RIP Wes Craven

I was saddened to learn that one of the greatest horror directors of recent years, Wes Craven, passed away yesterday due to brain cancer.  He brought us a number of amazing horror movies and was the creator of such horror icons as Freddy Kreuger and Horace Pinker.  In my first site's run, I had what I called the Happy Horror Hall of Fame that I would make inductions for in October, followed by a week of movies associated with said induction.  Alongside Robert Englund and Vincent Price, I also inducted Wes Craven.  Here is the article I posted regaling him and his films:

Greetings, Happy Horror fans!  Today, we gather to induct a new face into the Happy Horror Hall of Fame, a true icon of the horror genre.  He’s created several iconic characters including Horace Pinker, Ghostface, and Fred Krueger.  Today, we are happy and honored to induct Mr. Wes Craven to the esteemed Hall of Fame.

Mr. Craven was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio to Baptist parents.  He briefly taught English and Humanities before he first started his long career in film.  During his boyhood, an experience with a strange man on the street later influenced his creation of Freddy Krueger.  He looked out the window one night and saw this man walking up the sidewalk wearing a sweater similar to how Freddy’s would be.  The man stopped and turned and looked at young Wes’s house and scared him, so he got away from the window really fast.  A while later, he decided to look out the window again and found the man still standing there watching the house.  Scared now, he ran and woke his brother up and they both went to look out and found the man right at their window, looking in at them.

Mr. Craven has gone on to create several classic horror films.  His first, The Last House on the Left, was created in 1972, followed in 1977 by the crazed cannibal film The Hills Have Eyes.  In 1982, he directed the big screen adaptation of Swamp Thing, followed in 1984 by what would be one of his most famous creations, A Nightmare on Elm Street.  The next year would see the TV film Chiller (with Repo!  The Genetic Opera’s Paul Sorvino) and The Hills Have Eyes Part II.  In 1987, he produced what was intended to be the final Freddy movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.  The years 1988-1992 saw a string of projects, with The Serpent and the Rainbow, Shocker, Night Visions, The People Under the Stairs and the television series Nightmare Cafe coming out during the time.  1994 saw him writing, directing and producing Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, which introduced the idea of Freddy being more than just a movie character.  He also directed all three films in the Scream trilogy, and has been rumored to be linked to Scream 4.  In 2005, he filmed both werewolf film Cursed and airplane suspense film Red Eye.

Mr. Craven’s been a very prolific director and producer, and it’s with great pride that I hereby induct him into our website’s Hall of Fame.

Tune in all this week as I bring you reviews of some of his noted (and maybe one not-so-noted) films.  Take care, everyone, and this is Red Hawk signing out!