ShareThisWes Craven had never directed a movie when he made "The Last House on the Left" in 1972, and didn't expect to make many more. But the notoriously graphic horror film was a huge hit, allowing him to follow up with "The Hills Have Eyes," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Scream" and other classics.
With the "Last House" remake released last week to decent reviews and solid box office, we spoke with Craven about making the original, and the new film by director Dennis Iliadis that Craven produced.
Q: "The Last House on the Left" was your first film. How difficult was that to shoot?
A: Look, I don't want to say, "We didn't have time and we didn't have money," although we didn't. We had $90,000 total budget, maybe 21 days and a crew of about seven.
Q: And you had unknown actors.
A: I'm trying to think which of those actors had acted before. I think maybe Sandra Peabody had one role, and I believe the others had not. The two parents were the closest we had to professional working actors -- they were in a soap opera in New York. They did it kind of reluctantly.
Q: Was there much organization, or were you just shooting in random places in the woods?
A: We had a documentary cameraman and virtually everything was shot handheld. Most of the locations that we didn't steal from the state of Connecticut, by climbing over fences and getting into areas that were set off for the New York City water supply, were shot in the back yard of the house that (producer Sean S. Cunningham) and his wife, Susan, were renting ... and then in his mother's house and mother-in-law's house. It was all kind of a family film. I slept on Sean's couch.
Q: Do you get enjoyment out of seeing young directors rework your old material?
A: As an artist, watching Dennis work on "Last House" with the same material is a fascinating study. If I were teaching film, I'd love to show them back-to-back and say, "Here's how two guys have done virtually the same story." When we had our initial talks, I told him, "Don't think you have to redo my film, because I consider that film the Wes Craven version of that story. As long as it's somewhat recognizable, feel free to make it your own, completely."
Q: What would you say to someone in 1972 who told you this movie would get remade 36 years later?
A: We would have thrown the person out of the door laughing. It was inconceivable. It came out of nowhere. Sean knew some guys who owned theaters in the Boston area, and they occasionally would give money to somebody to make a second feature for them. We were one of the people who got the money to go make something scary. I knew nothing about making a scary movie.
(E-mail Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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