Wes Craven

Wes Craven (www.onlocationvacations.com )

Wes Craven is a film director and makes scary movies to serve people with his talent for horror films. Craven was born on August 2, 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio. His dad, Paul, and his mother, Caroline, raised him. His father was a factory worker, and his mother was a secretary. Craven's parents were religious parents and were very strict. Craven felt that his family's religion made him different and he was very lonely. He didn't like it. Craven had never seen a movie until his college years because he came from such a strict, religious family.

Wes Craven's parents were separated when he was four years old. His father passed away from a heart attack. Then Craven had anger problems because his father died. Years passed. In 1951 he was eleven years old, and he experienced a nightmare of a person. He was asleep and got up and looked down at his window, and he saw a man looking at him with a scary look in his eyes. The man came in his house. Craven woke up his brother to go see who it was, but nothing was there. They were frightened, and he never forgot what happened that night. The nightmare inspired the character named "Freddy Krueger."

Craven graduated from Wheaton College with a B.A in English. He had a bad reputation as the editor of his school's literary magazine. Craven published two questionable stories, and the school found them disgusting. The school banned the magazine. Craven went on to Johns Hopkins University and earned a masters degree. He married a woman named Bonnie Broecker.

Craven got his first film job in 1969 as a messenger for a movie postproduction company. He earned 60 dollars a week, and less than a month later his wife left him, and she took the couple's two small children. In 1972 he made his first scary movie. The budget was 90,000 dollars. The movie was "The Last House on the Left." "The Last House on the Left" made over 20 million dollars, but even Craven thought the movie was very nasty and violent.

Wes Craven never really wanted a career making scary movies, but he was good at it. Craven came to enormous fame and financial success in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street. His contract prevented him from earning money for things like merchandising, and even though the movie made 500 million dollars worldwide, he got only got 500 thousand dollars. In 1994 he revisited Freddy Krueger with the movie Wes Craven's New Nightmare, and he got good reviews. Then, in 1996 Scream was released. It was his 19th scary movie. It was a thriller but it was also funny. He made a sequel, Scream 2, with Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courtney Cox. It was also well reviewed. Wes Craven has been successful and influenced other directors with his work and his talent.