'Scream' Director Wes Craven Dies at 76, Losing His Battle With Brain Cancer

The King of Horror, Wes Craven, director of some of the most popular scary films of the past forty years passed away Sunday evening surrounded by his family at his Los Angeles home at the age of 76 years old. The L.A. Times says that he had been battling brain cancer, according to his representative.

Many celebrities and other people in the entertainment business went to social media to show their love and support to his family. Bob Weinstein of the Weinstein Company told Yahoo! News, "We enjoyed a 20 year professional relationship and more importantly a warm and close friendship. He was a consummate filmmaker and his body of work will live on forever. My brother and I are eternally grateful for all his collaborations with us. Our deepest sympathy to his family."

The Scream franchise of which he directed has even been recently rebooted on MTV as a TV show following a separate storyline from the films. MTV even issued a statement to Yahoo! News as well, saying, "Wes Craven was a tremendous visionary whose sensibility for scares has connected with generations of MTV fans. We are honored to have worked with him and proud to carry on his legacy with Scream. Our hearts go out to his family and friends."

Craven was known for referencing other horror movies of his own, going so far as to mention multiple sequels in Scream 2, which was a sequel. He enjoyed the meta storylines of Kevin Williamson's scripts and was known for "creating the iconic Freddy Krueger and Ghostface characters. His projects often made references to other horror films and he is credited with defining - and then redefining - the genre," People says.

Most recently there were some deals in the works to reboot a few of his older films, one being The People Under the Stairs. Entertainment Weekly reports, "The People Under the Stairs concerns 'a young woman [who] goes missing at the grand Robeson Family Manor' and a 'centuries-old horrors that lie deep within the estate.' The show is being described as 'a contemporary Downton Abbey meets Amityville Horror" and will be written by Michael Reisz."

Whether these projects will continue to go into production after his death is yet to be reported, but we sure he wouldn't want it any other way. He would want to continue to excite and torment his many, many fans. RIP Mr. Craven.

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