Inspirational director

1. Wes Craven

2. Wes Craven
Wesley Earl Craven born August 2 1939 in
Cleveland Ohio, USA sadly he passed away age
76 in Los Angeles California due to brain cancer.
Wes was an established and known director,
writer, producer known for his pioneering and
instigating work with the horror genre,in particular
the slasher sub-genre where he has had a
substantial influence for that sub-genre, as his
work was considered prolifically influential in the
horror community being inspirations for the
slasher sub-genres modern day conventions. Due
to high success and cultural impacts of his work,
Wes has been dubbed as the master of horror.
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3. I have chosen Wes Craven as an horror director that I deem
is very inspirational within his field or directing and genre.
Wes is considered a genius in incorporating horror movie
conventions into his narratives but he always has a twist.
Wes is considered a beloved creator of classic horror
standards. Though he has now passed away he has left a
rich legacy of horror films, he became an underdog-turned
master of horror, which makes very inspirational in the horror
community as he has worked his way up to be known as one
of the best horror directors. Craven specialises in the slasher
sub-genre giving us vast iconic and paradigmatic horror
icons and films. His directing skills will be useful as a
guidance tool for my year 13 work as I would look to his
work as inspiration.
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Wes Craven

4. 4
In any case, his upbringing was before the era of video and his
strictly religious parents hardly let him go to the cinema at all.
In fact, after an initial plan to go into teaching,Craven earned an
undergraduate degree in English and Psychology from
Wheaton College in Illinois and a master's degree in
Philosophy and Writing from Johns Hopkins University.
Craven briefly taught English at Westminster College and was
a humanities professor at Clarkson College of Technology in
Potsdam, New York. Craven’s move to New York from his
hometown of Cleveland as a young man introduced him to
arthouse theatres. When his friend Tom Chapin informed him
of a messenger position at a New York City post-production
company run by his brother, Harry Chapin, Craven moved to
Manhattan. His first creative job in the film industry was as a
sound editor for Chapin's firm.
Wes Craven
Craven’s work with the arthouse mean that he was electrified
by the work of directors like Ingmar Bergman: it was this that
inspired him to go into filmmaking and he had the idea of
remaking Bergman’s 1960 film Virgin Spring as The Last
House on the Left, Craven's first feature film as director.

5. 5
“The original Last House is based
on a Ingmar Bergman film The
Virgin Spring. I had seen it years
before I wrote the script for Last
House, and I don’t think I even
went back to it, but I
remembered the core of the
story, and then I knew Bergman
had based it on a medieval folk
tale from his region of the world.
I said [to the new filmmakers],
‘Think about it more as a
fantastic story that has a very,
very strong spine. We’d like to
have it recognizable to the
audience, but we’d like you to
make it your own.’” - Wes
Craven
Wes Craven

6. Craven is an incredibly savvy
director who speaks with wisdom
through his movies reflecting
society fears and issues. His work
reflects a unique time in our culture
where horror was ready to emerge
from its B-movie roots to become
something intellectual and more
symbolic.
Wes Craven’s
career is a
synoptic link
between the
European
arthouse and
Hollywood
exploitation
horror.
Wes Craven

7. 7
Wes Craven
Wes cravens first feature in
film was in 1971 Drama flick
Together where he worked
for Sean.S Cunningham as
executive producer.
The last house on the left (1972) was
marked as the first exploitation horror
where Wes was first introduced to the
horror community. Wes was the writer
editor and director with Sean.S
Cunningham was the producer. Wes
was greatly inspired by Ingmar
Bergman using inspiration from the
1960 Swedish film ‘The virgin Spring’.
After a 5 year hiatus Wes
Craven returned to the
horror scene with ‘The Hills
Have Eyes’(1977) This movie
marked Wes’s association
with the sub-genre of
slasher. The movie was a
success sparking a sequel.

8. 8
Wes Craven
Deadly Blessings (1981) A
Slasher Horror movie
Swamp Thing (1982) Wes
Craven experimented with Sci-
fi and cult sub-genres within
the horror genres expanding
his work.
A Nightmare On Elm
Street (1984)- Wes Horror
classic was iconic in the
80’s bringing him back to
his roots of the slasher
sub-genre.
The Hills Have eyes
part II (1985)

9. 9
Wes CravenDeadly Friend
(1986) Wes
continues to build a
name for himself as
a slasher sub-genre
horror movie
director.
A Nightmare on Elm
Street 3; Dream Warriors
(1987). The long awaited
sequel to the slasher
classic..
Shocker
(1989)
Another
80’s slasher
directed by
Wes.
The People Under The
Stairs (1991). Wes has
started exploring
different sub-genres by
bringing this thriller and
mystery sub-genre horror
flick.

10. 10
Wes Craven’s New
Nightmare (1994)
Vampire In Brooklyn (1995). Wes
Craven sticking to his horror
roots but exploring horror
through the use of comedy
bringing this 90’s horror
comedy.
Scream (1996) Wes Craven after
having created a name for
himself as one of the slasher
master directors, proved his
talented skills by bringing this
iconic slasher to life. Making
Scream one of the highest and
well known horror franchises.
Scream 2 (1997)
Continuing from its
predecessor this
film brought all
kinds of
entertainment and
thrills to its
audience.
Wes Craven

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Wes Craven
Music of The Heart (1999)- Wes
directed an indie and drama
film showing his versatility to
directing different genres.
Scream 3 (2000) Scream has
now become a well known and
popular horror franchise with
successful films.
Cursed (2005 ). Wes
continued to explore
with the thriller sub-
genre
Red Eye (2005 )- A
thriller film.
My Soul To Take
(2010)
Scream 4(2010) After giving
the horror community
thriller films, Wes surprised
everyone with an
installment of his iconic and
classic franchise.

12. 12
“When I made Swamp Thing, my daughter was
watching it with me, and I had a scene where a
female character was running away, and as in all
such situations in horror movies, she stumbled
and fell. My daughter turned to me and said,
‘Dad, girls don’t always fall down.’ This made me
realize I had fallen into the old horror cliché of
the girl running from the villain and tripping on a
rock or some other debris. I didn’t really care for
that, so it got me thinking about taking it in the
other direction and creating some strong female
characters. I certainly did that with A Nightmare
on Elm Street, and then of course we got to
revisit that again in the Scream ,films with Neve
Campbell and some of the other female
characters.”- Wes Craven
From Wes’s personal
experience it teaches a
lesson about diverting from
trends and breaking horror
cliche stereotypes. Search
beyond the cliché, and you’ll
find something that works to
replace your action space-
filler.
Wes Craven

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1984
The franchise was critically
acclaimed and successful
sparking remakes within the 21st
century.
In Wes Craven's classic slasher film,
several Midwestern teenagers fall prey to
Freddy Krueger a disfigured midnight
mangler who preys on the teenagers in
their dreams which, in turn, kills them in
reality. After investigating the phenomenon,
Nancy begins to suspect that a dark secret
kept by her and her friends' parents may be
the key to unraveling the mystery, but can
Nancy and her boyfriend Glen solve the
puzzle before it's too late?
Robert Englund-
Freddy Krueger
Heather
Langenkamp-
Nancy Thompson
Johnny Depp-
Glen Lantz

14. 14
1984
John
Saxon-
Donald
Thomps
on
Amanda
Wyss-
Tina
Gray
Jsu
Garcia-
Rod Lane
Critic review

15. 15
1984
Iconic Horror Movie Icon-
Freddy Krueger
This is the movie that
launched one of cinema’s
most iconic slashers, Freddy
Krueger , a supernatural killer
who is as terrifying as he is
amusing to watch while he
taunts kids in their dreams
before eventually disposing of
them in creative fashion. The
scariest thing about the
concept was not Freddy’s
sharp claws or scorched skin,
it was the killer’s ability to
strike during our most
peaceful moment: sleep. You
can run from Michael Myers or
Jason Vorhees, but there’s no
escaping this movie mad man.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: This is just such a classic.
From the first moment we see Freddy running down the
alley with his silly yet disturbing accordion arms.Freddy
Krueger entered the world of horror in 1984 with the
release of A Nightmare on Elm Street, the brainchild of
horror director Wes Craven. And after countless
sequels, a mash-up, a reboot, and a TV series, Freddy’s
still a pop icon and more importantly, a horror icon.

16. 16
1996
A serial killer stalks teenage victims in the
small town of woodsboro following a
recent anniversary of a well known murder.
By calling them through an unknown
number and asking them a series of horror
trivial questions, the killer taunts his victim
and stalks them before killing them off one
by one through a gruesome death.
Neve Campbell-
Sidney Prescott
David
Arquette-
Detective
Dwight ‘dewey’
Riley
Courtney Cox-Gale Weathers
Drew
Barrymore-
Casey
Becker
Skeet Ulrich- Billy Loomis
The film is an iconic slasher
that mocked the cliché of the
horror film, seeing its teenage
characters openly discuss
horror film tropes that Scream
tried to subvert. The slasher
film mixed the comedy of a
“whodunit” mystery to great
effect, spawning a series of
three sequels.

17. 17
1996
The franchise is a iconic
slasher series spawning a
series of spoofs from the
films. Beloved for its satirical
spin on the slasher genre,
“Scream” follows a teenager
targeted by a masked
murderer for reasons
unknown until the very end
of a very funny and thrilling
ride that pokes fun at horror
cliches.
The once hip irony of
Scream is now something
of a cliche, but after all
of the imitations, have
another look at the real
thing. Clever, quick and
bloody funny. 'Bloody'
being the operative
word- Adam Smith-
Empire.
In 1996, Craven reached a new
level of success with the release
of Scream. The film grossed more
than $100 million domestically, as
did Scream 2 (1997).
Scream, a horror
movie about horror
movies, was the
ultimate meta-movie
for a meta-obsessed
decade.
Scream opened with a genuinely terror- strickening
scene (it's an indirect nod to Psycho) that it shocked
audiences completely by being initially so gruesome it
was slapped it with an NC-17 rating,

18. 1996
Iconic Horror Movie
Icon- Ghost Face
Craven once again reinvented
and reinvigorated the horror
genre with the film
scream.Cliches were satirised,
tropes were torn apart and
seemingly no plot point would
go uncommented on by one
character or another. At the time
it was a revelation.
Its central figure, Ghostface, was a comically familiar horror-movie trope. A serial
killer with a tortured emotional backstory, Ghostface wore a creepy mask (an open-
mouthed face) part of the Company Fun World halloween mask originally known as
the peanut eyed ghost. Craven was able to use the original mask (it was at this point
that Fun World came up with the new official name for the mask - “Ghostface”).
Clearly modelled on Edvard Munch's 19th-century painting The Scream it further
demonstrates its postmodern sensibility, the film contains allusions to other works of
visual culture.and he used his almost preternatural cunning to prey on attractive
young people. From the get-go, the movie's premise was beyond cliche.
Therefore, Craven’s film was
breaking down the cultural divide
between high and low art as he
reimagines Munch’s avant-garde
expressionist painting in a
mainstream slasher film. These
postmodern elements give
Scream a cutting edge over other
slasher films of its time, and they
can explain why the film was
such a hit with audiences and
critics.and therefore making the
killer a classic horror icon.
Moreover, the Ghostface mask has become a mass-
produced commodity, as it is sold in toy stores all
around the country and worn by children and
teenagers on Halloween. The fact that Scream
spawned a Halloween costume says something
about the movie's popularity.

19. 1977
Wes Craven's cult classic about
cannibalistic mountain folk on the trail
of stranded vacationers in the arid
Southwest. It is about a family that is
targeted by a family of savages after
being stranded in the Nevada desert.Wes Craven classic cult
horror sparked sequels and
remakes within the 21st
century.
Michael
Berryman-
Pluto
Susan Lanier-
Brenda Carter
Dee Wallace-
Lynne Wood

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Wes Craven
“Well, it’s very difficult for me to even define what a
horror film is. I think a lot of the films I’ve done are quite
far from the ‘classical horror film.’ You know, the car
stalling in the middle of the woods in a dark night beside
a haunted mansion and things of that sort. Even the
Hammer films. I’ve never really felt that close to that
particular part of the genre. A lot of the films I’ve made
are just kind of using the genre, because that’s where I
was in effect, to talk about violence and hallucinatory
reality and kind of the irrational curve of the 20th
century.”- Wes Craven
The best horror taps into intimate fears that are often
representational of something bigger You can make a
solid flick following the tropes of a genre, but to make
something really memorable, it’s almost guaranteed that
you have to look beyond the monster you’ve created to
the one it can represent.

21. Wes Craven
By analysing the Film Scream. (Wes
Craven 1996) we can breakdown and
unpick Wes Craven directing style I
picked this film. The film itself was a
massive success inspiring several
copycats due to the movie’s original
script, interesting plot and excellent
acting. By looking at the iconic opening
scene in Scream the film itself plays
with fiction to make a more realistic
horror movie by bringing in crossover
elements from horrors such as
Nightmare on Elm street and
Halloween bringing in the elements of
stalking and victimising victims but also
that this is real life rather than a
nightmare.
By concentrating on the opening
sequence we can establish that the
victim Casey is being stalked by the
killer and by focusing on the
camera, lighting, sound and general
mise-en-scene features we can
breakdown Wes’s directing
elements.
The opening shot is a close up of a
ringing telephone as the camera
pans up to Casey reaching down to
answer, a mysterious man's voice,
speaks to the blonde. Wes craven
sets the scene by showing that
Casey is alone in the big secluded
house as The shot cuts to outside,
there is total silence except for the
chirping of crickets which
emphasises her isolation. The
camera then pans down to an empty
swing, still moving slightly; this
creates suspense.
The house inside is bright in
comparison to the darkness
outside, this is the same
contrast between the evil
outside and the innocence
inside. The darkness also adds
to her vulnerability. Back
inside the house, a shot of
popcorn being made adds to
the scenario with loud
popping noises to make you
jump. The tracking shot
follows Casey around a
kitchen island to pick up the
phone, the same man's voice
speaks. Casey starts chatting
to the man on the phone, and
become flirtatious, close up
shots of Casey are used to
show the conversation
becoming more intimate.

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These close up shots are clever in connecting
the viewer into feeling emotionally involved with
the character; this is a technique Craven uses
throughout the film. Mise-en-scene is used to
direct the audience to possible sinister events to
come. Craven uses iconography of a knife to
make the audience feel worried, when Casey
pulls a big kitchen knife out of its block and talks
about the film Halloween to the killer, ironically
foreshadowing of her death in the near future
also makes the audience more alert as they
anticipate the the events to come. By using that
iconography the symbolism of the big kitchen
knife is key as that one shot emphasised and
alerted the audience’s of the potential murder
weapon that would be used but also the irony of
how Casey would be killed by a Knife like the
Victims of Mike Myers in Halloween one in
which the audience would never expect.
Another tracking shot follows Casey from
behind, down a dark hallway, into the living
room obstructing part of the view. movement.
Wes Craven
The use of the colour blue is very strong in the next
scene, from the TV screen and the swimming pool
outside. The colour blue is usually associated with
calmness. Soon after Casey walks into the blue lighting,
the disruption begins and you realise that the caller
wants more than a conversation. He asks Casey for her
name, and when she asks why, he says because he
wants to know who he is looking at. The camera
suddenly zooms into Casey’s worried expression and
some quiet percussion music begins, and starts to get
louder.Low-key lighting is used on the close up of Casey
to highlight terror in her face. This gets the audience's
attention and music makes you feel on edge. Casey
looks out to window to see if she can see anyone,
Craven then cuts to a POV shot which pans across the
garden through the window stopping in intervals, in a
jerky

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The next shot cuts to a close up of Casey’s
hand locking the door as she hangs up on the
man. This makes the audience feel reassured
for a moment. The camera tracks backwards,
into the kitchen where the phone goes again.
The call this times gets nasty you know
someone is definitely watching her. An extreme
close up shot is used to empathise this, and you
can see that Casey is petrified. A tracking shot
quickly follows Casey down the hallway as she
runs to lock the doors. The non-diegetic tense
background music becomes apparent when
you know the killer is near. Another erratic POV
shot looking out the door window is used to
seem like Casey’s eyes looking for the man.
Casey is still on the phone to the man and tells
him she is about to call the police. He tells her
that they would never make it in time because
they are very much isolated which empathises
the remoteness to make the audience feel
alone and scared, just like she does.
Wes Craven
The lighting has become very dark as the
man terrorises the girl on the phone. She
is becoming more hysterical and doesn’t
know what to do. Craven uses sound
cleverly to scare the audience, as for the
high pitch noise of the phone at
unexpected moments and the doorbell
being rung as if it’s a game of knock
down ginger, making it all seem like a
sick joke to the audience.
As the killer has yet to been identified
Craven is building suspense with the
music, lighting and clever camera shots.
Rather than using over the shoulder-
shots Craven makes the audience feels
involved as though we are the stalker
ourselves.

24. The costume and setting are crucial to the film as they define the genre
as Horror and give the film interest and suspense. Casey’s house is
mentioned by the killer as being miles from any other house, which
makes her feel cut off from help. The ghost face Halloween costume is
also part of the iconography, as we see it reoccur throughout the film.
These visual short hands tell the audience that it is a horror film. The first
time we see the killer is after Steve had been killed and the killer breaks
into the house. A POV shot slowly walks backwards as we see Casey
heading for a side door. There is no music at this point until the masked
killer runs past at the other side of the house. A quick blast of high-
pitched music is used to scare you. Casey makes it outside, making the
audience think she is safe. This is then empathised with a shot of her
parent’s car in the distance. As she tries to get away, an extreme close up
shot showing the mask properly, appears at the window. Casey screams
which makes the audience jump. Casey runs towards her parent’s car,
which has got closer.
Wes Craven

25. Wes Craven
At this point the audience are on the edge of
their seats screaming at the screen, hoping
Casey gets away. A shot of her parent’s car
drives past her without her being noticed. The
killer then jumps through a window and
pounces onto Casey. As they both get up a
slow motion shot is used and the music
becomes faster and higher pitched until the
climax at the stabbing. This background music
is parallel because we expect to hear this
scary music before a killing takes place. Cast
falls to the ground screaming in pain as the
camera focuses on the blood she is losing.
Craven teases the audience when Casey goes
to pull off the killer's mask before he finished
her off, because before you can see who the
killer is, the camera pans away so you can’t
identify him. This makes the viewer want to
carry on watching to find out who the killer is
and why these two seemingly innocent
teenagers have been brutally murdered.