There are few horror filmmakers who changed the game when it came to the genre. Wes Craven was one of those names. He was one of the most influential filmmakers in the genre, on the same level as John Carpenter.

Wes was born in 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He earned an undergraduate degree in English in 1963 from Wheaton College and later achieved a master’s in writing and philosophy from Johns Hopkins University.

Wes worked as a teacher in various schools, including Westminster College in New Hampshire and Madrid-Waddington High School in New York.

It was this time when he bought a 16mm camera and started experimenting. He began making short films before finding his first professional film job as a sound editor.

Early on, he made some hardcore porn films as a filmmaker for the money. He is said to have been a crew member of the famous porn movie, Deep Throat.

His first feature film, The Last House On The Left, was released in 1972. The rape and revenge horror film drew criticism for the subject matter and contents of the film. Wes said in an interview that he expected the film to show in a small number of theatres so he went in hard with the content. It was released to a wide release, which caused controversy.

After switching away from horror and working on non-horror projects but struggling to find backers, he turned back to horror for his next feature film, The Hills Have Eyes. The film, released in 1978, established him as a horror film director.

Nightmare on Elm Street was released in 1984 and introduced the world to Johnny Depp and one of the most legendary horror villains in Freddy Krueger. This film launched him and the cast into stardom. Though he created the first film, he would not direct another one until Wes Craven’s New Nightmare in 1994.

He would continue to make films after this, including the very troubled production of The Serpent and The Rainbow in 1988 and the famous The People Under The Stairs in 1991.

Horror had become stale at this point in the mid-90s. It was slowly dying until Craven directed the 1996 film Scream, which changed the game. The meta details in the film changed how horror worked, and Scream became a box office success, and Craven added his name onto another legendary franchise. Craven would stick with the franchise for the rest of his life.

The last film he would direct would be 2011’s Scream 4. There were rumors of a 5th film floating about, but they ended when Craven passed away on 30th August 2015 of a brain tumor.

He will always be remembered for giving this world Freddy Krueger and Ghostface.