Death Comes As The End

One thing we've learned from every horror flick we've ever sat down to watch is that death comes as the end. Even, if you ostensibly survive the horror movie some day you have to stop running.

That's a fact that Wes Craven put to test. He was an American writer, film director, producer, and sometimes actor that pushed the slasher genre to it's peak. These movies burn bright and hot until one or two teenagers manage to outwit the killer and are summarily rescued.

An early predecessor to these type of movies would be Alfred Hitchcock's Pyscho, although only two brutal murder does take away the pyschotic tendencies typical of a slasher. This sub genre is also referred to as “body count films” and “dead teenager films”. Titles that more clearly remove Pyscho from the running.  

Wes Craven did not pioneer this type of horror film. Slasher's as their own sub genre started around 1974. Black Christmas is largely regarded as the first influential slasher. It features a group of sorority girls who are stalked and murdered over the holiday season. It almost sounds like the December version of Scream Queens

At this time Wes Craven was having little to do with pushing the slasher genre forward. His early career focused on porn. This man went hard or he went home. His involvement has been linked to one of the most famous pornographic films, Deep Throat.  

During the seventies Wes Craven was primarily working with the concept of “exploitation horror”. This is just a fancy way of saying that he capitalized on current trends or fascinations. That would involve lurid material that often involved sex and violence. Both of The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes are cult classics now. The first film dealt with two girls who were taken into the woods and tortured by a murderous gang.

That's what I call quality family entertainment.

Wes Craven really made his name with the slasher genre. He may not have pioneered it, but he certainly pushed it to it's outer limits that it could fit in. Only two other slasher franchises have achieved the anonymity that Wes Craven has done. See any of the Halloween or Friday The 13th movies.  

You can thank Wes Craven for launching Johnny Depp in his first major acting role when he casted him in A Nightmare On Elm Street. The film series has had nine revisitations of Freddy Krueger. And, let's not forget when Freddy met Jason in the crossover death match of Freddy vs. Jason. Which, is honestly just cinema gold.  

In my own humble homosexual opinion, Scream is Wes Craven's masterpiece. He resurrected a sub genre when it was dying. Slasher's were dead. Horror films weren't doing it. Then, you bring out Scream, which is the most self aware melodrama. It's fantastic. It plays with all the conventions and what's more it knows it.  

The first film is the best. Bloody and good. David Arquette's there. Courtney Cox is having fun. Drew Barrymore stops by. Wes Craven makes a guest appearance. It's classic. It's legacy is still here. If you didn't catch the television reboot of Scream on MTV you missed out. Although, Wes Craven was reportedly disappointed in the “change of masks”. I think the updated one is ten times more horrifying. Of course there is that garish comic originality to the first one. I don't know who to side with.

Right now Fox is playing with it's own eighties inspired slasher series Scream Queens. It would make Wes Craven proud. Scary. Self deprecating and funny as hell.

Unfortunately, Wes Craven passed away this summer at the age of 76 after contracting brain cancer. At least he'll always live on in the recesses of our nightmares.