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Wes Craven

(08-02-1939 -????)

Occupation:Director, Producer
Also: Screenwriter
Birth Name: Wesley Earl Craven
Born: August 2, 1939, Cleveland, OH
Education: Wheaton College, IL (English, psychology);
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (writing, philosophy)

American Horror director who burst unto the scene with the classic shocker LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Craven is a former Professor of Humanities and possesses degree’s in English, Psychology and Philosophy. His early film work included stints as an editor and assistant producer under fellow horror director Sean Cunnigham. Working with Cunningham, the two made an early impact with the horror shocker LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. Craven would continue to deliver horror films which were not only terrifying but well produced, THE HILLS HAVE EYES was yet another classic shocker to come from Craven. Yet his major impact to the horror genre would be the commercially successful NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Series, which featured the infamous finger bladed dream stalker Freddy Krueger. His later films would be a mixed bag as Craven seemed to be turning more toward self parody and black humor as seen in SHOCKER, PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS and the later ELM STREET films. His latest project SCREAM, a direct horror parody has become a major hit among horror fans who feel his films have strayed from the style of his early films HILLS HAVE EYES and LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

Filmography courtesy of Internet Movie Database

Horror/Cult Filmography
  1. Scream (1996) [Director]
    ... aka Scary Movie (1996)
  2. Shadow Zone: The Undead Express (1996) (TV) [Actor .... Counsellor]
  3. Fear, The (1995) [Actor .... Dr. Arnold]
  4. Outpost, The (1995/I) [Producer]
    ... aka Wes Craven Presents Mind Ripper (1995)
    ... aka Wes Craven's "The Mindripper" (1995)
  5. Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) [Director]
  6. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) [Actor .... Himself] [Director] [Producer (executive)] [Writer]
    ... aka Nightmare On Elm Street 7, A (1994)
  7. Body Bags (1993) (TV) [Actor .... Pasty Faced Man]
    ... aka John Carpenter Presents Body Bags (1993) (TV)
  8. People Under the Stairs, The (1992) [Director] [Producer (executive)] [Writer]
  9. Night Visions (1990) (TV) [Director] [Producer (executive)] [Writer]
  10. Shocker (1989) [Actor .... Man Neighbor] [Director] [Producer (executive)]
  11. Serpent and the Rainbow, The (1988) [Director]
  12. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, A (1987) [Writer]
  13. Deadly Friend (1986) [Director]
  14. Chiller (1985) (TV) [Director]
  15. Hills Have Eyes Part II, The (1985) [Director]
  16. Invitation to Hell (1984) (TV) [Director]
  17. Nightmare on Elm Street, A (1984) [Director] [Writer]
  18. Swamp Thing (1982) [Director] [Writer]
  19. Deadly Blessing (1981) [Director] [Writer]
  20. Hills Have Eyes, The (1978) [Director] [Editor] [Writer]
  21. Stranger in Our House (1978) (TV) [Director]
    ... aka Summer of Fear (1978) (TV)
  22. Last House on the Left (1972) [Director] [Editor] [Writer]
One of the horror genre's best-known and most celebrated directors, Wes Craven has been widely credited with reinventing the teen horror movie. Initially gaining fame and notoriety for his Nightmare on Elm Street series in the 1980s, Craven enjoyed a second wave of popularity in the 1990s with his phenomenally successful Scream series, which spoofed the teen horror genre even as they revived it. The films kicked off a trend in teen horror films, inspiring any number of imitators that, for the most part, failed to live up to Craven's own work. A product of a strict Baptist upbringing in Cleveland, Ohio, Craven took a BA in psychology and education from Wheaton College and earned an MA in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University. After teaching humanities for awhile, Craven plunged into filmmaking as a production assistant and editor for several "B" companies. He made his directorial debut with Last House on the Left (1972), a gruesome little effort that, to put it mildly, affected different people different ways. Some viewers found this repellantly staged "revenge for rape" story profound, citing the fact that Craven based the movie on Ingmar Bergman's Virgin Spring; others, including such mainstream commentators as Leonard Maltin, have condemned Last House on the Left as utter excrement. No matter how one felt about Craven, one could not deny his power to manipulate his audience. This power was further evidenced with The Hills Have Eyes (1977), which again met with radically divided opinions--and made a fortune. With Swamp Thing (1982), Craven graduated to big budgets, and also revealed a wicked gift for comedy previously denied to audiences. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) was an equally effective blend of gore and grim humor which spawned several sequels and served to introduce the world to Freddy Krueger, vengeful specter par excellence. The popularity of the film and its sequels established Craven as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, although he was only directly involved with one of the four sequels. In 1994 he directed Wes Craven's New Nightmare, a Pirandellian affair in which he and Nightmare cast regulars Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon played "themselves"--as did Freddy Kruger! Two years later Craven experienced another milestone in his career with Scream. The success of the film and its numerous imitators effectively established Craven as a hot mainstream commodity, and he followed the film with the equally successful (though not as critically praised) Scream 2 the next year. In 1999 he effected a radical departure from the genre with The Music of the Heart, a sentimental drama that starred Meryl Streep as violin teacher who brings music to the lives of children in Spanish Harlem. The film was quickly dismissed by audiences and critics alike, and in 2000 Craven returned to more familiar territory with Scream 3, the latest in his in saga of hip, ironic terror. Craven has occasionally curbed his stomach-churning tendencies (though not his willingness to run viewers through an emotional wringer) with his TV work, including selected episodes of the Twilight Zone revival of the mid-1980s. In 1989, Craven produced a situation comedy, The People Next Door, all about a cartoonist who had the ability to imagine his drawings into existence. -- Hal Erickson, All Movie Guid

Movies
Scream 3 (2000)
Dial H For Hitchcock (1999)
Music of the Heart (1999)
Scream 2 (1997)
Wishmaster (1997)
Scream (1996)
Shadow Zone: The Undead Express (1996)
The Fear (1995)
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Body Bags (1993)
The People under the Stairs (1991)
Freddy's Nightmares: Dreams That Kill (1990)
Freddy's Nightmares: Freddy's Tricks and Treats (1990)
Freddy's Nightmares: Lucky Stiff (1990)
Freddy's Nightmares: No More Mr. Nice Guy (1990)
Night Visions (1990)
Shocker (1989)
Freddy's Nightmares: It's My Party and You'll Die If I Want You to (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Flowers in the Attic (1987)
The Serpent and the Rainbow (1987)
Deadly Friend (1986)
Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors (1986)
Chiller (1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Invitation to Hell (1984)
The Hills Have Eyes, Part 2 (1984)
Swamp Thing (1982)
Deadly Blessing (1981)
Stranger in Our House (1978)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
It Happened in Hollywood (1973)
Last House on the Left (1972)
Together (1972)
You've Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You'll Lose That Beat (1971)


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