Wheaton College’s most famous alum, horror director Wes Craven, has long been the poster boy for reactivity and rebellion visa vi fundamentalist abuses of the Law. In other words, baggage with a capital B. Well, Wes is back in the limelight this week with the release of Scream 4 and as per usual, he himself proves more compelling than his films. Hard not to feel for the guy. And his comment about Protestantism being relatively ignored in Hollywood – the experience of Protestantism, for better or worse, as opposed to the caricature of it – is undeniably astute. In an interview with The NY Times Magazine he had the following to say:
I think being Jewish has been covered really well but almost nothing about being fundamentalist Protestant. For years, I’ve had a movie in my mind called “Total Immersion” that looks to my life as a kid where you’re immersed in this different worldview from almost everybody around you. In high school, we would give away rulers to our friends that said, “Jesus loves you.” I couldn’t put together the concept that Jesus loves you, but if you don’t love him back, you’ll burn in hell forever. I worried, I’m rejecting the Holy Spirit, so I’m definitely going to burn in hell.Does any part of you still feel that?
I remember going to a funeral at a very fundamentalist church, and I just had to get out of there. I went out in the parking lot and just sobbed. I think there was a sense of loss of that little boy not knowing if he was right or wrong. Everything I grew up with I had to walk away from.
COMMENTS
One response to “Wes Craven Had To Walk Away From Everything He Grew Up With”
Leave a Reply
His autograph sits in my study drawer.
He used my sister’s building in LA to film shots of werewolves rappelling up and down walls
in “Cursed”.
The interview sure sounds relevant to issues of law and grace.
Craven oversaw the 1984 re-do of “Twilight Zone”, which I think is excellent.
The episode entitled “Her Pilgrim Soul”, his personal favorite,
is worth a look. There Wes Craven makes you cry.