Wes Craven (1939 - 2015)
On August 30th, we lost another cinematic hero: director Wes Craven, mostly known for kick-starting some of the most iconic horror franchises around and for redefining the slasher genre several times. Here's a look back at one significant career, to say the least.
While Wes Craven is never credited for inventing the slasher movie genre since the likes of Psycho, Peeping Tom and quite a few Dario Argento movies existed prior to the director's most memorable works, he is always placed right up there with John Carpenter as one of the horror genre's top orchestrators.
Prior to mainstream filmmaking, Craven was a teacher, then an editor and even a pornographic film director. His first horror feature was The Last House On The Left back in 1972, a film he not only directed but wrote and edited. It was trashy, it was bloody, it was low-budget and it was pretty darn fun.
Wes Craven would then constantly breathe new life into a genre which has been known to quickly stagnate. The Hills Have Eyes was his Texas Chainsaw Massacre: a Southern desert landscape, human monsters praying on a lost bunch of innocents. The film and its wackier sequel would much later spawn a violent remake with its own sequel, both overseen by Craven.
In 1982, Wes Craven would tackle a DC comic-book hero of all things and make a live-action adaptation of Swamp Thing starring Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau and Ray Wise. The film showed the director could handle more action-oriented fare and critics, including Roger Ebert, gave Swamp Thing the thumbs up even if it didn't quite make the impact of an Age Of Ultron.
It was in 1984 that Craven would deliver the first instalment of the franchise he is still perhaps best known for. A Nightmare On Elm Street introduced us to Robert Englund's invincible, thoroughly unpleasant creep Freddy Krueger, a sadistic ghoul with a dark sense of humour, a thoroughly scarred face, knives for fingers and the ability to appear in your dreams and turn Johnny Depp into mush. It was a genius concept which merged the stay-awake paranoia of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers with gratuitous slasher gore and teen idiocy beautifully creating a spooky yet fun Friday night at the movies.
The film proved so enjoyable, in fact, that no less than five sequels would follow before Wes Craven himself would come back to direct 1994's very meta New Nightmare. Add to that a short-lived TV series, a spin-off (Freddy vs. Jason) and the obligatory inferior modern remake and you've got yourself one hell of a legacy.
Ever toying with the horror genre, Craven would direct the odd but rather good The People Under The Stairs (1991), underrated Eddie Murphy comedy Vampire In Brooklyn (1995) and a little film only known as Scream (1996). The latter was, of course, yet another big hit for the director as the film proved effective both as a parody of/homage to slasher films and as a straight-up horror movie complete with jump-scares and gore.
Scream was a clever blend of comedy and scares with a Wes Craven on top form, bringing us laughs and chills in equal amounts. More importantly: it was a breath of fresh air and proved that the slasher genre could still deliver the goods, if handled creatively. The movie would spawn three more sequels and a TV series.
Throughout his career, Craven would also produce projects he'd find original and/or fun enough to warrant his stamp of approval, including the Wishmaster (1997) franchise and Dracula 2000 (2000).
Ultimately, Wes Craven was one of the most important and reliable innovators in the horror genre and his passing is a severe loss. He had a keen eye for frightening ideas but could also see the goofy side of things which made for really cool, fun work appealing to die hard slasher fans and passive horror consumers.
Wes Craven passed away in his home in Los Angeles after a long battle with brain cancer, he was 76.
