Some sad news this morning as it has been revealed that American filmmaker and horror maestro Wes Craven has passed away at his home in Los Angeles aged 76 after a battle with brain cancer.
Craven began his career as a director in 1972 with his first feature The Last House of the Left, a controversial rape-revenge thriller that proved to be a box office success. He followed this with films like The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing and Swamp Thing before introducing the world to the iconic character of Freddy Krueger with 1984’s slasher classic A Nightmare on Elm Street.
He would return to the Elm Street franchise as co-writer on 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as well as directing 1994’s Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. In 1996 he enjoyed huge success and breathed new life into the slasher genre with Scream, returning to direct all three sequels as well as executive producing MTV’s television series.
Craven’s other directorial credits included The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn, Red Eye and My Soul to Take, while his rare forays outside of the horror/thriller genres saw him helming 1999’s Music of the Heart and a segment in 2006’s anthology film Paris, je t’aime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published August 31, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
