15 Greatest Horror Directors Of All Time
1. Wes Craven
Notable films: The Hills Have Eyes, The Last House On The Left, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream
A true master of horror a filmmaker not only has to establish iconic characters and franchises but also to deliver the goods throughout the length of their career, and no other director has managed this quite so consistently as the late, great, Wes Craven.
Craven's desire to crawl into the underbelly of the horror genre and explore the psychological landscape within began with his 1972 film The Last House On The Left, probably the only horror film to be adapted from an Ingmar Bergman film (following the rape-revenge drama of The Virgin Spring and ramping up the violence to the extreme). Craven would direct a string of hit horrors before launching the seminal Freddy Krueger franchise with A Nightmare On Elm Street, proving that horror villains didn't all have to hide behind a mask.
If that wasn't enough, Craven's Scream franchise beginning in the mid-90s saw the horror genre flipped on its postmodern head, kickstarting a trend for meta-horror movies and reinventing the way the genre could parody itself. Perhaps only someone with such an intimate grasp of the genre could have pulled it off so well.
Wes Craven's death in 2015 marked the passing of a true legend of horror, arguably the greatest who has ever lived.
Are there any other horror movie directors you think should be on this list? Why not let us know in the comments?