Description: The first academic study on the work of Wes Craven.
Brief description: Calum Waddell is a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, where he also received his PhD. His previous work includes The Style of Sleaze, The American Exploitation Film (2018), Images of Apartheid: Filmmaking on the Fringe in the Old South Africa (2021), South African Horror Cinema (2025), and the edited collection The Films of Wes Craven (2023). He has occasionally worked on producing bonus content and documentary work for Blu-ray labels and documented the "gory glory" days of grindhouse cinema with his feature-length nostalgia-trip 42nd Street Memories (2015).
Review Quotes: ReFocus: The Films ofWes Craven has an excellent editor in Waddell, an authority on horror and grindhouse cinema, whose stated goal is to prompt readers and viewers to look beyond the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series, and recognize Wes as a "nearly unrivaled influence within the genre" as well as an "essential American filmmaker." Through close readings of Wes's minor works--as well as two new essays about the original Nightmare on Elm Street--ReFocus makes a strong case for Wes as an auteur.--Joe Maddrey "maddrey.blogspot.com"