Oh man. Wes Craven, the auteur who set the formula for both ’80s and ’90s horror, has passed away of brain cancer. He was 76.
Let’s not dwell on the loss of a great filmmaker. Rather, let’s celebrate the work he left behind.
To me, it’s amazing how Craven was able to create the paradigm for two entire decades of cinema horror. Teens having sex and only to get sliced in half were on its way to becoming the norm when Craven’s first feature, The Last House on the Left hit theaters. He would then go on to make The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing, and Swamp Thing (based on the DC Comics character) before changing the game with A Nightmare on Elm Street.
The slasher genre was well-tread before he brought it back like gangbusters. Freddy Kruger was a supernatural terror who felt real. He was based on a traumatic encounter with a stranger from Craven’s youth, which upon learning added to the mystique of Freddy Kruger for me. Especially since I had an encounter eerily similar to Craven’s when I was his age.
Beyond the genius filmmaking that drove Nightmare on Elm Street — the famous “bed blood” scene where Johnny Depp is swallowed up was filmed upside down — it set the new standard for Hollywood horror. He would do it again in the late ’90s with Scream, revitalizing the teen slasher genre with a satire that celebrated and poked fun at it.
In the end, his movies were as much about hope as they were about fear. Nancy from Nightmare embodies these truths. No matter how dark things could get, the resiliency of the human spirit can always light the darkness.
Towards the new millennium Craven kept on keeping on as an executive producer and doing the occasional cameo. He would still sit behind the camera, though those movies weren’t often up to par with his previous work. Still, he was an artist who contributed much to our understanding of what it means to feel fear, and what it means to be utterly fearless.