Wes Craven is one of horror’s most prolific film directors, and of course that’s thanks in large part to Scream. The self-aware slasher franchise became a blueprint for modern serial killer movies within the first five minutes; its iconic risky opening scene killed off the movie’s biggest star Drew Barrymore. It featured a slew of cool, up and coming scream queen-slash-king actors (Neve Campbell, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Rose McGowan to name a few); and a cult figure in the terrifying yet flirty and lowkey sexy masked killer in Ghostface. The OG 1996 movie was so successful, in fact, that it spawned not just a devoted cult following, but also five sequels; the Jenna Ortega-starring sixth movie — Scream VI — now in cinemas worldwide.
Sadly, though, that most recent installment was not created by Wes, who passed away in 2015 a few years after making the fourth film. His legacy, however, lives on, not just with this franchise but other hits from cannibal movie The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and trippy bizzaro horror A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984). But if you want some more films from the director, to find the deep cuts only true Wes stans know about, then add these films to your watchlist: from Angela Bassett as a horny vampire to Rachel McAdams saving the United States from a terrorist plot.
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The Last House on the Left, 1972
Wes Craven’s first ever movie almost ended his career for good. Marketed with the taglines “can a movie go too far?” and “to avoid fainting keep repeating ‘it’s only a movie’”, this was a script written with the express intention of being outrageously horrific and shocking (informed by the thinking it would only have an incredibly limited release). Instead, the disturbing exploitation debut was seen by just about everyone. It left critics from The New York Times and Chicago Tribune deeply disturbed and angrily walking out of screenings saying it had no “socially redeeming value”. More recently, while still considered excessively violent, the movie has been given credit as a defining moment in introducing the world to a legend of horror. It begins by following hippie teen Mari (played by scream queen Sandra Peabody) and her best friend Phyllis as they make their way to a concert. Alas, on the way they are tricked into the hideout of murderous, recently-escaped prisoners. After violently torturing the two girls physically, mentally and sexually, the group of convicts seek new dwellings in the guest house of some locals. They are unaware, however, that the owners are in fact Mari’s own parents, ready to seek some penis-biting revenge.
The People Under the Stairs, 1991
Here, a true story from 1978 where two burglars broke into a house in California and found the basement was inhabited by children locked away by their parents, is reworked into a satirical, anti-capitalist, eat-the-rich horror comedy. When Fool is evicted from his flat, he decides to break into the house of his landlords (who go by Mummy and Daddy, played by Twin Peaks’ on-screen couple Everett McGill and Wendy Robie). When he gets there though he stumbles upon the dark, cannibalistic secrets hidden in their basement by the malevolent Mummy and Daddy. In late 2020 it was announced that Jordan Peele was working on an updated remake of the movie, surely set to be even more disturbing than the original. If that’s possible.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, 1994
The seventh movie in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series is often argued to be the best since the original. Perhaps that’s because it is the first, since the original, to be directed and written by Wes. A standalone supernatural slasher that went heavy with a similar meta perspective that would later pepper the Scream franchise, New Nightmare reimagines the famed chaotic killer Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie character that begins to invade the real world and haunt the cast and crew of the horror film about him. The movie is a nostalgia fest for lovers of the original, with throwback quotes and recreations of scenes, Robert Englund returning to play the malevolent lead, as does scream queen Heather Langencamp who plays herself playing her final girl character in the original.
Vampire in Brooklyn, 1995
Angela Bassett did the thing in this sensual dark comedy cult classic alongside Eddie Murphy. Angela plays Rita, an NYPD cop investigating a wave of murders that began when a ship full of corpses washed ashore. What she doesn’t realise is that the culprit is Max, a Caribbean vampire (played by Eddie) who has been sent to find her and seduce her, turning her into a blood-sucking killer too. While the movie was derided at the time, more recently it has been recontextualised as an underrated gem in Wes, Angela and Eddie’s individual canons, with the director imbuing a sense of camp humour to what was meant to be more straight forward. The two leads have a broodily sexy chemistry too, which obviously helps.
Music of the Heart, 1999
This Meryl Streep and Angela Bassett starring biographical musical is the only non-horror or thriller movie in Wes’ filmography, and unsurprisingly, thus the only movie of his to be Oscar nominated (one for Meryl and one for an original Diane Warren song, though neither won). Originally set to be played by Madonna — before she dropped out due to creative differences with Wes — Meryl leads as Roberta Guaspari, a real violinist in Harlem who worked to nurture the musical talent of the kids in some of the poorest schools in the city in the 80s and 90s, whilst also resisting the pushback on funding from the Board of Education.
Cursed, 2005
Reuniting Wes with Scream franchise writer and producer Kevin Williamson (who was also behind I Know What You Did Last Summer), this movie stars Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg as orphaned siblings who are attacked by a werewolf one night and subsequently find themselves beginning to transform into hairy, blood-sniffing, silver-metal-phobic creatures too. In order to end the curse, they must figure out who amongst those around them (Judy Greer, Milo Ventimiglia and Lance Bass, as himself, for some reason) is the OG werewolf, and murder them. Post-production of Cursed lived up to its name though, with the movie given heavy edits to take it from R-rated to PG-13, as well as the werewolf makeup artist’s work being replaced by (not great) CGI. Wes himself was not happy with how it turned out and in 2018 horror fans began a campaign to #ReleaseTheCravenCut. Nonetheless and unsurprisingly, though, Christina Ricci still slays.
Red Eye, 2005
Red Eye is similar in tone to Scream, in that you have a cast of up-and-coming young stars, a lot of adrenaline-rushing thrills and a malevolent, flirty, inescapable killer. Hotel manager Lisa (Mean Girls’ Rachel McAdams) is taking a red eye home when she finds that, Jackson, the cute guy she’s sat next to on her flight played by Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders), is actually a domestic terrorist, ensnaring her in his plot to assassinate the US deputy secretary of homeland security. Jayma Mays also stars as spacey hotel staff Cynthia; the actress fighting against one terrorist attack only to later be an active participant in another (Glee).