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Top 10 Best Ever Wes Craven Films - SciFiNow

Top 10 Best Ever Wes Craven Films

We rank the late horror great Wes Craven’s best movies. Do you agree?

10) Scream 4 (2011)Scream 4

After the lacklustre Scream 3, this gives the beloved bloodbaths a final run. Scream 4 serves up just enough jolts to warrant its existence and proves that Craven can show the young pretenders how it is done.

9) Red Eye (2005)Red Eye

A well-presented thriller that nods towards the ‘home invasion’ elements of Craven’s past work, Red Eye is a little less layered than the director’s finest achievements, but remains a solid example of popcorn thrills.

8) The People Under The Stairs (1991)People Under The Stairs

A return to political potency, the underclass/upper-class division of suburban Los Angeles is given a psycho-sexual twist with this gory story of very, very bad parenting.

7) The Serpent And The Rainbow (1988)Serpent And The Rainbow

One of his less remembered romps, The Serpent And The Rainbow is also one of his most stylised. A malevolent mystery, with plenty of cob-webbed gothic atmosphere.

6) Scream 2 (1997)Scream 2

A sanguine-splashed companion piece. It only comes undone when the cast has to enter ‘full-on’ post-modern mode, Scream 2’s exposition-heavy whodunnit plot would have made Agatha Christie proud.

5) The Last House On The Left (1972)Last House On The Left

A debut frightener every bit as powerful as Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead (1968), The Last House On The Left is a grim, but politically potent, tale of savagery and revenge.

4) Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)New Nightmare

A strange but ambitious attempt to make Freddy scary again (after five sequels), New Nightmare reinvented mainstream American horror as postmodern folklore.

3) Scream (1996)Scream

The resurrection of the slasher flick came with Scream – a super-slick, and very well-paced teen-kill murder-mystery that launched Neve Campbell and gave Craven late-in-the-day blockbuster credentials.

2) The Hills Have Eyes (1977)Hills Have Eyes

Craven crafted one of his most enduring outings with this brutal story of survival in the desert. Michael Berryman’s bald-headed cannibal remains an instantly iconic sight.

1) A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)A Nightmare On Elm Street

A Nightmare On Elm Street is an absolute must-see. Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger became a figurehead of fright films and made a whole generation afraid of falling asleep.