From ‘Elm Street’ to ‘Scream,’ Craven was a horror genius

Director Wes Craven died this afternoon in Los Angeles.

Writer-director Wes Craven – famous for the Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream films – has died at the age of 76 after suffering brain cancer. I will be forever grateful for his brilliant direction, his wicked sense of humor and his consummate kindness and friendship. UCP said, “It is our intention to bring to life all the projects Wes developed at Universal Cable Productions”.

But where Craven really made it big was with the Freddy Krueger character in A Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels. Like much of his work, the Scream movies mixed slasher gore with wry humor.

Wesley Earl Craven was born on 2nd August 1939 in Cleveland to Paul and Caroline Craven.

After growing up in a strict Baptist family, Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and Psychology and a master’s degree in Philosophy. In honor of the late director and everything he’s done for the genre, let’s take a look at his 10 greatest films. The movie spawned several sequels, a lot of them directed and written by others. Although he is gone, his spirit will live through some of his most memorable quotes surrounding filmmaking and a topic he is all too familiar with, fear, thanks to Parade. “Scream” came out in 1996, sparked three more installments and grossed more than $100 million domestically, according to Variety. Craven was also an executive producer on MTV’s hit horror series Scream, a television adaptation of Craven’s film franchise of the same name-the series has already been renewed for a second season after making its debut back in June.

A decade after screening “A Nightmare on Elm Street“, Craven scored again with the teenage slasher film “Scream”, a tale of evil but with a sense of humor that became a box-office magnet, and was followed by three more films, all directed by the original creator.

In recent years, Craven created the psychological thriller “Red Eye” starring Rachel McAdams, and also produced remakes of “The Hills Have Eyes” and “The Last House on the Left“.

Craven’s survivors include his wife, one-time Disney Studios Vice President Iya Labunka.