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Wes Craven
Wes Craven was born in cleveland in 1939. Son of Caroline (née Miller) and Paul Craven After an unhappy childhood, he left Cleveland to study for a degree in English Literature,in Illinois. But he left the school for one year before returning to study psychology. In 1963, he took a degree in writing and psychology and in 1964 he took a Masters from J. Hopkins University. While he was a humanities college teacher, Wes married Bonnie Broecker, mother of both his children, Jonathan and Jessica. But after few years, they separated, and the children stayed with Bonnie.
Wes left his job as a teacher, and after employment as taxi driver, he became a sound editor for a post-production company in New York. And after the co-direction of Sensual Paradise (1971) with Sean S. Cunningham, Wes made the horror movie The Last House On The Left (1972). The movie, released in August 1972, was a big success as was his second movie, The Hills Have Eyes (1977), winning the critic's prize at the Sitges Film Festival.
Wes has gone onto win many more awards, including one for the best movie at the Avoriaz Film Festival for A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). In 1999 he directed Music of the Heart (1999), a change of direction from the horror genre for which he is known.
During his career, Wes Craven won nine cinematic awards and received three nominations.
In 1977, he won the 'Prize of the International Critics' Jury' in the "Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival" for his film The Hills Have Eyes.
In 1985, his horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street won the 'Critic's Award' at the "Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival".
In 1992, the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film presented him the Pegasus Audience Award for the thriller The People Under The Stairs. His Fantasporto won the International Fantasy Film Award for Best Screenplay while the Best Film award went to his film Wes Craven's New Nightmare, the final A Nightmare on Elm Street film he directed. His Shocker was also nominated for Best Film in 1990.
The Gérardmer Film Festival granted him the Grand Prize in '97 for Scream.
He was nominated for Best Director for Scream at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA, in 1997.
In 2006, he was honored at Spike TV's Scream with the Mastermind Award (the tribute was presented to him by Neve Campbell).
Lives in Los Angeles. Has a production company with his professional partner Marianne Maddalena, called Craven/Maddalena Films
He is an avid birdwatcher.He was the disc jockey for the campus radio station at Clarkson College, where he was a humanities professor.
News |
What members say |
Filmography
Wes Craven - news / articles
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Craven conducted Scream 4 auditions with old film scripts -
12 April 2011
-Director Wes Craven was so concerned about script leaks on the set of the fourth Scream film, he conducted all auditions using scripts from the original horror movie.-The filmmaker struggled to combat a plot leak when he made the sequel in 1997 and he was determine
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Craven sticks knife into torture movies -
19 March 2011
-Moviemaker Wes Craven has taken aim at the modern crop of gory horror films, branding the numerous sequels tiresome and "exploitative".-
-The veteran slasher movie director admits he enjoyed the so-called 'torture porn' genre when it first became popular in the 200
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Craven 'glad' Arquette is getting help -
4 January 2011
-Moviemaker Wes Craven has spoken out about his Scream 4 star David Arquette's decision to enter rehab for alcohol issues, insisting he's glad the actor is seeking help. -
-And the director, who brought Arquette and his estranged wife Courteney Cox together in the
Wes Craven - what members say
review by from BRISTOL
20 October 2004
review by TheJazzman from Aberdeen
The Master reenergises 28 October 2004
review by from the middle of Dorset
Seminal eighties horror film 15 December 2004
Wes Craven - filmography
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Scream 4
on DVD
(2011)
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate: 
Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey and Gale, who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill and her Aunt Kate. Unfortunately, Sidney's appearance also brings about the return of ..read more »
 
58%
from 9,962 members
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Scream 4 - Blu-ray
(2011)
Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey and Gale, who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill and her Aunt Kate. Unfortunately, Sidney's appearance also brings about the return of ..read more »
57%
from 4,560 members
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My Soul to Take - Blu-ray
(2010)
Starring: Max Thieriot, Nick Lashaway, Denzel Whitaker
Director: Wes Craven, Petra Korner
Certificate: 
Watch now: Unavailable
In the sleepy town of Riverton, legend tells of a serial killer who swore he would return to murder the seven children born the night he died. Now, 16 years later, people are disappearing again. Has the psychopath been reincarnated as one of the seven teens, or did he survive the night he was left ..read more »
50%
from 1,881 member
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My Soul to Take
on DVD
(2010)
Starring: Jeremy Chu, Max Thieriot, Nick Lashaway
Director: Petra Korner, Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
In the sleepy town of Riverton, legend tells of a serial killer who swore he would return to murder the seven children born the night he died. Now, 16 years later, people are disappearing again. Has the psychopath been reincarnated as one of the seven teens, or did he survive the night he was left ..read more »
55%
from 3,999 members
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Last House On The Left - Blu-ray
(2009)
Starring: Joshua Cox, Michael Bowen, Sara Paxton
Director: Dennis Iliadis
Certificate:
Extended version (not shown in the cinemas) of the remake of Wes Craven's 1972 horror film of the same name. When teenage friends Mari (Sara Paxton) and Paige (Martha MacIsaac) go into town in search of marijuana, they meet Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), an unusual young man who has what the girls ..read more »
66%
from 2,848 members
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The Hills Have Eyes - Blu-ray
(2007)
Starring: Aaron Stanford, Ted Levine, Billy Drago
Director: Alexandre Aja
Certificate:
Wes Craven produces this remake of his 1977 classic of the same name, about the Carters, an idyllic American family travelling through the great American southwest. The family's trip takes a detour into an area closed off from the public, but more importantly from society. An area originally used ..read more »
61%
from 1,987 member
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Pulse
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Ian Somerhalder, Kristen Bell, Rick Gonzalez
Director: Jim Sonzero
Certificate:
US remake of Japanese IT-horror film involving connecting to the 'othernet' instead of the Internet - a world inhabited by malevolent spirits intent on harm. You'll never look at your bluetooth setup the same again - imagine if your wireless connection tapped into the beyond instead of your headset...read more »
52%
from 7,968 members
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Going to Pieces - The Rise and Fall of t...
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Malek Akkad, John Carpenter, Lilyan Chauvin
Director: Jeff McQueen
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
A documentary which explores the history of that well loved B-movie sub-genre - the slasher film. Peaking in the '80s, the slasher film is no less enjoyed today, only perhaps as a more guilty pleasure and by a less prominent group of fans. These closet gorehounds continue, nonetheless, to delight ..read more »
60%
from 2,048 members
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The Hills Have Eyes
on DVD
(2006)
Starring: Aaron Stanford, Ted Levine, Billy Drago
Director: Alexandre Aja
Certificate:
Wes Craven produces this remake of his 1977 classic of the same name, about the Carters, an idyllic American family travelling through the great American southwest. The family's trip takes a detour into an area closed off from the public, but more importantly from society. An area originally used ..read more »
58%
from 38,995 members
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Red Eye
(2005)
Starring: Brian Cox, Cillian Murphy, Rachel McAdams
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate: 
Tense thriller from director Wes Craven. Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is coming back from her grandmother's funeral and has to take the 'red eye' flight back to Miami. On-board she meets charismatic Jackson Ripner (Cillian Murphy), a handsome stranger to whom she feels instantly attracted. But on ..read more »
58%
from 48,370 members
Currently unavailable
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Cursed
on DVD
(2005)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Rosenbaum, Portia de Rossi
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Horror directed by Wes Craven and starring Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg as two siblings who have to battle a werewolf that has been wreaking havoc on their neighbours, just as they learn that they have been marked with 'the sign of the beast', and may become werewolves themselves.
50%
from 16,957 members
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Scream 3 - Blu-ray
(2000)
Starring: Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Third instalment of the popular teen-slasher series. When talk show host Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) - the man once wrongly suspected of carrying out the first of the notorious Woodsboro killings - is himself murdered by a masked figure, plenty of free publicity is provided for 'Stab 3 - Return ..read more »
61%
from 409 members
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Scream 3
on DVD
(2000)
Starring: Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Neve Campbell
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Third instalment of the popular teen-slasher series. When talk show host Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) - the man once wrongly suspected of carrying out the first of the notorious Woodsboro killings - is himself murdered by a masked figure, plenty of free publicity is provided for 'Stab 3 - Return ..read more »
60%
from 9,858 members
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Scream 2
on DVD
(1997)
Starring: La, Tori Sp, David Arquette
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Wes Craven returns to direct this sequel to 'Scream'. A year on from the events of the first film, survivors Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) are now students at the same college. A movie based on the Woodsboro murders, 'Stab', sparks off a series of copycat killings, ..read more »
63%
from 11,413 members
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Scream 2 - Blu-ray
(1997)
Starring: Tori Sp, David Arquette, Neve Campbell
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Wes Craven returns to direct this sequel to 'Scream'. A year on from the events of the first film, survivors Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) are now students at the same college. A movie based on the Woodsboro murders, 'Stab', sparks off a series of copycat killings, ..read more »
68%
from 456 members
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Scream - Blu-ray
(1996)
Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
The sleepy little town of Woodsboro just woke up screaming. There's a killer in their midst who's seen a few too many scary movies. Suddenly, nobody is safe, as the psychopath stalks victims, taunts them with trivia questions, then rips them to bloody shreds. It could be anybody... Sidney, the ..read more »
76%
from 639 members
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Scream
on DVD
(1996)
Starring: Joseph Whipp, Liev Schreiber, Henry Winkler
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
The sleepy little town of Woodsboro just woke up screaming. There's a killer in their midst who's seen a few too many scary movies. Suddenly, nobody is safe, as the psychopath stalks victims, taunts them with trivia questions, then rips them to bloody shreds. It could be anybody... Sidney, the ..read more »
69%
from 19,150 members
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Vampire In Brooklyn
on DVD
(1995)
Starring: Josef Powell, John Witherspoon, Vickilyn Reynolds
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Eddie Murphy stars as vampire Maximillian, lusting after cop Rita Veder (Angela Bassett) and attempting to make her his mate for eternity. Having arrived from the Caribbean to continue the undead race, he promptly enslaves Julius (Kadeem Hardison), turning him into a ghoul, to help him win Rita ..read more »
56%
from 2,163 members
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Wes Craven's New Nightmare
on DVD
(1994)
Starring: David Newson, John Saxon, Matt Winston
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
A coda to the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series that, written and directed by the creator Wes Craven, mixes fact and fiction to scare us witless. Craven and his producer play themselves, persuading the now grown up Heather Langenkamp (of the first film) to return to Elm Street one more time. She and ..read more »
59%
from 4,536 members
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The People Under The Stairs
on DVD
(1991)
Starring: Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, Brandon Adams
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
When thirteen-year-old ghetto boy Fool (Brandon Adams) joins two burglars in the robbery of a neighbourhood house, he soon wishes he'd left well alone. The duo of thieves are soon dead, and Fool discovers that the house's owners (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie) are a pair of murderous psychopaths ..read more »
62%
from 3,851 members
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Shocker
on DVD
(1989)
Starring: Peter Berg, Cami Cooper, Richard Brooks
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
A psychotic television repairman (Mitch Pileggi) is caught in mid-rampage and sentenced to death, but instead of dying in the electric chair, his body just evaporates. Now able to live inside other people's bodies, television transmissions and household wiring, he continues stalking his intended ..read more »
56%
from 1,151 member
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3
on DVD
(1987)
Starring: John Saxon, Laurence Fishburne, Laurence Fishburne
Director: Charles Russell
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
This second sequel to 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' features the return of Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) from the first film, now a psychiatric doctor. Nancy teams up with Dr Neil Goldman when a group of teenagers at his hospital begin to suffer a shared nightmare, and soon realizes that child ..read more »
61%
from 6,534 members
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The Serpent And The Rainbow
on DVD
(1987)
Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Bill Pullman plays a young anthropologist who is sent to Haiti by an American pharmaceutical company to find the drug used by voodoo priests to revive the dead. Although initially sceptical, he becomes tangled in the web of an alien culture involving blood rites, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, ..read more »
60%
from 1,347 member
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Deadly Friend
(1986)
Starring: Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate: 
In this unusual tale of the dead returning to the world of the living, a teenaged girl is killed by her abusive father. Her grief-stricken friend implants his robot's brain into her body. This proves unscientificly sound as the undead girl begins murdering people, and the junior inventor has to ..read more »
59%
from 37 members
Currently unavailable
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Chiller
on DVD
(1985)
Starring: Beatrice Straight, Laura Johnson, Michael Beck
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
A young man has been cryogenically frozen for the ten years since his apparent death. When a leak is discovered at the plant, his wealthy mother insists he be revived so he can run the family business. However, the course of life after death never does run smoothly, and it becomes apparent that he ..read more »
43%
from 71 members
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The Twilight Zone - Season 1
(6 discs)
(1985)
Starring: John Carradine, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis
Director: Joe Dante, Paul L, William Friedkin
Certificate:
All 24 episodes from the American anthology sci-fi series, based on the cult 1960s series by Rod Serling. In each episode, ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances, where the normal laws of reality no longer apply. In this series, a housewife finds a medal that can freeze time, a space ..read more »
58%
from 1,425 member
Currently unavailable
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A Nightmare on Elm Street - Blu-ray
(1984)
Starring: John Saxon, Robert Englund, Lin Shaye
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Debut film for everyone's favourite psychotic slasher, Freddy Krueger. When American teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) begins to suffer from nightmares, she discovers that many of her friends are having similarly disturbed nights' sleep. Their dreams are haunted by the hideously scarred ..read more »
71%
from 862 members
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A Nightmare on Elm Street 1
on DVD
(1984)
Starring: John Saxon, Robert Englund, Lin Shaye
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
Debut film for everyone's favourite psychotic slasher, Freddy Krueger. When American teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) begins to suffer from nightmares, she discovers that many of her friends are having similarly disturbed nights' sleep. Their dreams are haunted by the hideously scarred ..read more »
68%
from 13,796 members
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Swamp Thing
on DVD
(1981)
Starring: Louis Jourdan, Ray Wise, Adrienne Barbeau
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Unavailable
A research scientist working on a government project becomes contaminated and turns into a slimy monster which bears an uncanny resemblance to a very green and large vegetable.
49%
from 648 members
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Deadly Blessing
on DVD
(1981)
Starring: Lois Nettleton, Sharon Stone, Maren Jensen
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
The first mainstream (as opposed to independent) effort from horror director, Wes Craven. Jim Schmidt (Douglas Barr), a former member of the Hittites - a religious community who reject all ways of modern life - has married an outsider and left the community. He is murdered when someone starts his ..read more »
52%
from 117 members
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Deadly Blessing - Blu-ray
(1981)
Starring: Maren Jensen, Ernest Borgnine, Sharon Stone
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
The first mainstream (as opposed to independent) effort from horror director, Wes Craven. Jim Schmidt (Douglas Barr), a former member of the Hittites - a religious community who reject all ways of modern life - has married an outsider and left the community. He is murdered when someone starts his ..read more »
64%
from 5 members
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Summer Of Fear
on DVD
(1978)
Starring: Lee Purcell, Carol Lawrence, Linda Blair
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Early, made-for-TV high-suspense occult thriller by now-famous horror director Wes Craven. Linda Blair (The Exorcist) stars as Rachel, a teenager who is disturbed by her cousin Julia (Lee Purcell) who has come to stay with the family since the death of her parents in a car crash. Rachel immediately ..read more »
39%
from 378 members
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The Hills Have Eyes
on DVD
(1977)
Starring: Michael Berryman, Virginia Vincent, Robert Houston
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Horror auteur Wes Craven followed his threadbare but horrifically compelling cult classic Last House on the Left with this wonderfully demented morality fable about a bloody war of attrition between two extremely different families. The story opens on the journey of the Carters, a mildly ..read more »
54%
from 4,788 members
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Last House On The Left
on DVD
(1972)
Starring: Sarah Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess
Director: Wes Craven
Certificate:
Watch now: Included in all packages with LOVEFiLM Instant
Horror-meister Wes Craven's debut film is a brutal remake of Ingmar Bergman's 1959 film 'The Virgin Spring'. Easy-going Mari Collingwood and her fun-loving friend Phyllis are on their way to a Bloodlust concert to celebrate Mari's birthday when three escaped convicts kidnap and torture them. But ..read more »
45%
from 4,699 members
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Wes Craven facts
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... icon before the closing credits roll begins to get tiresome. Not perfect, but Wes Craven's best horror film (yes - better than A Nightmare on Elm Street), it's just a p...
