Horror master director Wes Craven has succumbed to his illness and passed away at the age of 76. On Sunday, the man who inspired fear in 1980s through his blockbuster "Nightmare on Elm Street" string of movies, lost his fight against brain cancer, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Craven was credited for the iconic "Freddie Krueger" character played by actor Robert England. There were four sequels of "Nightmare" movies and was even made into a TV series twice in 1988 as "Freddy's Nightmares" and in 1992 as "Nightmare Café." "Freddy Krueger" was also pitted against another horror icon Jason Vorhees from "Friday The 13th" in the crossover film "Freddy V Jason." In the 1990s, Craven became known for the "Scream" series of movies that added humor to horror and borrowed scene ideas from other horror films including his best hits. He received the Visionary Award at the Scream Awards in 2008.
The Sydney Morning Herald also noted that the Ohio native was a teacher before he started making low-budget flicks. He made his first movie "Last House on the Left" in 1972. It became controversial because its theme "rape-revenge" did not sit too well with many. Nonetheless, it became a huge hit and he moved on to make slasher films like "The Evolution of Snuff" and "Swamp Thing."
In 1979, Craven made "The Hills Have Eyes" which is the story of a stranded family in an abandoned nuclear facility in the desert hunted down by meat eating mutants. It became a huge hit and was even remade in 2006. Other Craven films that made an impact on mainstream horror "Serpent and the Rainbow" in 1988 and "The People Under The Stairs" in 1991.
According to Time, Craven's best legacy "Freddy Krueger" was inspired by a cemetery located just across his childhood home in Cleveland. The street was named Elm and now "Krueger" is one of the most recognized villains in horror movies.
