Wes Craven
By Sean Tuohy
Wes Craven brought nightmares to life with his passion for filmmaking and storytelling. He was to blame for the fear that swelled inside of us when we heard a bump in the night after watching one of his movies.
Craven passed away last night after a long battle with brain cancer. He’ll live on though his awe-inspiring body of work that made us stay awake and carefully watch the shadows.
It was a challenge, but the Writer's Bone crew picked the top five Wes Craven-directed films.
5. “Red Eye”
“Red Eye” wasn’t a blood-soaked horror fest, but featured Craven's journey into thriller filmmaking with this Hitchcock-esque movie set on a plane. Most of the 90-minute movie is spent with two people on an airplane. A villainous hit man threatens a hotel manager into helping him with a high profile assassination. It’s an edge of your seat film that hits the ground running.
4. “The Serpent and the Rainbow”
Craven's film of modern day voodoo hit a cord with everyone in the theater. The chill-inducing scene featuring man screaming, “I'm not dead," as he is buried alive is one of the most horrific scenes caught on film.
3. “Shocker”
Pure imagination and pure Craven. A deadly mix of spiritual and horror were fused together in this tale of good versus evil. A serial killer turns himself into pure energy and uses the television to kill his victims. A high student who lost his family to the killer sets out to catch him. The film is a high concept idea with a dash of pure emotion.
2. “The Hills Have Eyes”
An early Craven film, “The Hills Have Eyes,” asked one of the most basic human questions: What would you do to stay alive? Pinning a family in an RV against blood-thirsty desert killers, the film struck a chord with horror fans early on. Craven made sure to keep the film grounded, which makes it that much harder to watch.
1. “A Nightmare on Elm Street”
One name: Freddy Krueger. With this film, Craven made himself into a master storyteller. A disfigured serial killer finds his victims while they are sleeping? Does it get scarier than that? Bloody and outside of this realm, “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is considered a classic film.