Let's Talk John Carpenter

For my money, no director better epitomizes AT than John Carpenter and his run of flicks from '78-'88 has got to be the finest concentration of quality films a director has ever done over a 10 year period.

Check it out:
Halloween
The Fog
Escape From New York
The Thing
Christine
Starman
Big Trouble in Little China
Prince of Darkness
They Live

Incredible line-up with maybe Christine or Starman being the lowest points. Still, not bad. Not bad at all.

I hoped some other director would step up and have a similar kind of vision. For awhile, I thought it would be Neil Marshall, as the films he has done have all been hits for me, but he seems to have dropped off the planet. Robert Rodriguez is probably the director going with the spirit closest to Carpenter's.

Still, though, no one can touch the legend. And who can forget this video classic:

A couple of my all time favourites on that list. I love listening to his soundtracks.

The Thing is the best horror movie ever made.

I skipped Starman and Christine, but otherwise think that was a great run that he had for a decade. The quality definitely dropped after that. I really hated In the Mouth of Madness as a random collection of scenes masquerading as a story. Escape from L.A. was disappointing, and Vampires was okay, even an improvement on the book. I actually enjoyed Ghosts of Mars, but I won't try to persuade anybody that it was great.

In his prime, Carpenter did amazing work. Halloween kicked off the whole slasher movie phenomenon of the '80s. The Thing trumped the original by actually sticking closer to the original story Who Goes There?, by John Campbell. I consider The Thing to be one of the top horror movies of all time. Big Trouble in Little China is great fun, and an interesting departure from Carpenter's usual work.

The other day I made a mental list of my top 10 favorite movies. The Thing, I think, comes in around 11. Fantastic movie.

In the Mouth of Madess ranks up there for me...But I do think it was more of a time/place impression that put it so high. I went back and watched a few years back and...Well it's one that I like having the memories of.

I also thought Vampires was a lot better than the book. I read the book (Vampire$) after seeing the movie and was disappointed.

Bull brings up a good point. His soundtracks are really cool. I made a playlist of his stuff for game nights. It goes great for games like Risk 2210 or Minion Hunter. I'd imagine the tracks would work for Doom and Earth Reborn as well.

EDIT: I've always heard good things about the novel adaptation of EFNY. I think I'll try to track that down and get it read before the end of the year.

How timely, I was just about to see if Spotify had his new record (his first actual album) that is just coming out on Sacred Bones. It's supposed to be pretty good, pretty neat that it's on such a cool label.

Carpenter is the epitome of the meat-and-potatoes filmmaker. He isn't a technical genius, he doesn't have any kind of stunningly original vision. He just puts out really solid, really fun pictures that are really quite modest even though they sometimes have big ideas.

I'd have to say that The Thing is the masterpiece, that is just about a perfect film and I think it is easily his best work and I'd agree with Steve that it is one of top horror films ever made. I still think it has the best practical gore effects I've ever seen in any movie.

Second, I'd probably slate Escape from New York. Such a great action film that really shows Carpenter's roots. Spaghetti westerns and 1970s "bad future" sci fi flicks. Snake Plissken is one of the great action movie characters. And the set-up is just awesome. This is also my favorite Carpenter score. You can't hear it and not think of vector graphics.

Third would be Big Trouble in Little China. Hardly a "great" film, but by god it is one of the most entertaining films of the 1980s. Carpenter had seen Chinese Ghost Story and wanted to do a Western take on the wuxia thing, which was really about ten years ahead of everybody else trying to do that (including the Wachowskis). It's such a fun, easy to watch film with lots of great scenes and fun dialogue. I remember when I saw this in '86, I had this list on my door of my favorite movies. I took it down and wrote it at the top, over Aliens and Star Wars. Then I called my friend David and described the entire movie to him.

I watched They Live a few days ago and I have to say I think it's a little overrated. The film itself is very shoddy. But it has awesome ideas, great concepts, and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Man, that fight scene.

I have a soft spot for Prince of Darkness. I actually think the movie is bad, but it has some big ideas about religion vs. science and trying to fit the idea of Satan into a scientific worldview. But there again is that modesty- it's a HUGE story told on a really small scale. "You are recieving this transmission as a dream" is one of the top five Carpenter moments.

Halloween, meh. I get it. I just don't care to see it anymore.

Assault on Precinct 13 is pretty great, let's not leave it off the list.

I loved In the Mouth of Madness for years, but the last time I watched it I was really disappoitned in it...I don't know, something about that film doesn't sit right with me. The hair, makeup and wardrobe in it is HORRIBLE, it looks like an episode of Remington Steele or something. Kid on the bike is still a really great scene though.

Vampires is OK, but it should have been way better. I met Carpenter at Dragon Con back before Vamprires was released in the US, they had a special screening of it and a Q&A. Got some things autographed, chatted a bit about the film and the novel it was based on. Nice guy, very gracious. Very 1980s Hollywood.

I love John Carpenter movies!

Imo Assault on Precinct 13 is right up there with his best. I'd probably rank it no.2 behind The Thing, and then Escape from NY 3rd.

Thanks for the album tip, Barnes.

Looks like it releases in Feb 2015, but here's a track to sample.

It sounds exactly like you'd think a John Carpenter cut would and it's perfect.

johncarpenter.sacredbonesrecords.com/

Autobuy

If John Carpenter played board games, I bet he would be into AmeriTrash. The idea of him playing the Escape from New York board game amuses me.

Listening to that 'Vortex' track makes me want to re-acquire...

THE THING is amazing, and my fave, but I can see folks picking others. He really does deliver the goods. Our old Movie Ranking thing gave points for "John Carpenter's" didn't it?
...
Yep:

fortressat.com/forum/41-movies-a-tv/85310-fat-movie-scorecard

Good times.

Christine the "low" point? No way. Christine was crazy tense. The sounds the music the lighting and the car as a character was perfect.


The second he says "Show Me" and the lense flare went up, I was like "YEAH!...fuck yeah!"