Los Angeles – Veteran horror film director Wes Craven, best known for hits including Scream (1996) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) has died aged 76.
Craven was suffering from brain cancer, the Hollywood Reporter said.
He died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles.
After gaining early attention with the controversial The Last House on the Left (1972) and the box-office success The Hills Have Eyes (1977), it was as writer and director of Nightmare on Elm Street that he established himself as a leader of the youth horror genre.
The film’s evil protagonist Freddy Krueger inspired a generation of nightmares and Halloween costumes, and became a byword for 1980s horror.
Craven later directed the Scream series, which made wide-ranging satirical references to some of the more recognizable conventions of the style he helped to create.
More recently he had been involved as producer in a television adaptation of the series.
AP