HORROR DIRECTORS

WES CRAVEN

Craven used that insight to inform his filmmaking, creating

films that were often psychologically terrifying. He wasnt
afraid to push boundaries two of his earliest horror
films,The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have
Eyes, were criticized for their extreme portrayals of
violence.
But Craven truly made a name for himself when he
unleashed Freddy Krueger onto the world with 1984s A
Nightmare on Elm Street.
Films include: Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills
Have Eyes, The People Under the stairs.
DAVID CRONENBERG

This Canadian filmmakers movies are not for the faint of heart.
But theres no denying the influence that David Cronenberg has
had on modern horror filmmaking. A true pioneer of the body
horror genre, he often crafts films that are difficult to watch
but almost impossible to turn away from.
Cronenberg doesnt shy away from gore, and with films
like Shivers and Rabid, he relishes in showing us what disease
and mutation can do to the human figure. And he often
seamlessly blends horror with science fiction, as in The
Fly and Scanners, creating thrilling stories about what happens
when technological advancement goes too far.
JOHN CARPENTER

Many horror movie directors go all out in an

attempt to scare viewers. John Carpenter has often
taken the opposite approach, and proved that you
can spook audiences with long shots and pregnant
pauses as much as you can with special effects and
gore.
But while hes known for creating one of the most
iconic villains of all time, Michael Myers, hes also
responsible for some other horror gems. Carpenter
brought his minimalistic filmmaking techniques to
films like The Fog, Stephen Kings Christine, and the
oppressive, chilling masterpiece, The Thing.
TOBE HOOPER

He gave us Leatherface and made us terrified of

the static on our television. Tobe Hooper has had
a prolific filmmaking career, and few other
directors have remained as devout to the horror
genre.
He changed the horror genre forever in 1974
with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, a low-budget
film that scandalized audiences and inspired a
generation of new horror directors with its
depraved violence and sequences of sheer terror.
JAMES WAN

He is widely known for directing the horror

film Saw (2004) and creating Billy the puppet.Wan has
also directed Dead Silence (2007), Death
Sentence (2007), Insidious (2010),The
Conjuring(2013) and Fast & Furious 7 (2015).
Before his success in the mainstream film industry, he
made his first feature-length film, Stygian, with
Shannon Young, which won "Best Guerrilla Film" at
the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF) in
2000.