"What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me."
JOHN CARPENTER
(1948- ) Born January 16, Carthage, New York, USA
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Action, Supernatural Horror, Sci-Fi Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi Comedy, Sci-Fi Horror, Fantasy, Escape Film, Alien Film, Action Thriller
Key Collaborators: Kurt Russell (Leading Actor), Larry Franco (Producer), Gary B. Kibbe (Cinematographer), Dean Cundey (Cinematographer), Alan Howarth (Composer), Charles Cyphers (Character Actor), Peter Jason (Character Actor), Debra Hill (Producer), Daniel A. Lomino (Production Designer), Donald Pleasence (Leading Actor), Debra Hill (Screenwriter)
"It was with his third feature that Carpenter became established as one of Hollywood's most bankable directors. Produced on a shoestring budget of $300,000, his effectively executed horror movie Halloween grossed $60 million worldwide, thus becoming the most profitable independent production up to its day... Adept at generating suspense and narrative drive, Carpenter also uses horror and science fiction metaphorically to explore the dark side of modern American culture - personal isolation and distrust in The Thing, urban decay in Escape from New York, and mass communications in They Live. However, his films are often uneven in quality, sometimes over-shadowed by their own expensive special effects and the conventional demands of the genres in which they are placed." - The Macmillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994
"Carpenter is a director who likes to get his audience on the edge of their seats, then make them jump off it. He continued to be mighty successful at it too, although in the early 1980s his films were insufficiently progressive - one longed for more variety in his work." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)
"In reviews of his later work, in particular, critics have dismissed John Carpenter's films as "mechanical" or "workmanlike". Yet his movies have rarely pretended to be anything more or less than straightforward action flicks (notwithstanding their elegant widescreen landscapes), with flatly drawn characters who function as cogs in his genre machine... Whatever genre Carpenter works in, you can usually read a social commentary between the lines. A recurrent motif is the culture in microcosm under attack." - Jessica Winter (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Carpenter's films - mostly cheap(-ish) and cheerful reworkings of sci-fi, horror and thriller situations familiar from 40s and 50s B-movies - are full of hokum, yet at their best they are gripping, witty and mythic... Though Carpenter's stories gleefully eschewed originality, he displayed his expertise in creating suspense by cutting back and forth between various endangered individuals and groups and by his canny, much-copied use of the wide screen, with the threat to victims suddenly appearing from the side of the frame or emerging from a murky background." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)
"One of the generation of movie-crazy "movie brats", steeped in the films made under the studio system, especially the low-budget thrillers, serials and space-movies of the 40's and 50's, and the work of Hitchcock and Hawks. It's a case of the young devouring their elders." - Ronald Bergan (A-Z of Movie Directors, 1983)
"It is strange to think that John Carpenter, having directed such well-known cult classics such as Escape from New York, Halloween and The Thing has remained one of the most under-appreciated directors in Hollywood. But like other mavericks, this is because he's ignored critics, stayed true to his vision and continued making movies that he would like to see." - Steven Paul Davies (A-Z of Cult Films and Film-Makers, 2001)
(1948- ) Born January 16, Carthage, New York, USA
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Action, Supernatural Horror, Sci-Fi Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi Comedy, Sci-Fi Horror, Fantasy, Escape Film, Alien Film, Action Thriller
Key Collaborators: Kurt Russell (Leading Actor), Larry Franco (Producer), Gary B. Kibbe (Cinematographer), Dean Cundey (Cinematographer), Alan Howarth (Composer), Charles Cyphers (Character Actor), Peter Jason (Character Actor), Debra Hill (Producer), Daniel A. Lomino (Production Designer), Donald Pleasence (Leading Actor), Debra Hill (Screenwriter)
"It was with his third feature that Carpenter became established as one of Hollywood's most bankable directors. Produced on a shoestring budget of $300,000, his effectively executed horror movie Halloween grossed $60 million worldwide, thus becoming the most profitable independent production up to its day... Adept at generating suspense and narrative drive, Carpenter also uses horror and science fiction metaphorically to explore the dark side of modern American culture - personal isolation and distrust in The Thing, urban decay in Escape from New York, and mass communications in They Live. However, his films are often uneven in quality, sometimes over-shadowed by their own expensive special effects and the conventional demands of the genres in which they are placed." - The Macmillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994
"Carpenter is a director who likes to get his audience on the edge of their seats, then make them jump off it. He continued to be mighty successful at it too, although in the early 1980s his films were insufficiently progressive - one longed for more variety in his work." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)
"In reviews of his later work, in particular, critics have dismissed John Carpenter's films as "mechanical" or "workmanlike". Yet his movies have rarely pretended to be anything more or less than straightforward action flicks (notwithstanding their elegant widescreen landscapes), with flatly drawn characters who function as cogs in his genre machine... Whatever genre Carpenter works in, you can usually read a social commentary between the lines. A recurrent motif is the culture in microcosm under attack." - Jessica Winter (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Carpenter's films - mostly cheap(-ish) and cheerful reworkings of sci-fi, horror and thriller situations familiar from 40s and 50s B-movies - are full of hokum, yet at their best they are gripping, witty and mythic... Though Carpenter's stories gleefully eschewed originality, he displayed his expertise in creating suspense by cutting back and forth between various endangered individuals and groups and by his canny, much-copied use of the wide screen, with the threat to victims suddenly appearing from the side of the frame or emerging from a murky background." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)
"One of the generation of movie-crazy "movie brats", steeped in the films made under the studio system, especially the low-budget thrillers, serials and space-movies of the 40's and 50's, and the work of Hitchcock and Hawks. It's a case of the young devouring their elders." - Ronald Bergan (A-Z of Movie Directors, 1983)
"It is strange to think that John Carpenter, having directed such well-known cult classics such as Escape from New York, Halloween and The Thing has remained one of the most under-appreciated directors in Hollywood. But like other mavericks, this is because he's ignored critics, stayed true to his vision and continued making movies that he would like to see." - Steven Paul Davies (A-Z of Cult Films and Film-Makers, 2001)
Recommended
The Thing (1982), In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Worth a Look
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981)
Approach with Caution
Christine (1983), Ghosts of Mars (2001)
IMDb profile
The Thing (1982), In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
Worth a Look
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981)
Approach with Caution
Christine (1983), Ghosts of Mars (2001)
IMDb profile
