R.I.P. Wes Craven

Here’s some sad news to start off the week. Maverick horror filmmaker Wes Craven passed away on Sunday after battling brain cancer.

Craven is of course most famous for creating the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchise, which introduced the world to the iconic figure of Freddy Krueger. The original 1984 film spawned five direct sequels, two movie spinoffs, one TV spinoff, one attempted reboot, plus numerous tie-in books and comics and action figures and more.

As if that weren’t enough achievement to rest on his laurels, Craven also went on to direct all four movies in the wildly popular ‘Scream’ franchise (though he didn’t create that one). Other horror properties of his that made some lasting impact include ‘The Last House on the Left’ and ‘The Hills Have Eyes’.

In 1999, Craven made a rare venture outside the horror genre with the inspirational teacher drama ‘Music of the Heart’. As much as that may have seemed like an odd choice of project for the director, it makes more sense when you realize that he had himself been a university professor before taking up filmmaking.

On a personal note, I vividly remember watching ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors’ (which Craven conceived the story for and co-wrote) after it hit HBO in late 1987 or early 1988. I was in middle school at the time. After it aired, a group of friends and I who’d watched it gathered at recess to excitedly discuss what we’d seen. I began quoting dialogue from the movie – a lot of dialogue – and acting out my favorite scenes. One of my friends stopped me to ask, “What, did you memorize the movie or something?” Well, I certainly hadn’t done it consciously, but yeah, I kind of did. That was one of the earlest times I realized that watching movies was a really important part of my life, perhaps more so than other kids my age.

Craven was 76-years-old. The last feature he directed was 2011’s ‘Scream 4’. He also served as Executive Producer of MTV’s ‘Scream’ TV series.

[Source: The Hollywood Reporter]

8 comments

  1. NJScorpio

    I hope his death is in fact just a setup for some sort of meta horror movie reinvention where he himself comes back to “hunt” the remaining cast members from his classic franchises.

    • Csm101

      It will be called The Last House at the End of Elm Street Will Make You Scream and Run to the Hills Which Have Eyes.

  2. theHDphantom

    Was very, very sad to hear the news last night. Wes Craven is one of the main reasons why I love horror movies so much. RIP sir. Thank you for all the scares.

  3. Lord Bowler

    One of my favorite movies was “The People Under the Stairs”. I’ve seen this a few times over the years, and now it’s being developed for a TV series.

    I remember not being allowed to watch Nightmare on Elm Street, so I had to watch it through a crack in the door until I got caught. It was years later until I finally saw it in its entirety.

    I was never much of a fan of horror films, but I also liked the Scream films.

    I never knew he was ill. How he kept working on all of these TV projects is amazing while he was ill. I know personally the effects of Brain Cancer.

    RIP.

    • Chaz

      I love The People Under the Stairs, criminally underrated film by him, its twisted stuff 🙂

      He will surely be missed, Nightmare and Freddy are my all time favorite in the genre, hard to lose such a legend 🙁

  4. charles contreras

    RIP Wes Craven, you were truly one of the best in the film industry, and Freddy Krueger is as iconic a film character just like the Frankenstein monster. Your work will never be forgotten.

  5. I was such a huge fan of his; I redubbed his 70’s style score out of the last house on the left and replaced it with a proper horror score that really changed the film for the better. R.I.P. Sir, horror will never be the same without you.

  6. Chris M.

    I can’t believe that not one of the articles I’ve read about Wes has mentioned one of my childhood favorites Swamp Thing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *