By Keri O’Shea
I think I speak for all of us on that thing where you’re casually scrolling through social media, and then all of a sudden, something hits you hard. There have been many examples, but today’s is definitely finding out that one of the all-time most important horror directors has shuffled off the mortal coil. Wes Craven, having fought against brain cancer, has passed away.
I don’t want to make this eulogy about me – but I have experience of losing someone to that illness, and I can only testify to its ruthless vigour and appetite. I did not actually even know that Craven was ill, so it’s more of a shock to find out that the director of Last House on the Left – which as Nia has posited was one of the most important exploitation films ever made– has died.
For those of us who grew up with the VHS revolution of the 80s however, then we’ll all remember the utter terror of Freddy Krueger (a new-wave folk devil who has stayed with us as much as any fairy story ever could). Few directors could have achieved that level of influence, audience engagement and saturation. I always found it a great pity that the massively successful Scream franchise at first seemed to be disparaging of the horror tropes which Craven helped to establish – never good to shit where you eat – but subsequent films like Red Eye seemed to be more amenable to the horror ethos which made his name. All in all, Craven definitely helped to birth the modern nightmare; those things that scare us, even if we come to expect them, are often down to Craven’s directorship, and even snippets of his work was enough for many of us to feel scared, even in adulthood. For a horror director, I can give no better praise.
Wes Craven will be missed. No doubt about that. And for many of us, key cinematic scenes which have scared, upset or otherwise imprinted upon us will always be his doing. For a good director to die of such an illness is never something that can just be brushed over, but the work which he did so well will always stay with horror fans all over the world, as long as they are as invested in this genre as he was.
RIP Wes Craven.