Wes Craven made some of the most memorably influential scary movies of the 20th century, from gruelling grindhouse classic The Last House on the Left (1972; Plex) to the sequel-spawning, genre-defining popular hit Scream (1996) . In person, the softly spoken auteur seemed more like an avuncular academic than a Hollywood frightmonger . The film marked what director Brian Yuzna called the zenith of “plastic reality” –