Wes Craven - RIP

Sever Tomorrow

Just breaking on BBC News.

The iconic horror director has died aged 76.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34104752

Sad. He was probably the most iconic horror film director of late twentieth century (besides maybe John Carpenter).

I've written a retrospective on A Nightmare on Elm Street, if anyone cares to read it.

Replete with Christian iconography, from the crucifixes adorning the walls of several characters’ bedrooms, to the chilling nursery rhyme accompanying the closing credits, Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street is not an especially subtle film. But then, subtly and horror do strange bedfellows make. This was the film which established Craven as one of the kings of the horror genre, if not the reigning champion, after low-budget video nasty Last House on the Left and Texas Chain Saw Massacre-knockoff The Hills Have Eyes the previous decade. In Freddy Krueger, as iconic a monster as there has ever been in cinema, Craven took the more supernatural elements of characters like Michael Myers, of John Carpenter’s Halloween, to their most extreme conclusion. The result is a film which mines the fear factor of ghost stories and slasher films alike.[read more]

crazygeryy

It was all i could do to see a nightmare on elm street when it first came out.i wasnt allowed to see it in the cinema,i was too young, so i waited and waited and waited for it to be released on video. My brother went and got it for me i waited until my parents went out and i watched it.
It scared the **** out of me but it was brilliant and worth the wait. A masterpiece of cinema and a memory ill have forever.

Thank you Wes craven.

R.I.P

shamrock55

Ill never forget the first time i saw noes when i was a young lad because it frightened the living bejaysus outta me, i can still remember the fear i had of going to sleep that night and the image in my head of that lad covered in blood floating around the ceiling:D
anyway thanks for that mr craven and may you RIP.

Kev W

One of my all time favourite filmmakers.

RIP

Basq

Well, this is terrible news to wake up to on a Monday morning!

Thank you so much for so many excellent and terrifying movies Wes!

RIP!

Bacchus

Wow, didn't realize he was battling cancer. He'll be missed, he is the man that scared and thrilled me growing up. Elm Street may well go down as the definitive movie (series) of his career but for me Scream is the movie of my youth. I remember my older cousin getting the video out in the shop, watching it in the dark, having the sh*t scared out of me and then having to walk home on what must have been the darkest, quietest night.

kiddums

Wes was a master of what he did. I can safely say that Nightmare On Elm Street is the reason I now love watching horror movies. I've even bought the box set twice. I was looking forward to his involvement on the upcoming Scream TV show, which is an area that really needs his touch.

Thank you for all you have done. RIP.

johnny_ultimate

It would be disingenuous to suggest Wes Craven's filmography was a flawless one. There's as many misfires and redundant sequels as there are hits. Even with said hits, Craven's direction could often be described as merely workmanlike, a man who was sometimes reliable for delivering great ideas competently rather than brilliantly.

And yet few directors, either better or worse, could boast of having such a discernible impact on cinema as we know it. Craven was not only a trendsetter - he set trends multiple times during his career. From his low budget early films to his role in popularising the 'supernatural slasher' film, and of course his rejuvenating and recontextualising the entire ****ing horror genre with Scream, Craven was a master in the sense that he repeatedly helped define what audiences expected from horror cinema, and undoubtedly inspired other filmmakers to innovate and experiment too.

I have to admit there's a whole lot of his films I haven't seen, as I'm not a particular horror fan (although I've always had a soft spot for Red Eye, for some reason!) And yet I reckon even people who haven't seen a single Wes Craven film would be aware of many of the images, formulae and indeed beloved cinematic monsters he helped to introduce to the world. And few filmmakers enjoy a legacy like that.

horgan_p

For me anyway , Wes Craven , Steven King and Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th) were the (un)holy trinity of my early teen years. between the 3 of them they created most if not all of my nightmares.

Greenmachine

Heard the news on the radio this morning when I was out running.

Harry Palmr

Ah, that's a pity. No idea he was battling cancer. One of the greats of "post Hollywood" horror trio along with I would say John Carpenter and George Romeo who changed the visual language of the horror genre. He was massively variable and derivative of.............himself!

Has any other director remade/re-imagined so many of his own films even if he wasn't actually the director every time?

Kev W

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Ah, that's a pity. No idea he was battling cancer. One of the greats of "post Hollywood" horror trio along with I would say John Carpenter and George Romeo who changed the visual language of the horror genre. He was massively variable and derivative of.............himself!

Has any other director remade/re-imagined so many of his own films even if he wasn't actually the director every time?

Off the top of my head I can only think of Hitchcock, though he actually did direct his own remakes.

Liam McPoyle

While A Nightmare on Elm Street was the first proper adult horror movie I saw, Last House on the Left is my favourite film by Craven. Even to this day, some 43 years later, it still packs a heavy punch and set the tone for the exploitation genre and arguably gave birth to the rape / revenge movie.

He didnt have as stellar an output as peers like Cronenberg or Carpenter, he still made some of the most memorable movies in horror history.

Scream came at a time when horror was drowning in sub standard sequels and it turned the genre on its head. It was solely responsible for the "clever" horror genre and spawned countless imitators.

His influence is undoubted and he was a true horror icon and innovator.

Im going to watch the People Under the Stairs at some point over the next few days. Its been in my re-watch pile for a couple of months so I think its only fitting I give it a whirl.

RIP, Mr Craven.

Wanderer78

rip

thevinylword

RIP. Frightened the bollix out of me on many's an occasion

cowboyBuilder

RIP, those Freddie films were a part of me growing up.

Dirty Dingus McGee

Sad to hear.

Scream is one of my all time favourite films.It's close to perfect and I love Red Eye aswell.

conorhal

Business Cat wrote: »

While A Nightmare on Elm Street was the first proper adult horror movie I saw, Last House on the Left is my favourite film by Craven. Even to this day, some 43 years later, it still packs a heavy punch and set the tone for the exploitation genre and arguably gave birth to the rape / revenge movie.

He didnt have as stellar an output as peers like Cronenberg or Carpenter, he still made some of the most memorable movies in horror history.

Scream came at a time when horror was drowning in sub standard sequels and it turned the genre on its head. It was solely responsible for the "clever" horror genre and spawned countless imitators.

His influence is undoubted and he was a true horror icon and innovator.

Im going to watch the People Under the Stairs at some point over the next few days. Its been in my re-watch pile for a couple of months so I think its only fitting I give it a whirl.

RIP, Mr Craven.

I came here to post a shout out for 'The People Under the Stairs' too, it's probably his most underrated film, an urban horror-fairy-tale that's two parts Hansel and Grettel to one part Joseph Fritzel.

IvaBigWun

Nightmare on Elm Street; that horror film your friends dared you to watch as a teenager.

The Scream Trilogy; One amazing film, one good one and one that was ok. The films that reinvigorated the genre.

Red Eye; his most under rated film IMO. The tension is palpable.

I could have sworn The Cabin In The Woods was one of his too but I just checked and its not. It definitely had his influences all over it however.

All in all, a great body of work to leave behind.

shazzerman

IvaBigWun wrote: »

Nightmare on Elm Street; that horror film your friends dared you to watch as a teenager.

The Scream Trilogy; One amazing film, one good one and one that was ok. The films that reinvigorated the genre.

Red Eye; his most under rated film IMO. The tension is palpable.

I could have sworn The Cabin In The Woods was one of his too but I just checked and its not. It definitely had his influences all over it however.

All in all, a great body of work to leave behind.

I know what you are saying, but I think Scream, while quite a fresh take on the genre (New Nightmare was definitely much better though), can be seen as ultimately responsible for the genre losing the subversive powers attained in the decades before. An uncritical paying public made it a huge hit; dime-a-dozen directors took their cue from the film's success to churn out mediocre horror films - with the odd exception - from then on.

candy-gal1

RIP to the 80s/90s horror master

Agent Coulson

Shocker was always a favorite of mine from the VHS days.

RIP. Wes.

JP Liz V1

Dirty Dingus McGee wrote: »

Sad to hear.

Scream is one of my all time favourite films.It's close to perfect and I love Red Eye aswell.

I really enjoyed Red Eye also thought Cillian and Rachel were great in it


RIP Wes

shazzerman

The Last House on the Left is probably the Wes Craven masterpiece that will still be namechecked in 100 years as an example of a truly great horror film. It is still a very intelligent dissection of the violence at the core of the American dream. Of course, because it is a horror film, it never got the accolades of something like Peckinpah's Straw Dogs, which came out a year before and dealt with similar themes.

Craven, along with Hooper, Romero, Carpenter, and Cronenberg, shook up American cinema in the 1970s. I don't expect too many people to agree with me, but as a group of filmmakers I think there was more talent there than in the usual grouping of "major" American filmmakers of that time (the one that includes Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Lucas).