

Wes Craven, Horror Maestro, Dies at 76 - _JamesA_
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/wes-craven-horror-maestro-dies-818806

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aresant
As a huge fan of his work I'm sad we don't get to see another reinvention of
horror akin to what he did with scream.

Craven sort of puttered in the first 20 years of his career - first a
professor, then a porn director (why not), then with a couple of smaller hits
(last house on the left).

prior to Scream his big moment was clearly nightmare on elmstreet - he was 45
when it came out.

And I think the HN crowd that's gone through fundraising can relate to how
this risky director with a big, crazy idea had to work to put it together:

"the film's original investors backed out at one point or another during pre-
production. The original budget was merely $700,000. "It ended up at $1.1
million ... Half the funding came from a Yugoslavian guy who had a girlfriend
he wanted in movies."[1]

How cool, will miss this guy who clearly brought the hustle.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nightmare_on_Elm_Street)

~~~
l33tbro
Craven was certainly a giant in horror, but Scream was an amazing script and
Kevin Williamson doesn't get the kudos he deserves in reimagining that genre
with that script.

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ousta
Wes Craven was a master of horror and a brilliant director. Nightmare on
elmstreet is definitly among the most frightning horror film ever seen and
ranks at the same spot than Halloween in the movies that made horror matter as
an artistic form. he was an author and an artist from the brilliant "the last
house on the left" till the end of his carreer.

~~~
soylentcola
I remember being a little bit obsessed with the "Nightmare" movies as a kid
(like maybe around age 11-12). I think part of it was that those gory, R-rated
movies were "forbidden" as they were meant for older kids and my dad didn't
like me watching them. But a big part of it was the mix of dark humor and some
of the more genuinely frightening concepts I'd ever seen in a monster movie at
the time.

Admittedly my experience with the genre was limited at that age but up until
then, I just thought of horror movies as the stereotypical "stalking monster"
type thing. Monster is out there somewhere. Protagonist has to escape the
monster and hopefully learn how to kill it or at least stop it.

The thing that always got to me about those early viewings of the Nightmare
movies was that the protagonists were teenagers (often troubled ones) so there
was the element of "the grownups will never believe me". As a kid you're
familiar with the disconnect between children and adults so that's already a
source of anxiety that the movies tap into.

The other part was that you couldn't escape the Big Bad by hiding in your
house or even in a fortress. Freddy came after you in your dreams and sleep is
something you just can't avoid. So many times the hero would think they were
safe only to see something weird happen and realize that they were still
trapped in a dream. It was that sort of surreal, almost Lovecraftian idea of
the sinister, evil reality that exists alongside this one which legitimately
scared the crap out of me as a kid. I'm pretty sure that when I first watched
those movies, I wondered if I'd have the courage to fight a "Freddy" or
whether I would just commit suicide rather than live in a world with no
certain realities where I was forever in fear of my life and sanity.

