2. Basic Information
▪ An American; Director, writer, producer and actor.
▪ Born on 2nd August 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
▪ He was well known 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 Johnny 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 woman who gets caught up in an assassination plot.
▪ In 2011, Wes returned to the Scream Franchise to direct its fourth instalment. Before passing
away on the 30th August 2015 due to brain cancer.
4. Wes Craven was the director of ‘Scream’
and iconic slasher movie. It is renowned for
essentially mimicking slashers. During the
time scream was released, Craven had
established that the audience had created
character types based on previous slashers
whereby their fate was predictable. Scream
still used conventions of slashers, but
instead of conforming to them, he decided
to mimic them. A clear example of this
being Casey Becker's death. She is blonde,
naive and is incapable of looking after
herself based on her childlike nature,
therefore her death is not surprising.
“Scream”
5. Casey Becker’s Death - Scream
During a tribute to Cravens passing away, the first 13 minutes of the film were described to contain “macabre humour, self-awareness
reference to other horror films, over the top violence and most importantly the element of surprise”, leaving the audience to believe “anything
can happen in this movie”. Making Casey’s death an iconic moment in Craven's career. One thing that did shock the audience more than
anything was that Drew Barrymore, a big name actress, was killed of in the first few moments of the film, adding shock value to the film.
Furthermore, because the poster of the film revolved around her and also with her being “America’s sweetheart” it was something the
audience was not expecting. This is something I wish to take from Wes Craven and implement in my own film by giving my audience the
element of surprise.
6. My horror film has taken inspiration from Wes Craven’s work. Although conventions of slasher
films are followed, he always challenges some, leaving the films he produces to be unpredictable.
Furthermore, he encourages audiences involvement and awareness, which I think is a nice touch.
From watching Scream it has influenced me to have a group of teenagers as my protagonists, as
this is the target audience for my film, they will be able to relate more to the activities of the
protagonists in my film, such as the social rebellious side.
From A Nightmare on Elm Street, I was introduced to the idea of a revenge kill whereby Freddy
tortures a group of teenagers based on what their parents had done to Freddy in the past. This is
an idea I would like to develop and implement into my own trailer.
I believe that by incorporating parts of Craven’s work into my own, it will over all make mine more
influencing and successful.
