I heard about this late last night. I think Nightmare on Elm Street was perhaps a little too successful. I think if it had been a moderate success he wouldn't have been pressured to working on (not directing) all the sequels. I'd like to have seen him direct more films. I think a big successful film can be a trap due to the pressures to make a sequel, or something that is as big a box office seller. He pioneered a lot in the field of horror. There's a great quote by Ang Lee about The Last House on the Left. Technically Wes Craven was the first big budget filmmaker to show bloodshed in large amounts for effect of shock and horror (an example would be the ceiling scene in Nightmare on Elm Street), rather than just gratuity as so many later horror filmmakers would after him.

He was almost stylistically a call back to some of the Hammer horror film directors on using atmosphere too.

The dust settled, thinking "what a fine home, at least for now" not realizing that doom would soon be coming in the form of a vacuum cleaner.