Wes Craven was born in Cleveland in 1939. When he was in college he got a degree in writing & psychology, and a year later he got a master. He became a college teacher and got married and had two children. Him and his wife divorced he was left with his two children. Soon after that he would leave his teaching job and became a taxi driver. Not a long time after that Craven became a sound editor for a post-production company in New York. After he worked with Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th) on the porn film "Together", they decided to make a violent horror film that would become a classic.

1972 was the year that Wes Craven's infamous directorial debut, "The Last House On the Left," was released. It was a tale of a gang of low-lifes who rape, and kill a pair of teenage girls, and then feeling the violent wrath of one of their victim's parents. It was a powerful examination of the day-to-day violence in American lives. Craven's next masterpiece, "The Hills Have Eyes", was released in 1977. A family from Cleveland run into a family of cannibal killers in the desert. This was one of Craven's best films. Craven beautifully captures the isolation and loneliness of the desert location. Craven directed several other horror films over the next few years such as "Deadly Blessing" (1981), & "Invitation to Hell" (1984). One of Craven's successful films was "Swamp Thing" (1982), which was based on the DC Comics monster/super-hero. In 1984 Craven created one of the greatest horror films of all time, his masterpiece "A Nightmare On Elmstreet." It was about supernatural deformed child killer Freddy Krueger (who later on became a pop icon of the 80's) who muders teens in their dreams to get revenge on the parents who torched him. The film is very scary and tense. The movie was so popular it spawned several sequels. In 1985, Wes Craven directed one of the most ill-conceived sequels of all time, "The Hills Have Eyes 2", a truly awful movie. The in 1986, Craven directed "Deadly Friend" which was disapoiting. But in 1988, Craven made somewhat of a comeback with "The Serpent & the Rainbow." It was about as man sent to Haiti to investigate the secret of "zombie making." It was an above average and ambitious movie, and dipicts voodoo in a very authentic way. "Shocker" was released in 1989. This was a huge drop in quality. It was a silly tale of a executed serial killer coming back as a force of energy and poseses several people. But, Craven came back with another sucessful film, "The People Under the Stairs" in 1991. It had the same undercurrent of dark humor from his earlier classic "The Hills Have Eyes." It was about a young kid who helps his older sister's boyfriend rob their very rich landlords who turn out to be crazy psychopaths. In 1994, Wes Craven directed a sequel to his masterpiece "A Nightmare On Elmstreet" called "Wes Craven's New Nightmare." There were several sequels before it, but Craven had nothing do with any of them except for co-writting "A Nightmare On Elmstreet 3: The Dream Warriors", which is said to be the best of the "Nightmare" sequels. This was a return to the darker side of "Freddy Krueger", like we saw him in the origional without the corny oneliners. The one-liners were funny as hell and all but Freddy's edge was starting to dull you know what I'm saying?In 1995, Craven directed "Vampire In Blooklyn", a fairly decent vampire comedy staring Eddie Murphy. It was nothing like Craven had directed before. This movie wasn't scary at all, it was a full-blown comedy. Not at all the dark humor in "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The People Under the Stairs." The movie wasn't that successful either. Craven's next film on the other hand, is probably the most influencial and popualr horror films of the 90s. Wes Craven's "Scream" was released in 1996. Even though the film was widely popular, alot of old school horror fans despise "Scream" and its sequels calling them "trendy horror" or something like that. I've heard people saying these "trendy horror" films are going to be the death of horror and that they are teeny bopper. The "Scream" films are widely popular and have a big following and alot of them disagree. There's something to be said for both camps, though in the end the good points outweigh the bad. Horror movies change with the times guys. And stop me if I'm wrong but wasn't the Jason & Freddy films considered teeny bopper when they came out? For god sakes, there were Freddy toys, Freddy games, and fan clubs! And I might also add that the Scream films are alot better acted than most of the 80's slasher movies. And trendy horror films have great soundtracks. The truth hurts, I know. Craven went on to direct both of the "Scream" sequels, "Scream 2" (1997) & "Scream 3" (2000). Craven stepped out of the director's seat and produced some horror films such as "Mind Ripper" (1995), "Wishmaster" (1997) and "Carnival of Souls" (1998) & the new "Dracula 2000". He also directed a non-horror Meryl Streep movie called "Music of the Heart." Now thats a movie you guys should bitch about. Best Movie: A Nightmare On ElmstreetWorst Movie: Hills Have Eyes 2