Legendary horror movie director Wes Craven died Sunday night at the age of 76 from brain cancer. Craven was best known for directiing films like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream."
Craven reinvented the youth horror genre with his first feature film "The Last House on the Left" in 1972, according to Deadline. In 1984 he created the iconic villain known as Freddy Krueger in "A Nightmare on Elm Street." Krueger was a character that horrified viewers of the film for years.
He claimed to have gotten the idea for "Elm Street" when he lived next to a cemetery on a street named Elm when he was growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, reported The Hollywood Reporter. He released five "A Nightmare on Elm Street" movies between 1984 and 1989.
The director once again had a hit horror series on his hands in 1996 with "Scream." The movie was a box office smash hit and made more than $100 million domestically.
The director kept busy all the way up until his death. He had a number of projects in development including "The People Under the Stairs" and "We Are All Completely Fine" with the Syfy network, MTV's "Scream" series, in which he served as executive producer and was scheduled to direct the "Thou Shall Not Kill" segment of the upcoming "Ten Commandments" mini-series.
"It is with deep sadness we inform you that Wes Craven passed away at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30, after battling brain cancer," his family wrote in a statement to BuzzFeed News. "He was 76 years old. Craven was surrounded by love, in the presence of his family at home in Los Angeles."
