His biggest commercial success, the Scream Trilogy, sought to dissect the modern horror film. If you're familiar with this site, you'll know we're not big fans of this series.

We prefer the more traditional horror of the films he made in the 70's and early 80's. 1972's Last House on the Left shocked audiences with its brutal depictions of senseless violence upon two girls who are kidnapped and tortured. The parents of one of the girls avenge themselves upon the perpetrators. Over time, the film has been compared unfavorably to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released two years later. There's some validity to that thought.

Watching Last House, you can't help but notice how amateurish the production is, and how the acting and dialogue are stilted. But it's still powerful and the ad for it gave us one of the most clever campaigns up to that time - "To avoid fainting keep repeating: It's only a movie...only a movie..."

An even better film is 1977's The Hills Have Eyes, in which a clan of cannibals up in the mountains terrorize a vacationing family. It's also fairly gruesome and contains a similar theme of revenge, but it's clear that Craven had matured as a filmmaker. Despite his success, Wes Craven had trouble getting the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie made.

He was told that the tide had turned against the horror genre, but New Line Pictures finally agreed to produce it. His concept for the movie was based on an article he had read about people who died in their sleep supposedly after having nightmares. The movie was a smash, and one of the better horror films of its time. It inspired a number of sequels, none of which matched the original. Needless to say, Craven had nothing to do with most of them. He returned to the series with Wes Craven's New Nightmare and made an interesting, if slight film.

NOTABLE CRAVEN FILMS	YEAR
Chiller	1985
Deadly Blessing	1981
The Hills Have Eyes	1977
Invitation to Hell	1984
The Last House on the Left	1972
A Nightmare on Elm Street	1984
Stranger in Our House	1978
Swamp Thing	1982