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The death of groundbreaking horror auteur Wes Craven has been announced, he was suffering from a brain tumour. At the forefront of the American new wave of horror in the 1970s and 80s, he proved an intelligent American director, producer and writer, at his most effective when, perhaps paradoxically, he was at his most thoughtful. Controversial shocker Last House on the Left set him on a path of frightening his audience, and the best of his output was probably The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, New Nightmare and Scream (which revitalised the slasher genre).
Less impressive were Deadly Blessing, Swamp Thing, the ridiculous Hills Have Eyes Part II (which he admitted he made solely for the money), Deadly Friend, Shocker, Vampire in Brooklyn, Cursed and the successful Scream sequels, the fourth of which was his final film as director. Music of the Heart was a change of pace for Craven, but not a hit, though aeroplane thriller Red Eye was a successful attempt at something different; My Soul To Take, an attempt at more of the same, flopped. He will be remembered as a talent who contributed a true edge, imagination and wit to the genre in his finest works. |
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