Sad news today as we've learnt that one of Horror's key figures, Wes Craven has passed away. Notable for his work in the slasher sub-genre, many of his films have garnered a cult following, such as his early feature The Hills Have Eyes in 1977.
Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Craven earned degrees in English, Psychology and a masters in Philosophy. He worked briefly as a teacher before putting his degrees to an entirely different use when he went on to write, direct and edit pornography. His first feature, The Last House on the Left (1972) was an exploitation-horror piece about two teenage girls who are tortured by a gang of murderous thugs, based loosely on the controversial Bergman film The Virgin Spring (1960)
In 1985, Craven wrote and directed A Nightmare on Elm Street, which brought into being one of Horror's most notorious villains; Freddy Krueger, a razor-fisted serial-killer that stalks and murders his victims in their dreams. In 1988 Wes directed The Serpent and the Rainbow, a voodoo horror story about reanimation, and followed this with sequels to a variety of his other popular films. In 1996, Wes found huge critical and commercial success with Scream, a satirical mystery slasher film with an all star cast including David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan and Drew Barrymore.
Wes Craven's influence on the horror genre was unparallelled, and many of his most iconic films and characters live on, both in pop-culture and in spin-offs of one type or another. There's no doubt he'll be sorely missed.
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