Five of the Best...John Carpenter Films

The name John Carpenter will always be synonymous with slasher films (despite only really making one!) thanks to his ground breaking and game changing ‘Halloween’ but his work goes FAR beyond that. Crossing genres with sci-fi, comedy, romance and fantasy, he must surely go down as one of the greats of American cinema and also one of the country’s most under-appreciated. Capable of working wonders with a low budget, choosing a favourite Carpenter film is like being asked which is your favourite child…it depends on your mood and how you feel when you’re asked.

I’m attempting to choose ‘Five of the Best’ which is not as easy as it sounds, there are many others that I could have included, possibly even favourites of yours. It’s open to interpretation but here are my five favourite John Carpenter films, in no particular order, and God bless the guy for giving us all so much pleasure over the years.

The Thing (1982) – click here for full review

No Carpenter list would be complete without ‘The Thing’, a simply staggering remake (or even sequel) of the 50s classic ‘The Thing from Another World’. It’s rare to see such a graphic film be so terrifying but Carpenter invests just as much time in the characters, their very different personalities and how they allow their personalities to affect their reactions to the terror unfolding before them. As far as excercises in paranoia go, this is very difficult to top and it’s the effects that evoke that paranoia with the shapeshifting alien posing the question ‘who can you really trust?’

Inspired as much by H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ as Howard Hawkes’ black and white, the film was a flop on its initial release, coming along at the same time as Spielberg’s ‘E.T.’ to an audience that clearly wasn’t ready for such a nihilistic, apocalyptic film. Thankfully the rise of the VHS format gave it a second lease of life and it was a huge hit, reappraised by critics and now rightly held as a classic, not just of the genre but of the decade. The practical effects still hold up today and the film remains an inspiration to current releases…just watch Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’ with its setting, score, lead actor and rising paranoia for evidence of that.

Most ‘Carpenter’ moment? It would be easy to pick one of the effects sequences but for me it’s all about tension and I love the blood test scene! We are in precisely the same situation as the characters with no idea as to who is human and who isn’t, we don’t trust a single one of them. The tension in the room, it’s implied that even the characters themselves may doubt their own humanity, is unbearable as one by one they pass the test (Childs branding McReady a murderer for killing one of the characters who turns out to be human) until the incredible effects scene releases that tension with a wonderful payoff. Classic Carpenter!

Halloween (1978) – click here for full review

It may not have been the first slasher, Bob Cark’s ‘Black Christmas’ came WAY before, but it did popularise the subgenre and introduce most of its tropes. The omnipresent, indestructible masked killer, the final girl, the terrible place, the terrorisation of female victims, it’s all there apart from the gore! This is where Carpenter comes up trumps. I have nothing against the red stuff, in fact it is essential to ‘The Thing’, one of the primary reasons for watching many slashers (and I’m particularly thinking of the ‘Friday 13th’ films here) is for the kills. Here, once again, it’s all about the tension and you never see any of the blood that can cause that tension to release. Just like a pressure cooker it keeps building and building, you don’t even have the satisfaction of a resolution at the film’s climax.

The budget is incredibly low, just $300,000, but once again Carpenter trusts his own direction and competence to turn in an absolute classic of a film. Let’s not forget that he wrote the film, in just ten days no less, scored it himself and shot the film in only 20 days. He was so confident in its success that he took a fee of just $10,000 but retained 10% of the profits to a film that became one of the most successful independent films of all time. His use of light and shadow is pivotal in keeping Myers, a mixture of black and white himself, hidden…just try watching it in monochrome, it’s equally effective!

Most Carpenter moment? Most definitely the opening scene! A single shot, broken only by a face mask being pulled over the camera, as we follow an unknown assailant into a house after a couple have just engaged in the world’s fastest sexual encounter. He picks up a knife and we see the woman, naked and vulnerable, as the masked man stabs the young girl to death. As the killer comes back outside a car pulls up and the camera pans around to reveal that the killer is in fact a five year old boy, with the blackest eyes, the devil’s eyes. A complete lack of motive, reason and emotion, an iconic horror character is born before our very eyes.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Taking ‘Rio Bravo’ as his inspiration and employing a number of Western motifs (a Sheriff protecting his  territory, a building under siege, gang/tribal warfare and epic gunfights) it’s easy to forget that what is a very assured film was only carpenter’s second feature. Once again tension is paramount and this can be seen as a companion piece to ‘Halloween’. Both feature largely unseen, omnipresent killers who appear to lack any kind of motive or reason for what they’re doing (or at least no explanation). The gang pretty much represent the same stalking terror as Michael Myers but kept at arm’s length.

Carpenter’s electronic score was revolutionary at the time with synthesisers rarely employed outside of sci-fi. It’s such a raw, uncompromising, pounding score that perfectly embodies the relentless pursuit of the gang. Interspersed with a sparse, high pitched note that underscores much of the early film featuring the gang, it sounds like adrenalin-fuelled blood rushing through your head and increases the tension at key moments. The gang displays a bizarre moral code, willing to die for their cause which appears to be the death of all those inside the precinct for harbouring the man who killed one of their own. An incredibly simple premise which Carpenter filled with relentless tension, explosive violence and a wonderful central performance from Darwin Joster as the brilliantly named ‘Napolean Wilson’.

Most Carpenter moment? It’s not often that you watch a scene and think ‘there’s no way you’d get away with that now’ but the key scene in this film is just that. Our gang members begin to circle an ice cream van driver, clearly nervous that he’s being targeted for reasons unknown. Distracted by a little girl buying an ice cream, they grab and terrorise him, knocking him to the ground and killing him…but not before shooting the little girl in cold blood who’d come back to exchange her ice cream. As shocking now as it must have been in the 70s, after being confronted by a scene like that, you firmly believe that anything can happen and keeps you on your toes right until the end.

They Live (1988) – click here for full review

Based on Ray Nelson’s 1963 short story ‘8 o’clock in the Morning’ this is an incredibly clever, political satire and represents allegorical sci-fi at its best. If you haven’t seen the film then skip to the next film as there will be spoilers!

Central to the plot is the idea that aliens are among us and hiding in plain sight, occupying positions of power and influence. A drifter, wonderfully played by the late Roddy Piper, stumbles across the secret after unwittingly falling in with a small band of freedom fighters, roping in the reluctant Keith David. Carpenter manages to say a lot about society and how the working classes are kept down and oppressed by an elite who control the media through big business, politics and the uneven distribution of wealth. Whereas ‘The Thing’ was a visceral film all about claustrophobic paranoia, ‘They Live’ is a considered comment about the widespread takeover and manipulation of American society.

Carpenter’s films are renowned for their tension and economy of action but as his films progressed we began to see more humour coming on. ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ was something of a watershed film for Carpenter where we really saw more personality come through that had been hinted at in ‘Escape From New York’. ‘They Live’ gave him the opportunity to add substance to that humour for what would ultimately prove to be his last classic film. Another great score that complements Piper’s character as a drifter and one of THE great lines in cinema history, altogether now… “I’ve come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum!”

Most ‘Carpenter’ Moment? That wonderful fight scene between Piper and David is pure gold. We know that David’s character Frank represents Piper’s last chance to show the world what’s going on so the tension is there…we want him to win the fight and know what’s at stake. But for Frank it’s a matter of principle and on the face of it we’re watching two grown men fight over a pair of sunglasses! As funny as it is tense, apparently at one point the two men were genuinely fighting which is believable as the fight takes up just under six minutes of screen time. It has a great pay off with Frank and Nada checking into a hotel room, bruised, battered with their eyes well and truly open and seriously pissed off!

The Fog (1980) – click here for full review

Carpenter’s follow up to the juggernaut that was ‘Halloween’ is a highly effective and old fashioned ghost story. It’s the kind of tale that could be told around a camp fire and Carpenter knows this, he re-shot around a third of the film, the opening scene featuring John Houseman telling children the story that would pretty much sum up the plot of ‘The Fog’ around a camp fire being one of them. It shares many similarities with ‘Halloween’; it’s low budget, it favours tension over gore, the threat is ever present but rarely seen and it features a wonderful central performance from Jamie Lee Curtis, alongside her mother Janet Leigh. Whereas there is mystery behind the motive of Myers, here we know exactly what the ghosts want but having them manifest themselves from the mysteries of the deep is what gives it that otherworldly quality.

Perhaps it’s because Carpenter was on a hiding to nothing with critics following what he did with ‘Halloween’ but, despite being a commercial success ($22million on a $1million budget) critics weren’t too kind, even Carpenter wasn’t satisfied and his displeasure with the final film was one of the reasons he agreed for it to be remade. I’ve always loved ‘The Fog’ and regard it as one of his best. It’s lean, creepy, eerie, oozing a small town urban legend vibe and utterly enthralling. The fact that the remake is so completely inept just shows what a master craftsman Carpenter is…and another pitch perfect soundtrack.

Most ‘Carpenter’ moment? An almost unbearably tense scene where radio DJ Stevie can see the fog heading towards her house where her son is being looked after by Mrs Kobritz. She sends panicked messages over the airwaves for someone to save him but can Nick and Elizabeth get there in time. All the elements are there…time is a factor, a young boy on his own in peril, the ancient mariners taking their time to break through Andy’s door and then, or course, the car gets stuck in mud just when you think they’ve made it. Carpenter’s eye for the dramatic, clever editing and incredible synthesised score come together like the ingredients of an Ice Cream Sundae to give leave us breathless and anxious for more!

What now?

Well, what are your favourites? I’m aware I’ve missed out some biggies…you might ask “What about ‘Big Trouble in Little China’, ‘Escape from New York’ or ‘Christine’?” You might want to know if I forgot ‘Prince of Darkness’, ‘Dark Star’ or ‘Starman’. You might have included ‘Ghosts of Mars’, ‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ or ‘Elvis’ but you’d have been wrong!

So, what films would you pick as Carpenter’s ‘Five of the Best’…I want to hear your views!