76 years old, and died of brain cancer.

A lot of my nightmares were because of him.

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.

I agree. The first Nightmare on Elm Street was awesome. By time they did Dream Warriors, it had worn itself out.

Totally agree. The pressure to keep putting them out had to be pretty great on him, even though he really didn't have much to do with many of them. Producer credits, maybe advisory roll. He really had nightmarish imagery down in the first one though...