R.I.P., Wes Craven.

[rogueslayer452]

Wes Craven passed away yesterday.

As a lover of horror, I've been a huge fan of his work, with the A Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream franchises being my absolute favorites. Wes Craven was quite a legendary writer and filmmaker in his own right, creating such cult features like The Hills Have Eyes and The Last House On The Left, and he managed to not only capture the essence of but also reinvented, redefined and just in general made a tremendous impact on the horror genre. He created some of the most iconic figures in horror, such as Freddy Kreuger and Ghostface. He brought us some amazing women heroines such as Nancy Thompson and Sidney Prescott, both who weren't mere helpless victims but who were intelligent and resourceful, who showed vulnerability but were still powerful and strong in their own right. Something I deeply admired when watching those films for the first time. Seeing young, female protagonists outsmarting the main villains for once, that left a huge impression on me at a young age. Overall, I genuinely really loved his work, so hearing the news was quite devastating.

We lost not just someone so influential to modern horror cinema, we also lost an amazing human being who had a brilliant mind. Rest in peace, Wes.

Comments

[omgpeyton.livejournal.com]

Horror is my favorite genre and I feel like he influenced my imagination (and my fears haha) so much as a child more than anything else. This is definitely such a big loss for the industry. :(

[wretched.livejournal.com]

I was so shocked to hear about this death, I didn't even know that he was ill :( His movies are the reason that I love the horror genre so much, they gave me nightmares but I loved them. The Nightmare on Elm Street series will always be my favorite, the way he created both his characters and his villains are one of the things that inspired me to want to be a writer as well. He's definitely going to be missed!

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I was unaware about his health issues, as well, though I figure it was probably something purposefully made private that only those close to him knew about.

I remember when I first got into Nightmare On Elm Street, once I delved into the first film I became obsessed with the rest of the series. I mean, yeah, it's well-known that the rest of the sequels didn't necessarily measure up to the first, but Freddy became quite an iconic pop culture figure for a reason. And even if the rest weren't as good I still enjoyed the hell out of them. I think my favorites of the entire franchise are A Nightmare On Elm Street, Dream Warriors and New Nightmare.

I feel like this Halloween will be very special when I marathon his movies, since it's both an annual event but also in honor of his work.

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

I was so shocked to hear about his death - he really gave something refreshing into the horror genre, and even I don't watch that many horror films, Wes Craven was someone I really respected.

Seeing young, female protagonists outsmarting the main villains for once, that left a huge impression on me at a young age. Overall, I genuinely really loved his work, so hearing the news was quite devastating.

I agree with you there.

[kangaroofan.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. RIP Wes. :(

[hanorganaas.livejournal.com]

I remember watching Scream for the first time I love how he interlaced humor with horror. He did such a good job with it. We will never see Horror like that again he will be so missed.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I remember getting introduced to Scream at a sleepover I was at during junior high, and since then I was completely sold with the rest of the franchise. Of course I absorbed a lot of horror movies around that time, but Scream was one of those that I got really obsessed with. The mixture of horror and humor, how self-aware the characters were, how it took the genre and turned it on its head. It was one of the most redefining films of modern horror at the time, and I absolutely love it.

Even the sequels that followed after, Wes managed to take what was expected and twist it into something else. His innovation of these kinds of stories was monumental to not just his career but for the industry in general, and he will certainly be missed.

[maybe.livejournal.com]

RIP, Wes.

[batmarg.livejournal.com]

I was so shocked to hear about his death. I love horror and ANOES & Scream are two of my absolute favorites. So sad to loose such a great horror writer, director and human being.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

It came out of left field for me, but then most of us were unaware that he was suffering from cancer. It's always upsetting hearing something like this. :(

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Aww that's really sad, I loved what he did with the Scream films

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Same. I know there's been mixed reactions to the sequels of the franchise, but I honestly love all of them. Just the way that the sequels were metas of themselves, plus working in the consistency of the story in terms of Sidney, it worked really well. I loved how even the fourth one kind of poking of of the whole meta aspect in the opening sequence. That was pretty funny. Scream is one of the horror franchises, I felt, really stuck its ground of what it was.