The horror world shocked. Wes Craven dead this Sunday night after a battle with brain cancer.. He was 76.
And he changed the landscape of cinema.. He forever altered pop culture with his HILLS that had eyes and Freddy that stalked dreams in NIGHTMARES. He gave us SCREAMs.. and endless movie marathon nights with his classics.
He was also proficient and a master orator.. He was intelligent. He captivated minds and also set the tone of films for decades..
He will be greatly missed..
RIP
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MORE..
The developing story of Wes Craven’s death hit late Sunday night .. While the world was being told to pay attention to the MILEY CYRUS VMA awards, the news of Craven’s demise traversed the Internet in record speed.. Horror sites went into high gear reporting about his fate and also his best films..
SCREAM.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT..
So many more..
It is amazing to consider what Craven actually did.. He created a symbol of the 1980s of fear. Freddy Krueger became more cartoonish as the films went on, but Craven’s initial version was unsettling and dark. Then in the later 1990s, as I was finishing my high school years, the horror drought was cleared again by Craven with a ‘ghostface’ and SCREAM film.. Ghostface, as a character, has become a staple of mainstreet USA each and every Halloween since.
For my, the best film was WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE. It’s highly underrated but amazingly done. Perhaps even the scariest of the set of films–imagine Freddy coming to real life to visit. Craven was a master at being able to turn tables on the norm..
I have long followed Wes Craven on TWITTER. His tweets have been seldom since July, presumably health issues took center stage in his private life.
His final Tweet, now finalized by death, is this:
Take the 1st job you can in the industry you want to get into. The job doesn’t matter, getting your foot in the door does.
I ponder now if he somehow knew this would be his final message to the world. At the time, it didn’t sound profound. In death, it does.. It sounds like a master of the macabre giving hopeful insight on how to succeed: Just get in the door. No matter how.
For those in mourning, the world still has one gift left.
Craven served as an executive producer of the upcoming feature The Girl in the Photographs which will premiere next month the 2015 Toronto Film Festival.
I assume this picture will catch on further from there..
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RIP.