Wes Craven Dead at 76 – The Daily Double Talk
By Tommy McGrew
Today I woke up to some truly sad news, not only for me but for the vast majority of horror fans. We all lost a true master of horror yesterday when legendary director Wes Craven passed away after a battle with brain cancer. Although he wasn’t that active in his later years his filmography speaks for itself. The man directed horror classics over the course of 3 decades, off the top of my head I can instantly name three (Hills Have Eyes 1977, Elm Street 1984 , and Scream 1996 amongst many more). Although studios tried to typecast him as “the horror director to get” he started resisting the title after a while a struggled to get films outside of the horror genre. He directed the inspirational drama “Music of the Heart” in 1999 to cleanse his palette of horror. He quickly returned to the genre that made him famous with the third installment of the Scream series in 2000. From that point on it was mostly horror save for a segment in 2006s Paris, Je t’aime and the triller Red Eye in 2005. Cravens last film was 2011s Scream 4 which although not his strongest film is kind of fitting seeing how the Scream series was his last greatest film achievement, it spawned a successful TV series. Wes Craven gave us some of the best thrills and chills we’ve ever gotten from film. He knew what was scary and he knew how to make that 10 times scarier. It was his gift and from his gift he gave us many gifts in the form of chilling cinema. His is one of the few filmographies I can say I’ve almost completely covered all of. So on behalf of me Mr. Craven, let me say you be truly missed and there will never be another like you (especially these days) you were one of a kind and personally an inspiration to me. RIP Wes Craven.
[Source: Variety]