Wes Craven was an American film director, writer and producer known for directing influential and popular horror films. He earned degrees in English and Philosophy before working as a professor and transitioning into the film industry where he directed adult films under pseudonyms. Craven is renowned for creating the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and popularizing the slasher film genre with movies like Scream. Over his career he won several awards for his work and explored themes of reality and dreams in many of his films before his death in 2015.

1. Wes Craven

3. • Craven was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Caroline
and Paul Craven. He was raised in a strict Baptist family.
Craven earned an undergraduate degree in English and
Psychology from Wheaton College in Illinois and a masters
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 (now Clarkson University) in Potsdam, New
York. His first job in the film industry was as a sound editor
for a post-production company in New York City.

4. • Craven left the academic world for the more lucrative role
of pornographic film director. In the documentary Inside
Deep Throat, Craven says on camera he made "many
hard core X-rated films" under false names. While his role
in Deep Throat is undisclosed, most of his early known
work involved writing, film editing or both. In 1972 Wes
Craven directed his first feature film The Last House on
the Left.

5. • Craven's works tend to share a common exploration of the nature of
reality. A Nightmare on Elm Street, for example, dealt with the
consequences of dreams in real life. New Nightmare "brushes
against" (but does not quite break) the fourth wall by having actress
Heather Langenkamp play herself as she is haunted by the villain of
the film in which she once starred. At one point in the film, we see
on Wes Craven's word processor a script he has written, which
includes the exact conversation he just had with Heather — as if the
script was being written as the action unfolded. The Serpent and the
Rainbow portrays a man who cannot distinguish between
nightmarish visions and reality. In Scream, the characters frequently
reference horror films similar to their situations, and at one point
Billy Loomis tells his girlfriend that life is just a big movie. This
concept was emphasized in the sequels, as copycat stalkers re-enact
the events of a new film about the Woodsboro killings
occurring in Scream. Scream included a scene mentioning the well-known
Richard Gere urban legend. Craven stated in interviews that
he received calls from agents telling him that if he left that scene in,
he would never work again. He directed Scream 4.
• Although known for directing horror/thriller films, he has worked on
two that were outside this genre: the 1999 film Music of the Heart,
and as one of the 22 directors in the 2006 collaboration Paris, je
t'aime.

6. • 1972 The Last House on the Left
• 1973 It Happened in Hollywood
• 1975 The Carhops
• 1976 Thunder Buns
• 1977 Hot Cookies, Hills Have Eyes
• 1978 Stranger in Our House
• The Evolution of Snuff Here Come the Tigers
• 1981 Deadly Blessing Kent State
• 1982 Swamp Thing
• 1984 Invitation to Hell, A Nightmare on Elm
Street
• 1985 Chiller, The Hills Have Eyes Part II, The
Twilight Zone
• 1987 A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream
Warriors
• 1988 The Serpent and the Rainbow
• 1989 The People Next Door
• 1990 Night Visions
• 1991 The People Under the Stairs
• 1992 Nightmare Cafe
• 1993 Laurel Canyon
• 1994 Wes Craven's New Nightmare
• 1995 Vampire in Brooklyn, The Hills Have
Eyes III
• 1996 Scream
• 1997 Scream 2
• 1998 Hollyweird
• 1999 Music of the Heart
• 2000 Scream 3
• 2003 Dracula II: Ascension
• 2004 Tales from the Crapper
• 2005 Dracula III: Legacy, Inside
Deep Throat
• 2005 Feast - Red Eye
• 2006 Pulse - The Hills Have Eyes
• The Breed - Paris, je t'aime
• 2007 The Hills Have Eyes 2
• 2008 Diary of the Dead
• 2009 The Last House on the Left
• 2010 My Soul to Take
• 2011 Scream 4
• 2013 Castle

7. • During his career, Wes Craven won nine cinematic awards and received three
nominations.
• In 1977, he won the 'Prize of the International Critics' Jury' in the "Sitges – Catalonian
International Film Festival" for his film The Hills Have Eyes.
• In 1985, his horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street won the 'Critic's Award' at the
"Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival".
• In 1992, the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film presented him the
Pegasus Audience Award for the thriller The People Under the Stairs. His Fantasporto
won the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Screenplay while the Best Film
award went to his film Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the final A Nightmare on Elm
Street film he directed. His Shocker was also nominated for Best Film in 1990.
• The Gérardmer Film Festival granted him the Grand Prize in 1997 for Scream.
• He was nominated for Best Director for Scream at the Academy of Science Fiction,
Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, in 1997.
• In 2006, he was honoured at Spike TV's Scream with the Mastermind Award (the
tribute was presented to him by Neve Campbell).