Craven

“Scary movies don’t create fear,” the American writer-director Wes Craven told me on more than one occasion. “They release fear.” This was a mantra for the horror maven, along with his equally forthright declaration that scary movies were a “bootcamp for the soul”, teaching psychological survival skills within the safety of the cinema.Over the course of his career, Craven, who died in 2015 aged 76, made some of the most memorably influential scary movies of the 20th century, from gruelling grindhouse classic The Last…

Just a few weeks prior to the release of Shadow Moses, Nicholas Craven’s collaborative project with Mike Shabb, the Montreal producer posted a picture of him posing with Mach-Hommy and Jay-Z on Instagram.In Complex Canada’s interview with Craven, he got to explain the experience and how it felt to meet Jay-Z.“Very nice guy,” Craven said. “Real hip-hop head. He’s a real lover of art and music. And just a real dude.”Craven knows the old adage that claims you should never meet your idols, but he’s grateful he did.“It’s nice…

Before meeting Nicholas Craven in the heart of the pandemic, Mike Shabb knew he had to make a change in his approach if he wanted to capitalize on his potential. Though his earlier music leaned heavily on what was trendy at the time, Shabb loved what Griselda was up to and realized he could make a career of it. He conducted research on the group’s producers, eventually learning that Nicholas Craven was behind the production of some of the most prevalent rappers in the drumless-loop scenes. Shabb sent Craven a collection…

It’s been a busy few years for Montreal producer Nicholas Craven.The beatless wonder worked with Boldy James on full album Fair Exchange No Robbery and several tracks for renowned artists like Westside Gunn and the formidable Mach-Hommy.On his most recent trip to Los Angeles, Nicholas Craven posted a brief recap on his Instagram with the first picture showing both Mach-Hommy and Jay-Z posing near him.“I love Los Angeles,” he wrote in the picture’s caption.Craven will soon release his collaborative Shadow Moses EP with…

Swamp Thing is a big part of the DC Universe.Image: DC ComicsBarely a single day has passed since James Gunn and Peter Safran revealed their slate of upcoming DC Universe films, but already one of the highest-profile titles may have an equally high-profile director. James Mangold, currently putting the finishing touches on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is reportedly in talks to helm Swamp Thing.The Hollywood Reporter broke the news though Mangold himself left the breadcrumbs on Twitter Tuesday evening.Talks are…

Screenshot: Intercontinental Releasing CorporationThese days there’s no shortage of Christmas-themed horror movies, especially ones that feature a killer dressed as Santa Claus. But in the slasher genre’s earliest days, that hadn’t yet become a trope—1972's Tales From the Crypt gave us a red-suited maniac, to name maybe the most notable early example, and 1980's To All a Goodnight picks up what that anthology put down, while also borrowing generously from what’s still the greatest Christmas slasher of all time, 1974's…

After releasing his collaborative album Boulangerie with Nicholas Craven in May, Brampton rapper Raz Fresco hasn’t pumped the breaks, releasing the claymation video for their track “Stolen Goods.”The idea of a claymation video came about when M Works, one of Fresco’s close collaborators, approached him about potentially making a full-length video in that style. “All throughout the year the construction of everything seen in the video was meticulously taking place,” Fresco said in an email about the video. “I would get…

Griselda rapper Boldy James and Montreal producer Nicholas Craven join forces for their new collaborative album Fair Exchange No Robbery.The 10-track project arrives a few months after the pair teamed up for “Death & Taxes,” which dropped in July. Last December, Boldy and Craven linked up on “Yzerman,” the first single from the latter’s latest full-length offering, Craven N 3.At the end of 2021, Craven spoke with Complex about his first collab with Boldy, revealing he knew the pair needed to join forces after hearing…

Here’s the tagline to Wes Craven’s controversial 1972 horror movie The Last House on the Left: “To avoid fainting, keep repeating, ‘It’s only a movie … Only a movie … Only a movie …”And here’s the epigraph: “The events you are about to witness are true. Names and locations have been changed to protect those individuals still living.”That second quote about the film’s supposed veracity is a little William Castle-style gimmicky, like putting buzzers under theater seats. But before the first image even appeared on the…