5 Things You May Not Have Known About Wes Craven

Legendary horror director Wes Craven passed away yesterday. Here are five things you may not have known about him:

Freddy Krueger Was Real

One of Craven's iconic characters was inspired by several real life events. It's rumored the name "Freddy Krueger" was in part taken from the name of a childhood bully of Craven, but the actual design and look of Krueger comes from a much scarier part of Craven's childhood: he modeled the outfit and face of Krueger on a homeless man that watched him through his bedroom window one night as a child. The man stared at Craven in his bed for around ten minutes before going away, and the filmmaker never forgot the experience or the terror it gave him.

Finally, the actual legend of Freddy Krueger was inspired by real life events! Craven was inspired for the concept after reading an article in a newspaper. According to Blastr:

“I’d read an article in the L.A. Times about a family who had escaped the Killing Fields in Cambodia and managed to get to the U.S. Things were fine, and then suddenly the young son was having very disturbing nightmares. He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time. When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Lastly, we all know that Craven himself appeared as a Krueger lookalike in Scream.

He Had A Video Game

At 1997's E3, Craven debuted a game in development with Cyberdreams that was set for release later that year. Titled Wes Craven's Principles of Fear, the game was meant to be conceptual and to get to the base of some of our darkest fears in life. No footage for the game exists (the website is archived though) and the project folded when Cyberdreams went belly up later that year. This is the same company that made the cult classic I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, so you can only imagine what kind of bizarre product would've came from the final product!

By the way, Craven was awarded a bronze award at the Expo for interactive storytelling in gaming...based solely on the prototype.

He Was Originally Supposed To Direct Superman IV

Yes, Craven was originally tapped to film Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, but was removed due to creative differences with Christopher Reeve. Sadly, no more is known about exactly what happened, but Reeve was very involved with the character development of Superman throughout the films. Honestly, it's probably best Craven didn't direct that film...

His Mother Had Never Seen Any Of His Films

It's been well documented that Wes Craven was a product of a bad upbringing. His abusive father died when he was four and left him of the care of his extremely religious and judgmental mother. Perhaps it's no coincidence, then, that a trademark of Craven's films seems to have children in danger or dying, and strong themes of family dysfunction.

All that said, I'm sure Craven still loved his mother, he just didn't want to expose her to the art form brought on by her impact on his life.

He Told Drew Barrymore Horrific Stories On Set To Keep Her Sad And Scared

Craven wanted a legitimate feel for Scream and as such, had to play a bit of a villain to some of his actors and actresses. To keep Drew Barrymore looking stressed, sad, and scared on set, Craven would tell her horrible stories of animal cruelty and killings. This was a bit devastating for Barrymore at the time, as she is a well-known animal rights activist.

Yes, this is a weird way to end this article as typically post mortem posts only focus on the positive...but I think in the spirit of Wes Craven, it's fitting. Craven was well known for inserting ordinary people into over the top and brutal circumstances. He didn't have heroes, or untouchable rules...he portrayed people as ordinary, and sometimes bad things happened to them. That's what Craven gave to the horror world, and that's what people should take away from his legacy.