I told you that I didn't want to keep meeting like this, but here we are again. Reunited to discuss the death of another celebrity.
Earlier today, Wes Craven died of brain cancer. Craven was responsible for the vast majority of any nightmares you probably had as a child or teenager. After all he gave us the man of your dreams... errr nightmares, Freddy Kruger. He was responsible for Scream as well, which changes the rules of horror movies but still gave you a good scare in the process. He also directed The Hills Have Eyes 1 and 2, The People Under The Stairs, My Soul to Take and an episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color. One of these is not like the others!
He also directed a movie called Red Eye, which isn't a horror movie at all. It is a psychological thriller. I appreciated the change in genre. By that point what was passing as horror was nothing more than Gore. So Craven decided to give us an edge of our seat thriller. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
What makes Wes Craven so different was if you saw interviews with him or him just out on the street, you'd never believe that he was responsible for so much carnage on the screen. He was just so mellow. He had a calmness about him. You look at a guy like Rob Zombie or even Eli Roth, you see horror director. Wes Craven? Nope. Not even a little bit. And he was able to poke fun at himself as well. He appeared as himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as a director making a cheesy horror movie with a monkey. He didn't care about the action on set. He was just sitting back counting his money. He also appeared in Scream in a cameo as Fred The Janitor. Something about Fred the Janitor reminded me of someone else... never could put my finger on it though.
Wes Craven was a legend in the horror industry, right up there with John Carpenter and Clive Barker. He was a master manipulator in the best sense of the word, knowing exactly how to get into your mind. It's terribly sad news considering I don't even know that he was battling cancer was widely known. I hadn't heard anything about it. He will be missed by his fans, his family and his friends.
We offer a moment of silence for Wes Craven.
