The first bad dream I ever remember having was of Freddy Krueger slicing my stomach open. I was 4. Wes Craven literally gave me my first nightmare.
Like he did for many of us, the "Master of Horror" spurred on my love and obsession with horror films with his own macabre work. The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream: it's clear that Wes Craven has been there through the decades, observing what causes us to feel fear only to make movies that shove those things right in our faces -- so that we can release that which scares us.
Wes Craven passed away August 30th after a battle with brain cancer. We thought the best way to celebrate his incredible life, career, and body of work, which still manages to scare the living shit out of us, would be to share his top 10 favorite horror films, a list he wrote up for The Daily Beast last year.
- Don't Look Now
- Blow-Up
- Psycho
- The Virgin Spring
- Repulsion
- Beauty and the Beast
- War of the Worlds
- Frankenstein
- Nosferatu
- The Bad Seed
Movie poster for 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'
Wes Craven is a true legend of not only the horror genre, but of cinema as a whole. He made us never want to sleep again, or visit our neighbors, or be a clueless partygoer that spouts off every horror movie cliché, because as we know -- as he's taught us -- those things will get you sliced, chained up in a basement, and gutted like a fish (despite the fact that your boyfriend plays football).
So, thank you, Wes Craven, for your contribution. Thank you for the films. But most of all, thank you for the nightmares.
Source: The Daily Beast
