I like that Craven tests us. It’s not often done. Of the three masterpieces of horror cinema of the era that I mentioned in the beginning, not a one of them asks us to examine the real world implication of what we as an audience have just viewed. That is not to say those films are lesser in any way, but it elevates Craven’s works into being a touch more cerebral. Craven has a statement he wants to make about the civilized world that we often try to hush up or fail to acknowledge and he chose the legend of Sawney Bean to justify it.

For those not in the know, Sawney Bean is a Scottish folk legend from the 16th century wherein he and his family were a feral family that lived in the caves of the Scottish Highlands that would pick off anybody that happened by and brutalize and consume them. The Bean family supposedly killed thousands before the King had his knight’s hunt down the family and execute them without trial. Bad enough as that is, they tortured the cannibalistic family, raped and savaged the women and kept them alive for days before actually performing the executions. The Bean family was executed on the basis of their feral nature, but the civilized royals allowed the same barbarism to befall the family in the name of justice. Craven expertly utilized this story (which is likely mere legend) to have the audience examine the nature of justice. It’s also important to note that this may have been important to him as this was the Vietnam era and the acts of violence shown on television in the name of peace had to have influence as it is so blatantly reflective in his first two major cinematic works.