Screams & Nightmares

Writer, producer, and director Wes Craven has successfully tapped into the horror vein for over forty years, serving up scary, funny, cutting-edge thrillers that have become classics in the genre. His films have been both critical and commercial successes, most notably Nightmare on Elm Street, which spawned a series of sequels and made Craven (and his creation, Freddy Kruger) an international sensation. He then created a second indelible series in the horror movie trope with Scream.

In Screams & Nightmares, Brian J. Robb examines Craven's entire career, from his low-budget beginnings to his most recent box office hits, from the banned thriller The Last House on the Left and the cult classic The Hills Have Eyes to the outrageous Shocker and The People Under the Stairs. Through exclusive interviews with Craven, Robb provides in-depth accounts of the making of each of the films – including the final instalments of the Scream series – Craven's foray into writing novels, and his numerous television projects.



Brian J. Robb is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling biographer. He has also written on silent cinema, the films of Philip K. Dick, Laurel and Hardy and the Star Wars movies and he won the Tolkien Society Award for his book Middle-earth Envisioned. He is a founding editor of the Sci-Fi Bulletin website and lives near Edinburgh.



'Brian J Robb focuses on the films, including the obscure ones. He writes engagingly and with detail . . . As Craven once said, “I’m a person who understands how people are afraid.” And Robb understands how he transferred that fear to the screen'



'definitive . . .  info-packed and exceptionally well written . . . there is no writer better qualified to chronicle the life and work of a remarkable talent'



'a remarkably addictive and easy-to-read guide to Craven’s work, piling in juicy snippets and lesser-known background . . . a comprehensive picture of Craven and his output'