to make it almost unwatchable (I still had a blast). A good print of Dawn would be great, but not as brain-meltingly awesome as seeing a decent print of Suspiria in a cinema. The other Argento movies are Tenebrae, Deep Red and Phenomena and I'm frothing at the mouth for all three. Sharing these doubles with the Italian maestro are Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Eaten Alive and Wes Craven's Last House On The Left. I can take or leave the Hooper flicks (having already seen a screening of Texas Chainsaw and not being overly fond of Eaten Alive), but it might be fun seeing a crowd squirm uncomfortably at the sleazy nihilism of Krug and company.

As ever, the big question is: ARE THEY UNCUT? I'll be finding out at the Chauvel, over four consecutive Fridays of mysterious killers, arcane witchcraft, flesh-eating corpses, inbred mayhem and bloody vengeance!

The Chauvel is the last vestige of real independent cinema left in Sydney (a disgraceful situation for a city of five million), and when they run programs like this it drives home the importance of supporting it, lest the Chauvel disappear along with the Valhalla and Third Eye. Details for all the screenings can be found at the cinema's website here.