i mean, i get the feeling that he doesn't get full acknowledgement for his achievements because he "only" does horror... but from his start in the early 70s (last house on the left, hills have eyes) through the 80s with the nightmare films, and then fucking SCREAM (which, upon watching it again last month for the first time since it came out, i thoroughly enjoyed, on an extremely geeky level probably) he's pretty much defined contemporary horror, no? and then he does mental things like the people under the stairs which i give complete and full credit for the gimp in pulp fiction and possibly the casting of ving rhames as marcellus wallace as well.

on a slightly different note, these are probably my favourite 3 moments from Scream:
-JAMIE, LOOK BEHIND YOU JAMIE!!!
-craven's cameo in the krueger costume
-the killer's geek rage at drew barrymore not getting the answers right