Not only is Wes Craven back, he's back in top form horror fans so breathe a sigh of relief! FEARnet had the chance to catch up with Wes last week while he was out and about promoting the remake of his classic flick, The Last House on the Left. We had the chance to pick his brain on everything from the MPAA to working with his son and even about using Twitter! Wes was not shy on dishing out the dirt, but consider yourself warned because this thing is full of spoilers! Hit the jump for the full interview and be sure to check out Last House on the Left in theaters tomorrow!  

Dennis Iliadis directed a great film in 2004 called Hardcore, is this how he appeared on your radar?

We were looking at all of the directors that had interesting films coming out. Mostly from Europe because they are unknown and somebody hasn't bought them up already. It was instant recognition with Hardcore - wow this guy is a terrific filmmaker, [so] we met with him and within the parameters he was interested in doing something that was original, it was all pretty quick.

What were some of these parameters you set?

There were a lot of in house discussions, this and that, y'know [like] Jr. does he live or not, does Mari live or not, the mother killing weasel 'that way' the 'pissing the pants' all that sort of stuff. We came down to a general feeling of let's do a film that approaches an art film and yet is hard-hitting. But elevates it so it has this real beauty about it and the characters are real and complex. And then everything else followed along those lines as in what Dennis thought was appropriate...we had a lot of different versions and then at a certain point the version that we shot was what we felt good about. We didn't want to do something that people would just come out of and feel disgusted and hopeless. Part of that was the decision in the kids surviving. But not being 'la-la-la' about it.

Ultimately, were you happy with all of these changes?

Yes.

The ending?

I had my doubts about it, and I had my tonal doubts about it, but the effect on test audiences was very strong and I felt there was a chance that it would lift people out of it if they were in a pit. I also found it interesting that the Dr. who's oath 'does no harm' intentionally does this and that it kinda shows that when seeking revenge you can become something evil yourself if you don't stop once what's been necessary is done. So I also found it intriguing that we're just seeing these wonderful, perfect people but the father comes back and goes out of his way to do this.

You weren't on set so did you channel yourself through your son Jonathan, was he on set a lot?

He was on set all the time. He and Cody were the ones that worked with Dennis. I think the film was made by Dennis with Jonathan and Cody [Zwieg]. They had formed a really interesting team and will probably continue working with and for me as producers and I'm really excited about that.

Do you find that Jonathan shares similar sensibilities to you? Do you find him making the same decisions you would?

We haven't butt heads yet! We spent a month together in the same room writing the script for Hills 2 and got along quite well. I think John does a terrific job, he's smart, but he can be forceful but he also understands the process. He's directed himself, he's produced himself, he's written and he's even done things outside of film.

Would you trust him in deciding which film of yours should be next to be remade?

So far that'll be a decision that I'll make with them and listening to them. I don't want to relinquish all control over to them on things I've made, if they want to find new films I would trust them on that.

We already know there will be an uncut version of Last House on DVD, what should we expect?

Dennis had really strong feelings about the rape and the length it should go on and that's one area the MPAA came in very insistently on and did cause us to shorten it if we wanted an R but [Dennis] has already done his own version for the DVD and it's longer, I think by about 45 seconds or a minute maybe. There were a couple of other things, but frankly I think he'll feel that it's the true film that he made and would like to put it out there. It's always very dulling to have to have some 'blanety-blank' guy tell you "If you want to get an R-Rating (which you absolutely have to have these days) you have to take that out'. Who are these people? Y'know?

The funny thing is they said you don't need it [the extended rape] because this is a marvelous film! It's really a 'special' film and it's like wow, I've never heard that from the MPAA! It's both a good sign and a bad sign because it meant they were absolutely convinced you didn't need one more shot in the rape. There were a couple of extra stabbings in Paige and stuff like that. It's a percentage of a percentage, not a massive change. I think because the film was so good they kept their hands off of most of it.

Do you think they took a tip from your theory and viewed it as an 'artistic' horror film?

I think they did and it's very rare, I had them say that about A Nightmare on Elm Street which was very unusual, I wasn't expecting that. I only had to make one cut off of that and it was where the girl falls off the ceiling and hits the bed, there's a splash [and] they made me kinda cut the splash out. Which I hate to this day. I see it and I say 'ahhhh!' but they liked the film, so occasionally you get that where they can see that even they who probably never go to horror a film thinks it's a good film and can recognize that. It doesn't stop them from putting their mark on it though. It's just the reality of the way that it works.

Anything from the original that didn't make the transition to the remake that you would have liked to?

Dennis not only did what the first film had, aside from just bold shock value for the sake of shock value, he just raised it to another level. I was just teaching myself how to make a film [with the first The Last House on the Left), doing that film with $90,000 in 20 some days. To have a little bit more money and an experienced director with a real vision it's a pleasure to see.

What's your greatest fear?

Oh, I dunno, I don't go around thinking I have one fear that's really haunting me, I guess I'm afraid just on a larger scale we'll fuck up this planet and leave ashes for our grandchildren and that concerns me and that we'll destroy so much of nature that's so beautiful and so in need of protection. It's very painful to be involved with nature for such a long time, just watching it just go down hill and species die. It's extremely painful to watch.

I'm told Chernobyl is full of many healthy animals because their lifespan is so much shorter that they are fine having radioactivity and that there are so many herds of animals roaming there that aren't anywhere else.

I have to ask you if that's really you on Twitter.

It's me with my associate producer teaching me to Twitter so, we'll sit together and she'll ask me questions and I'll say we'll try this, like now we're doing trivia. I don't have time to keep up with it, but she does all the [posting].

Do you have an update on your next film, 25/8 you can share?

We went back and did a 2 week [pauses] not a reshoot but an additional shoot because the kids were so terrific. And there was a section of the film that after a while we just realized it didn't work and it was set in another time period so we just went back and shot more of these kids and it turned out terrific. We're getting ready for our first test screening and we're very excited about it.