Several horror films were included in the recent City of Angels film festival in Los Angeles

Christian Century, Nov 14, 2001

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Caption: FILMMAKER CRAVEN: Several horror films were included in the recent City of Angels Film Festival in Los Angeles, which featured a seminar with Wes Craven, director of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Craven, a Wheaton College dropout disenchanted with evangelicalism who earned a master's in philosophy at Johns Hopkins, said that "horror films somehow ... confront" the dark, incomprehensible side of humanity. "They're very much like an inoculation against a deeper and darker and more frightening reality." When an audience leaves a scary movie, Craven said, "something has been exorcised." Craig Detweiler, co-producer of the evangelical-Catholic festival, said Craven and his bogeyman Freddy Krueger were "created by the church of the 1950s." His Nightmare film critiques "a certain sanitized vision of America that he undoubtedly believes was less than honest."