Wilde? He's a scream

Wesley Earl Craven is no stranger to struggle. Born in Ohio in 1939 and raised by strict Baptist parents, he had an unhappy childhood. The horrors of his often darkly comic films often spring from child abuse.

His 'video nasty' debut The Last House On The Left (1972) has such brutal vengeance exacted on an all-American family that even now the British Board of Film Classification won't grant it cinema certification. Its tagline is 'Keep repeating "it's only a movie..."' but in Craven's work, fantasy frequently and terrifyingly takes over the reality asylum.

Is age mellowing him at all? 'Oh God, I hope not,' he roars, jovially. 'Once a film-maker loses their rage, they're dead. Societies want to make things nice and palatable. To build Disneylands and nice green lawns and not think about the insecticides leaking into the ecosystem from those nice green lawns.

'I want the truth to be told. I want people to wake up. It's like the line in Nightmare On Elm Street: "Whatever you do, don't fall asleep." It's so easy to slip into a lie: a distorted view of reality.'

Ask Craven what keeps him awake at night and he immediately responds 'the current administration'. Often dismissed as dumbed-down sadistic escapism, his movies, he insists, 'like to address the fears of our culture'.

'It's like when your parents lie to you - then deny it. That's how the current administration operates, too. Why do they think people want to kill us? They spy on us, they torture, hold people in prison for five years without charges and... oh my God.'

He backtracks, suddenly defensive at my probing: 'Let's talk about something frivolous like pantaloons.' Don't write all that serious stuff - just say "he was incredibly witty".'

He is witty. Craven, like all the horror directors I've talked to, is a genuinely funny guy. But then, as he points out: 'Almost all humour is about things that really disturb us or threaten our world. It's just the output is a laugh not a scream. The build-up of tension, the timing is almost identical. I'd really like to do a comedy next.'

Paris, Je T'Aime is a stepping stone to that. Though he admits to making up that Wildean aphorism 'death of the heart...' he really believes it.

'It came out of the past several years of my life where I got married to a wonderful woman but first went through the angst of "my God, this is my third marriage and divorce is so horrendous" - then realised that however crazy love might seem, you have to open your heart or you die.'

So will he direct the next Jane Austen? 'Oh I hope so,' he laughs. 'I'm waiting for the phone to ring.' Let's hope it's not someone rasping: 'Do you like scary movies?'

Paris, Je T'Aime is released on Friday.