LOS ANGELES (AP) .- It is difficult to redefine a genre throughout a race, but the master of horror Wes Craven managed to do it, not once, but twice.
The prolific screenwriter and director, who died Sunday at age 76 because of a tumor in the brain, broke into two distinct eras of suburban gore movies: first in the 80′s with its iconic “Nightmare on Elm Street” and its indelible knives villain Freddy Krueger fingers, and again in the 90s with “Scream”.
Both rejoined the horror genre in the public and unleashed successful series.
Perhaps it was their twisted interpretation of the medium perfectly what resonated with their anxious supporters.
“The horror movies do not create fear … I released,” Craven said in an interview, who was also in charge of dramas like “Music of the Heart “(1999) with Meryl Streep and Gloria Estefan, who received his role an Oscar nomination. But his name, and his legacy will always be synonymous with terror.
“It was a consummate filmmaker and his body of work will live forever,” said Weinstein Co. co-chairman Bob Weinstein, whose company Dimension Films produced “Scream”. “My brother (Harvey Weinstein) and I are eternally grateful for all his work with us.”
His rise to fame
Although his first feature film “The Last House on the Left “scored a surprise hit, Craven jumped to stardom with” Nightmare on Elm Street “(1984), a film about teenagers in Ohio (including a then unknown Johnny Depp) in his dreams haunted by a sinister character.
The filmmaker wrote and directed this story that triggered an endless series that reached a new version in 2010. The concept Craven said he derived from his own youth in Cleveland, specifically the cemetery on Elm Street and a man Homeless inspired rabid aspect of Krueger.
Pioneer tradition
Along with “Halloween” by John Carpenter, “Nightmare on Elm Street” defined a tradition of cinema horror in which defenseless teenagers are stalked by murderers armed with knives deformed cruel mortal stories; usually promiscuous girls are the first to go.
“There is something the American dream, the kind of sleep Disneyesco, if you will, the beautifully cut lawn, the white picket fence, mom, dad and happy children, fear God and do good whenever possible, “said Craven once. “And the other side of the coin, the kind of feeling anger and rage that come to discover that this is not the reality of the matter, gives American horror films, in a way, an additional type of fury” .
The formula will work again with “Scream”, but with an additional layer of parody. By 1996, the style of scary movies Craven was well known, even though he was not always the director. (Craven was not involved in many of the consequences of “Nightmare on Elm Street”).
“Scream” written by Kevin Williamson and stars a cast that included Drew Barrymore and Neve Campbell, is mocked the clichés own Craven helped create. He had three sequels, all directed by the filmmaker himself.
Craven oversaw increasingly a cottage industry of terror that took its name as a trademark, and which included remakes of his films “Wake the Devil” (2006 ) and “Revenge of the Lake House” (2009).
Craven, who remained active until his death, left numerous television projects in development, including a new series of “Scream” for MTV ; He was also executive producer of the movie “The Girl in the Photographs” will premiere in September at the Film Festival in Toronto.
In a statement, the family of Craven said he died in his Los Angeles home surrounded by his loved ones. Lost his battle with brain cancer.
He is survived by his wife, producer Iya Labunka, a son, a daughter and a stepdaughter.
In 2010, Craven told the Los Angeles Times. “My goal is dying nonagenarian in the set, say ‘that’s it’ after the last shot, others collapse and go on to lift a beer in my honor”
Who’s Wesley Earl “Wes” Craven
The director was born in Cleveland, Ohio, August 2 de1939 within a Baptist family.
Its beginnings
Although made a master of arts at Johns Hopkins, Craven His first feature film was started in the cinema first in the pornography industry, where he worked under pseudonyms.
First feature
using his own name was “The Last House on the Left” (“The Last House on the Left”) of 1972, a horror movie inspired by “The Virgin Spring” by Ingmar Bergman.
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