Screaming on Elm Street

Screaming On Elm Street

A Look at the Horror Genre Over A Decade

Wes Craven

Nightmare Pictures Scream Pictures

Wes has created two characters that keep bringing the audience back to the theater. In the fifth film that he directed, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Craven introduced Fred Krueger in 1984. Audiences fell in love with the killer recognizing his trademard hat, red and green sweater and glove that enabled him to have knives for fingers. However, the most original part of the film was the way in which Freddy killed his victims, in their dreams. This fact was very creative on Craven's part. Not only was it original, it also opened up millions of possibilities for creative deaths. There were no blocks when it came to reality, because almost all the killings happened in dreams. The film was very popular and was also very gruesome. The first of the series was much different than the rest of the films to follow. In the more recent films, Freddy has been whipping off one liners as he kills his victims, but for the most part in the first film, Freddy is quiet and heartless in his killings. Again, like more horror films, the victims were young, good looking and targeted the audience that was seeing the film. Although the forst film was hailed by critics, the other six that followed in the next 10 years got poorer and poorer reviews as they came closer and closer to the present. However, Craven still created a cult hero in Freddy Krueger.

Poor reviews were common for any other horror film of the late 80's and early 90's. The horror genre was dying and many people didn't care. No original films were coming out and any continuations of a series were immediately shunned by audiences already knowing what was going to happen. However, the second of Wes Craven's characters popped onto the scene in 1996 . Scream, made for only about 24 million, was released in December and while starting off slow, soon received great reviews and word of mouth to help it make over 100 million dollars. The critics were right, the film was smart and creative. It kept audiences guessing as to who the killer was and incorporated elements of a mystery film along with the gore and blood of the horror genre. There was plenty of killing and blood, almost to the point where the film received a NC-17 rating. However, Craven and writer Kevin Williamson are credited for reviving the horror genre. The film included a silent killer, so as to not throw any clues to the audience as to who the killer was, a cast of very good looking people mostly from T.V. or other small films that no one had ever seen and lots of killing. The movie was a success and has been since its release. Craven directed two films that changed the way people saw the horror film. He came up with original ideas adn incorporated them into his films creating not only great horror films, but also great films in general.