Wes Craven- A Master of Horror!Part Two

Well, I stopped last week with The People Under The Stairs. This time, I will be looking through Craven's later releases and some of his TV stuff.

After The People Under The Stairs, Craven revisited Freddy Krueger and he directed New Nightmare which was a great addition to the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Next came the comedic Vampire in Brooklyn starring Eddie Murphy. It's an odd movie and it wouldn't be a favourite of mine. After this film, you could be forgiven for thinking that Craven's best days were behind him, but then came a horror masterpiece- Scream- in 1996. This movie was a real treat for me. I saw it in the cinema and I was very impressed with it. It has everything you want- silly teens, a masked killer, scary phone calls, loads of suspects etc. I love this film as it is a great example of teen horror done well. So many horror movies try to be like this one, but fail miserably. It reignited Craven's career as he was introduced to a new audience.

Scream 2 came along in 1997 and while it was a fine sequel, it couldn't match the original. Craven took a totally different direction in 1999 and directed Music Of The Heart- a drama starring Meryl Streep. Not really my cup of tea. Scream 3 came along in 2000 and it was good, but not brilliant. Five years later, Craven reappeared with the werewolf movie, Cursed starring Christina Ricci and Joshua Jackson..It was mediocre at best. In the same year, Red Eye came along, starring Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams. It was more of a thriller than horror and it was very good. I thought that Cillian Murphy's performance was very good and very creepy. Craven directed a segment of a movie called Paris, je t'aime in 2006 which I haven't seen and don't plan to.

2010 brought us My Soul To Take which I was really looking forward to and I reviewed here. Unfortunately, it was not a good movie at all. It started fine, but went downhill from there. I was surprised at how bad it was.

Is this the end for Wes Craven as a horror director?????I can't say that yet, but I am looking forward to Scream 4 as are many people and I will wait and see if Wes Craven can redeem himself with a good horror movie like he used to make! Now, onto the TV stuff. Craven has directed episodes of The Twilight Zone and of course,Nightmare Cafe which he also created. That series didn't last. He has directed a few made-for-TV films such as Stranger in Our House in 1978 starring Linda Blair. Invitation to Hell was another in 1984 and starred Robert Urich. Chiller was another movie from 1985 and was a sci-fi/horror movie.In 1990, he directed Night Visions which is best forgotten, I think...

So there you have it, the career of Wes Craven has been a long one with some brilliant movies and then some mediocre ones. Everyone has their favourites, mine being The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes 1 and 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Let me know your favourites. I would be interested to find out what you think about  Wes Craven's recent movies. Has he gone down a bit or is he still as good as ever??Let me know what you think!