2. Basic Information
▪ An American; Director, writer, producer and actor.
▪ Born on 2nd August 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
▪ He was well know for his work on horror films, specializing in the slasher genre and is
renowned for creating the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchise as well as directing
four films in the scream series.
▪ Other films he directed include: The Last House on the Left (1972) which he directed,
wrote and edited. Additionally, he was the executive producer in the 2009 remake of
the film. The Hills Have Eyes (1977) which he also wrote, A Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984) which he also wrote,
3. Career
▪ Cravens film debut was in 1972 with the film: ‘The Last House on the Left’ – he both
wrote and directed this.
▪ In 1984 Craven wrote and directed ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ featuring the
antagonist Freddy Krueger. Also featuring in this film was Jonny Depp, which was one
of his first film roles.
▪ In 1996, Wes Craven directed ‘Scream’ a film that aimed to play with and make fun out
of existing horror conventions. The movie itself brought in more than £$100 million and
was successful enough to have many sequels.
▪ In 1999, Craven stepped away from horror and worked on the film ‘Music of the Heart’
, which was a drama based around a drama teacher. Then directed ‘Red Eye’ in 2005,
a suspense thriller about a young women who gets caught up in an assassination plot.
▪ In 2011, Wes returned to the Scream Franchise to direct it’s forth instalment. Before
passing away on the 30th August 2015 due to brain cancer.
4. I decided to produce a case study on Wes Craven as he is a well known, well loved and extremely
talented producer, writer, director and actor. Additionally, his specialty was with slasher films which
is inspirational to me as that is the sub genre I am focusing my promotional package on.
I have took inspiration from many of Wes Craven’s films that he has directed, mainly ‘A Nightmare
on Elm Street’ and ‘Scream’.
