Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor, often dubbed the "Master of Horror". He was the director of the original Scream quartet (1996-2011).
His other directed horror films include A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character. Alongside this, his credits include The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The People Under the Stairs, Vampire in Brooklyn, Red Eye, and My Soul to Take.
He portrayed Fred the Janitor in Scream (1996 film), a cameo reference to his Freddy character from A Nightmare on Elm Street. He made three unnamed cameos in the next three sequels, though the fourth film's cameo as a coroner became a deleted scene. He died after a long fight with brain cancer on August 30th, 2015.
The only occurrence where Wes Craven portrayed Ghostface.
Scream: Behind the Scenes[]
- Craven originally declined to be director of Scream (1996) as he wished to distance himself from directing horror films. But after Kevin Williamson gave him the script, Craven loved the originality of the film and agreed to direct the film. All of the scenes shot for Scream 4 (2011) originally amounted to around 4 hours. He chopped it down significantly, but wished the crime scene aftermath of Jenny and Marnie's murders had been kept to reserve the remake pattern theme.
- A character, Wes Hicks was created in his honour for the series relaunch, Scream (2022 film).
- The end of the film when the title card appears that reads "For Wes" in Scream 5, there is a sound bite of birds chirping. This is due to the fact that in his free time Craven was an avid bird watcher and enthusiast.
- Matt Bettinelli-Olpin revealed the significance of the FILM FAILS subscription count number, "It's 821,939, which is Craven's birthday", August 2, 1939.
- Amber Freeman's half-burnt face resembles Freddy Kruger, a character created by Wes Craven.
- The tattoo on Vince's knuckles is the Elm Street house. It's 1428.
- Created artistic decisions as a director to let audiences know in subtext which killer was responsible for a certain death in the Ghostface mask. Some of these decisions differed from the original scripting by Kevin Williamson.
- The original film establishes Stu was prone to using two hands to hold down a knife, while Billy used one hand, strangled and often went for the torso area. (In this case, Billy was Casey's killer, but Kevin Williamson as a writer has stated it was Stu. However, it is also possible Stu finished the job after Billy's last on-screen stab, as there is a time jump to when she is hanging from a tree).
- For the sequel, Mickey, although only noticeable on-screen and never mentioned in dialogue, is left-handed, whereas Nancy Loomis is right-handed. The deleted scene of Scream 2 revealed this was brought up in conversation, as well as Mickey pointing out Hallie is also left-handed.
- This enriches Mrs. Loomis' story of ensuring the murders are traceable back to Mickey, as she was seen writing with her right hand on her notepad. She also kills Randy left-handed (in a right-hand mirror frame flipped).
- For the third film, Wes Craven left many clues of Angelina Tyler's involvement as an accomplice, despite producers being against the idea and asking for re-shoots partly through production (leading to Christine's on-screen murder, the scene of Sarah being watched as she enters the set). These include Sidney's attack at the house-set (verifiably impossible to be one Ghostface during the scene) and Angelina's unexplained behaviour, including the mask she stole and why she was hiding in the bathroom.
- For the fourth film, Charlie credits himself as the muscle of the remake murders, with the exception of Rebecca (though Jill's police protection after her attack makes it unlikely to be her). This aligns with the idea of Jill's mastermind plan: to kill the new Billy and Stu, Trevor and Charlie, her only verified kills of the movie, staying true to her role as the perfect victim, and the original protagonist Sidney.
- Despite this, she is still responsible for several attacks, including Gale's attack, causing Hoss' death and possibly, if Perkins did not survive much longer after stabbed in the head, Perkins' murder is most likely caused by Jill.
- However, it is speculated among fans she killed Anthony Perkins, and many fans support the idea of Jenny's killer being Jill due to personal revenge (a deleted scene revealed Trevor cheated on Jill with Jenny).
External links[]
Wes Craven at the Internet Movie Database- Wes Craven at Allmovie
- Official site
Wes Craven at Wikipedia
