Carpenter. Carpenter’s filmography would rank him farther down the list (around #125-130) but there’s authorship in his work that isn’t there with directors ahead of him on the filmography list like William Friedkin or Milos Forman. He’s also not as front-loaded with one big film like Curtiz (Casablanca), Carol Reed (The Third Man), Argento (Suspiria) or Peter Jackson (LOTR). It’s a small window, but from 1978 to 1982 Carpenter was one of the best filmmakers on the planet.
Best film: Halloween. He didn’t invent the slasher with this film (some credit Hitchcock, some Argento, some Powell) but there’s no denying the filmmaking talent on display with the POV tracking shot (through the mask) + awe-inspiring musical score (by Carpenter) and title card opening.
total archiveable films: 8
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 2 (Halloween, The Thing)
top 100 films of the decade: 3 (Halloween, The Thing, Escape From New York)
most overrated: Assault on Precinct 13– is #786 all-time on TSPDT which makes it good enough for Carpenter’s #3 ranked film. I wouldn’t have a spot for it in my top 1000 and I have it as Carpenter’s 6th best but I look forward to a revisit—unlike most of his work—I’ve only seen this film once.
most underrated: Escape From New York isn’t one of the 4 films from Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, Assault on Prescient 13, They Live) in TSPDT top 1000 and it should be. I have it as his 3rd best film—there’s some great expressionistic world-building dystopia going on here and Kurt Russell (frequent Carpenter collaborator) doing a spot-on Clint Eastwood.
gem I want to spotlight: The Thing
- masterful thriller—a remake of course- superior to the 1951 Howard Hawks film of the same name
- #296 at this time on the all-time TSPDT list—the top-rated Carpenter film- above Halloween– I have them neck and neck
- The gorgeous title sequence duplicates the original Hawks film—the smoke coming through the lettering
- Morricone does the score- the first score not done by Carpenter himself on one of his films—the baseline is great but there’s not a lot too it- not on the Mount Rushmore of Morricone scores nor is it the Halloween score
- It’s no surprise the screengrabs here of are night shots with flames– clearly an ongoing visual motif
- What a day in 1982- this opened the same day as Blade Runner from Ridley Scott- both didn’t do well but now are widely considered sci-fi and cinema classics
- A meditation on masculinity—barricaded brotherhood and time of crisis—obviously this is big in Hawks’ oeuvre specifically Rio Bravo (also The Thing of course)—Carpenter also explored this in Assault on Precinct 13– does it again in Ghost of Mars
- Hawks and John Ford classicism— but you could also write about this being connected to Cronenberg’s body horror- Videodrome, The Fly is probably the closest (also a 50’s sci-fi remake) which comes out in 86’—there’s the HIV-reading of both films—can’t tell who has it, drawing blood—subtext layer adds to the film for sure
- 80’s paranoia—haha we have Steve Wonder’s “Superstitious” song
- It’s 108 minutes- tight- we hop right into it with the helicopter shooting the dog and the eerie shootout with the foreigners
- It could also be connected to Ridley Scott’s Alien– we’re investigating the unknown—both brilliant films
- The comradery of Hawks’ work- again, best displayed in Rio Bravo isn’t victorious here. This is that film turned on its head- a nightmare- maybe closer to Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952) in which it’s a nightmare with everyone turning on each other—Hawks’ film was really a retaliation to that western so it’s ironic that in tone Carpenter skews that
- Kurt Russell is awesome here- he steers the ship—courageous, anti-hero that exists in every decade of film history
- The support is just as good- Wilford Brimley—Keith David
- There’s a bit of trouble with how much of this film is built on special effects and not cinema aesthetics—
- The blood-drawing scene is magnificent- so intense
- There’s some choppy editing when Keith David asks to be cut loose
- The ending is glorious—the shot of the camp at night with Russell and David
- Must-See film
stylistic innovations/traits:
- Genre master, horror and sci-fi—many directors use the horror genre as a stepping stone to something else (some, not me, would say stepping stone to “greater things”) but Carpenter mostly stayed true to his roots and I think his legacy is stronger for it
- Carpenter’s original musical scores are often the highlights of his work—yes like Halloween borrows from Suspiria and Argento but the influences can be seen even today—say like in the score for the Safdie Brother’s Good time
- Carpenter is clearly influenced by Hawks (masculinity, brotherhood), Romero, 50’s sci-fi (he loves 50’s movies in general if you look at the influence of hawks’ rio bravo on assault on precinct 13. There’s a lot of invasion of body snatchers here
top 10
- Halloween
- The Thing
- Escape From New York
- Big Trouble in Little China
- The Fog
- Assault on Precinct 13
- They Live
- Starman
By year and grades
| 1976- Assault on Precinct 13 | R |
| 1978- Halloween | MS |
| 1980- The Fog | R |
| 1981- Escape From New York | HR |
| 1982- The Thing | MS |
| 1984- Starman | R |
| 1986- Big Trouble In Little China | R |
| 1988- They Live | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Friedkin, Nolan and Zemeckis don’t make the Top 100, then. I think both Nolan and Friedkin are close to Sofia (81 on the list), with 2 giant Masterpieces at least. TDK and Dunkirk for Nolan, The Exorcist and The French Connection for Friedkin. How and Why do they miss out?
Yes. Friedkin deserves a spot.
@KidCharlemagne— Friedkin will be showing up shortly on my list so i won’t fight you too hard– but out of curiosity– who are you moving off to make room for him?
Good question haha,maybe Carpenter.
@AP– appreciate you checking out the site again and the comment. I could probably do a explaining the case for Sofia, Nolan, Zemeckis and Friedkin (and will as i plan to keep this going to at least 150 directors or maybe 200 so please check back). I’ll try to keep it brief here. I agree with you regarding Nolan and Friedkin having masterpieces and being comparable to Sofia. However, I think there’s much more connective (authorship) tissue with Sofia’s work. Remember, for Nolan, my list really doesn’t include any work done from 2009-current so i’m really talking about “Memento” and “TDK” and i just don’t see the connection like i do with “Lost in Translation”, “Marie Antoinette” and “Virgin Suicides”. This will change when I include masterpieces like “Inception” and “Dunkirk”. In a few years Nolan will skyrocket up this list. With Friedkin– i adore both “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” but they could almost be made by different directors couldn’t they? That is what separates them.
200 ?! Great !
@KidCharlemagne — haha yeah i know. I’ve got a list of about 300 that i think are worthy of it. I’m really enjoying the project so i may keep going. 200 or 250 seems like a good #
Keep going,appreciate your work.
Read my lips:
This is nonsense
Carpenter is most underated director in the history of cinema-visionar,multi-artist,genius.
His movies has been copied 100 times..his ideas
Should I continue?
@ Lino– thanks for visiting the site and the comment. I admire your passion, and I appreciate Carpenter and his films, but i don’t see a strong argument here from you. What’s your case? “His movies have been copied 100 times”? Ok. So it’s because he’s influential? I’m sure you can see that’s a tough argument since so much of Carpenter is taken from Howard Hawks. So i guess- yeah- you should continue.
Very late to the party, but I just discovered your website and… it is great! Congratulations! Your opionions are very well-written also, and I’m so glad you’re not one of those people that just says “the cinematography is gorgeous”, “it keeps me in the edge of my seat” and so on… you give your own opinions and that’s amazing.
On Carpenter, I know very little about cinema but he’s my absolute favorite. Halloween is in my top 5 movies of all time, by the way.
In my opinion, what really diverses your, mine and everyone else’s opinion on his movies is related to the world he creates. Honestly, he has a set of “tools” that he tends to use in almost every film he makes. The music, of course, but also combining this with atmosphere, long takes, characters often are stuck in one place (literal ones – as it’s in Halloween, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog – or not, as it happens in Starman (a woman “stuck” in the past and in her grief) or In the Mouth of Madness (a man “stuck” in his own mind and craziness).
However, the characters, scenarios and in general the world he creates in his movies are always very different from one another. I guess that’s what makes Prince of Darkness one of his best films for me (Father Loomis is probably my favorite performance in a movie of his, I love the music, the ridiculous green liquid, the messages from a creature – “Not even Plutonium can save you!” and even the humour in it “Anybody seen Susan? Scientist? Glasses?”) and Escape from New York yours, for the reasons you’ve said.
I don’t think I could ever make a top 5 as my taste is kind of different every day, but I think it would go like this:
1- Halloween
2- Prince of Darkness
3- The Thing
4- The Fog
5- Assault on Precinct 13
But I love everything that I’ve seen, even Vampires.
@Gabriel Paes- Welcome to the site and thank you for the comment and the kind words. The “the cinematography is gorgeous” comment made me laugh– I used to feel the same way so although I’m sure I fail from time to time- I try to be more specific than that most of the time.
The rest of this is just an amazing addition to the John Carpenter page. Thank you for sharing. I’ll keep all of this here in mind when I revisit his work.
It is a funny comment, because you see it everywhere! And most people that say this don’t even know exactly what cinematography is (myself included, although I have a bigger notion of it than “beautiful colors and gorgeous shots”). And, sure, there is no pity if you’ve ever felt (or still feels) this way, because we’ve all been there. For example, I used to say that Blade Runner 2049 was one of my favorite movies of all time – and when I thought of a reason, the first thing that always came to mind was always: “Man, that cinematography really hits the spot, huh?”
But thanks for the response and congratulations on this website, it is truly epic!
I love Halloween (the Holiday) and Halloween (the Carpenter film). What are some of the best slasher films of all time? I am looking for some to watch on Halloween.
Psycho is certainly my favorite and a top 10 all time film for me personally. Peeping Tom, which strangely enough came out he same year as Psycho is an underrated one. Any other slasher films that are MP or MS?
Hi James. I’m no Drake and I don’t know nearly as much about cinema as he does, but I can recommend you some horror watches for Halloween: (these are not necessarily slasher films)
Night of the Demon (1957)
Prince of Darkness (1987)
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Dead of Night (1945)
@Gabriel Paes – No, worries I appreciate input from everyone and anytime I ask a question I am looking for feedback from anyone who wants to chime in.
I have not seen or heard of any of these. Night of the Demon (1957) looks interesting might check that one out.
@James Trapp- I don’t know if these are the best- but Dressed to Kill and Deep Red are the first that came to mind after the ones you mention- and they’re here- so it would seem we have the makings of a decent list at least from indiewire https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/best-slasher-movies/
@Drake – thanks for the article, funny enough I just recently started watching some of Dario Argento’s films. Started with Suspiria and am planning to watch Deep Red soon. I love Dressed to Kill, I actually think it’s one of De Palma’s 3 or 4 best films.
Hi James. I’m no Drake and I don’t know nearly as much about cinema as he does, but I can recommend you some horror watches for Halloween: (these are not necessarily slasher films)
Night of the Demon (1957)
Prince of Darkness (1987)
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Dead of Night (1945)
Drake, do you think if you replace the Halloween score with a merely adequate score that this is still a MS?
@Matthew- Hmmm. What do you think? I am glad I don’t have to answer this in real life. That score is phenomenal. I did notice the Carpenter score has a lot in common with a theme (not used often at all) from The Exorcist. Caught the Exorcist again recently and noticed that- not saying that it detracts from Halloween or Carpenter’s score- just sort of interesting.
Honestly… probably not. Maybe a HR/MS, but I don’t think (can’t know for certain, this is just speculative) it’s a full blown MS. Obviously visuals are a separate entity than music, but this is a film, and there are dozens of components in films that are all intrinsically tied together, build off of each other, enhance each other, etc, and Halloween’s visuals are, on its own two feet, great, but I think it being paired with the score accentuates it to another level. It’s importance to the atmosphere can’t be understated, and I don’t think those first person-pov shaky cam tracking shots (which is a major, reoccurring aesthetic that makes the film what it is) pack the same punch without the score going along with it.
Is Prince of Darkness not archivable or have you not seen it?
@Matthew – Yes, I have seen Prince of Darkness. Have you seen it? What did you think?
I have not unfortunately