Split Picks: Wes Craven's 'Deadly Friend' Vs. 'Shocker'

Bennett and Jim reenter the Split Picks arena to stand up for two of Craven's oft-forgotten horror films. With Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter in the books, Split Picks shifts to Wes Craven and his three horror epoch-shifting films, his greatest successes and shortcomings as a director, and two films with plots far too complex to explain here. But in their talk of Incubi and a channel-surfing mass murderer who failed to land a franchise, Jim, Bennett, and Craig venture deep into what makes Craven's films unique, influential, and so ripe for studio interference. This week's matchup pits Deadly Blessing (1981) against Shocker (1989). In Deadly Blessing, a small religious community tries to keep all outsiders, technology, and the dreaded incubus away from their farmlands. Shocker finds Craven attempting to make a killer so scary that Freddy Krueger would have to be retired. Do either succeed? Listen to Split Picks to find out which film reins supreme.