Being Film #24 for Hooptober 2023

Nightmare on Elm Street may have the dream logic and evil supernatural beings; The Serpent and the Rainbow may have actual magic in the shape of its depiction of voodoo, and yet it’s the very real (to a point) horror and journey of its lead that makes Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs the most fantasy-driven of the man’s work. I’m not prepared to make the case it’s Craven’s best film (that still goes to the original Elm Street for me), but underneath some of its dated jokes and mugging is a wicked satire of the 1% and the struggles of the beaten people under their boot. Plus the man still knows how to frame an indelible image: I’ll never look at an ajar cabinet door the same way again.