Most famous for giving birth to the Scream franchises, Wes Craven is a horror legend who directed more than twenty-five movies in his career, most of them in the horror genre. Though he delved into romance, thrillers, and even adult films in his time as a director, he will be most ed for his contribution to the horror genre.
Earning undergraduate degrees in English and Philosophy and master’s degrees in philosophy and writing, Wes Craven was an adult teaching English and Humanities at several colleges in New York before he started making movies. He purchased a used 16 mm film camera and began making short movies, until, eventually, he was able to break into the film industry as a sound editor and then a film editor.
Craven’s first work as a filmmaker took place in the world of adult films, until he made his first feature film as a director with The Last House on the Left in 1972. From then on Wes Craven became increasingly solidified as a horror director, though he did stray from the genre from time to time. Here’s how all of Craven’s films rank in comparison to one another.
25. Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)
Vampire in Brooklyn is a horror comedy movie starring Eddie Murphy as the vampire Maximilian. When detective Rita Veder is assigned to a baffling murder case involving a corpse-filled ship found adrift at sea, she meets Maximilian, a Caribbean playboy determined to romance her. But, when Rita begins suffering from crippling hallucinations, she seeks assistance from an occultist who suspects a vampire might be the cause. Cringe-worthy comedy and bad acting make this film a definite weak spot. Not funny nor scary, it fails to be either horror or comedy.
24. Night Visions (1990)
Originally intended as the pilot of a procedural police drama, Night Visions follows Detective Mackey as he tracks the “Spread Eagle Killer”, a serial killer rather crudely named because he leaves his victims with their legs spread. The most interesting aspect of the film is the detective’s reliance on a psychic with dissociative identity disorder to help catch the killer, but even that aspect is clumsily handled and not very engaging. The film as a whole leaves much to be desired.
23. Stranger in Our House (1978)
A TV-movie adaptation of Lois Duncan’s novel Summer of Fear, Stranger in Our House follows Linda Blair as Rachel Bryant, a teenage girl grappling with the arrival of her recently-orphaned cousin, Julia Grant as she comes to live with the family. But strange energies seem to have come along with Julia and Rachel begins to suspect that she may be a witch. Mostly uneventful and uninteresting, Stranger in Our House isn’t a bad film, necessarily, but it’s limited by being a TV-movie and ultimately doesn’t have a lot to offer.
22. The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984)
Taking place eight years after the events of the first film, The Hills Have Eyes Part II follows Bobby and Ruby, who now run a Motocross shop together. Both characters have tried to heal from the horrifying events of their past, but when they return to the desert with bikers they’re sponsoring, the Jupiter family returns to try and kill them once again. This film was basically a cash-grab for Craven, and it definitely shows. From the first half of the movie being almost entirely flashbacks from the first film à la Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, and the second half being basically all boring kills, the movie is highly unsuccessful.
21. Wes Craven's Chiller (1985)
Another TV movie, Wes Craven’s Chiller follows businessman Miles Creighton who has a terminal illness and decides to be cryogenically frozen so he can be revived years later when his disease can be cured. However, ten years later when he’s revived, he comes back “without a soul”. Or, more simply, he comes back to life as a sociopath. While Chiller might have been a better film when it originally aired, it really doesn’t hold up with age, and is hugely limited by the TV medium.
20. Cursed (2005)
Wes Craven’s foray into the werewolf movie sub-genre, Cursed follows siblings Ellie and Jimmy, played by Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg, who come across a car accident on Mulholland Drive. As they try to help the woman caught in the wreckage, a creature attacks them, devouring the woman and clawing Ellie and Jimmy. Of course, they later discover that the creature was a werewolf and they’re now doomed to become werewolves themselves. Basically, Cursed comes across as a Ginger Snaps rip-off, and doesn't offer a lot for audiences to sink their teeth into.
19. Invitation to Hell (1984)
Invitation to Hell is a supernatural horror film made for TV that focuses on a family being threatened into ing a mysterious country club in their new Southern California community. The film stars Susan Lucci and is essentially a mix of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. It’s one of the strongest of Craven’s TV movies, even being nominated for a Primetime Emmy. That being said, it’s still a bit bland, suffering from the TV medium of its time, though it’s still a perfectly able film.
18. Deadly Friend (1986)
Wes Craven’s version of Short Circuit, Deadly Friend follows a teenage robotics enthusiast who decides to implant the hard drive of one of his robots into the brain of his next-door neighbor when she’s pronounced brain dead. Originally intended as a thriller with a dark romance between the two main characters, the studio demanded re-writes when test audiences criticized the lack of blood or violence Craven was by then known for. Whether this film would have been better in its original form is anyone’s guess, but in its final iteration, the film is laughably awful. However, it's better than some of Craven’s other films simply because it lands squarely in the "most ridiculous kills in all of horror movie history.
17. Shocker (1989)
Wes Craven’s Shocker stars Mitch Pileggi as Horace Pinker, a television repairman who’s been recently convicted for a series of gruesome murders. When the film opens, Pinker is facing execution in an electric chair, but thanks to a deal with the devil, he comes back in the form of electricity to take his revenge on the detective that brought him down, Lt. Don Parker. But, when Parker’s adopted son Jonathan discovers he has a strange mental connection to Pinker, he’s able to use his dreams to help track the killer’s movements. This film gets a bad rap for a silly plot construct, but it was actually a fairly decent commercial success upon its release. The dialogue is cheesy and the acting is pretty bad, but Shocker is actually a thoroughly enjoyable film that deserves more love than it gets.
16. Music of the Heart (1999)
Wes Craven out of his horror comfort zone, but it’s a bit too sugary sweet to offer much depth.
