The Master Of Horror Films
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John Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York in January 16, 1948.
His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father was the
head of the music department at Western Kentucky University.
As a boy, he began filming horror shorts on 8 mm film even before
entering high school.
He was captivated by movies from an early age, particularly the westerns
of Howard Hawks and John Ford, as well as 1950s low budget horror and
science fiction films, such as Forbidden Planet and The Thing from
Another World.
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Carpenter was married to Adrienne
Barbeau from January 1, 1979 to
1984. During their marriage, Barbeau
starred in The Fog, and also appeared
in Escape from New York. The couple
have one son, John Cody Carpenter
(born May 7, 1984).
Carpenter has then been married to
producer Sandy King since 1990. King
produced a number of Carpenter's later
feature films, including They Live, In
the Mouth of Madness and Ghost Of
Mars.
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He briefly attended Western Kentucky University where his father
chaired the music department, but transferred to the University of
Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in 1968.
He dropped out before finishing his degree for his his student project,
The Resurrection of Bronco Billy(1970), which won the 1970 Academy
Award for Live Action Short Film. The short film was blown-up to 35mm,
sixty prints were made, and the film was theatrically released by
Universal Studios for two years in the United States and Canada.
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Carpenter’s first major film as director, Dark Star
(1974), was a sci-fi black comedy that he cowrote with Dan O'Bannon (who later went on to
write Alien, borrowing freely from much of Dark
Star). The film cost only $60,000 and was
difficult to make as both Carpenter and O'Bannon
completed the film by multitasking.
Carpenter did the musical score as well as the
writing, producing and directing, while O'Bannon
acted in the film and did the special effects (which
caught the attention of George Lucas who hired him
to do work on the special effects for Star Wars)
His efforts didn’t go unnoticed and Hollywood was
fascinated at his filmmaking abilities within a lowbudget film.
Dark
Star
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Carpenter's next film was Assault on Precinct 13
(1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the
films of Howard Hawks, particularly Rio Bravo.
Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the
film's creation.
He not only wrote, directed and scored it, but also
edited the film under the pseudonym "John T.
Chance". Carpenter has said that he considers
Assault on Precinct 13 to have been his first real
film because it was the first movie that he shot on a
schedule.
The film was originally released in the United States
to mixed critical reviews and lacked box-office
earnings, but after it was screened at the 1977
London Film Festival, it became a critical and
commercial success in Europe and is often credited
with launching Carpenter's career. generally regarded
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Halloween (1978) was a smash hit on release
and helped give birth to the slasher film
genre. On Halloween 1963, six year old
Michael Myers murders his older sister by
stabbing her with a kitchen knife. Fifteen
years later, he escapes from a psychiatric
hospital, returns home, and stalks teenager
Laurie Strode and her friends.
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Carpenter again worked with a relatively small
budget, $320,000.The film grossed over
$65 million initially, making it one of the
most successful independent films of all time.
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In addition to the film's critical and commercial success, perhaps its
strongest legacy is the film's original score by Carpenter, which remains
one of the most recognizable film music themes of all time along with
other notable scores such as John Williams' Jaws.
Carpenter got the idea of the movie by having the concept of a
babysitter being menaced by a stalker
Carpenter’s approach of the film was "True crass exploitation” instead
of the classic horror genre.
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Carpenter followed up the success of Halloween with The
Fog (1980), a ghostly revenge tale (co-written by
Hill) inspired by horror comics such as Tales from the
Crypt and by The Crawling Eye, a 1958 movie about
monsters hiding in clouds.
Completing The Fog was an unusually difficult process
for Carpenter. After viewing a rough cut of the film, he
wasn’t satisfied with the result.
In order to make the movie more coherent and
frightening, Carpenter shot additional footage that
included a number of new scenes. Approximately onethird of the finished film is comprised of the newer
footage. Despite the difficulties, it was another
commercial success for Carpenter, which grossed over
$21,000,000 in The U.S.
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His next film, The Thing (1982),which is about a parasitic
extraterrestrial life form that assimilates other organisms
and in turn imitates them. The Thing infiltrates an
Antarctic research station, taking the appearance of the
researchers that it absorbs, and paranoia occurs within the
group.
The film has innovative special effects by Rob Bottin,
special visual effects by matte artist Albert Whitlock, a
score by Ennio Morricone and a cast including rising star
Kurt Russell. The Thing was made with a budget of
$10,000,000, Carpenter's largest cost up to that point,
and distributed by Universal Pictures.
It Is considered to be Carpenter’s first financial failure
because it’s box office was low due to the fact that E.T:
Extra Terrestrial came out after, which was more appealing
at the time.
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One of the high points in Carpenter's career came in 1984 with the release of
Starman, a science-fiction fantasy film directed by John Carpenter that tells the
story of an alien who has come to Earth in response to the invitation found on the
gold phonograph record installed on the Voyager 2 space probe.
Starman was favorably reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and LA
Weekly and described by Carpenter as a film he envisioned as a romantic comedy and
Jeff Bridges was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for the portrayal of
Starman.
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The Ward(2011) was he latest movie he has released
since The Ghost Of Mars (2001).
The Ward is a psychological horror film that revolves
around a young institutionalized woman named Kristen
(played by Amber Heard) who is haunted by a
mysterious and deadly zombie/ghost. As danger creeps
closer, she comes to realize that this zombie might be
darker than anything she ever could have imagined.
The film got unfavorable reviews overall, but I would
consider watching it because its his most modern film and
you can analyze the transition of techniques he does in
his filming.
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His films are characterized by minimalist lighting and photography, static cameras,
use of steadicam, and distinctive synthesized scores (usually self-composed).
He made Sci-Fi, Horror, And Thrillers
Carpenter is an outspoken proponent of widescreen filming, and all of his theatrical
movies (with the exception of Dark Star and The Ward) were filmed anamorphic with
a 2.35:1 or greater aspect ratio.
Frequently makes references to classic Westerns
Includes at least one scene inside an automobile in nearly all his films. Likes to
include helicopters in his films, many times doing a cameo as a pilot.
Underlying sense of paranoia in horror stories
Graphic visual effects and body transformations
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Carpenter also wrote his scripts for his films because he usually produced his
earliest films by himself or with a co-writer.
The recurring actor in Carpenters films was Kurt Russell because they were
long time friends.
Directed film adaptations as well such as Christine, a film adaptation of a
Stephen King Novel.
His films were all created from his ideas, but he collaborated ideas from other
films to inspire his own version.
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He describes himself as having been influenced
by Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Nigel
Kneale and The Twilight Zone.
Movies are pieces of film stuck together in a
certain rhythm, an absolute beat, like a musical
composition. The rhythm you create affects the
audience.
I'm flattered if someone comes to me with the
idea of remaking one of my films. Remake or
original, making a movie still comes down to
old-fashioned hard work.
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He only won Academy Award and other awards such as Saturn Awards but
never any Golden Globes or Oscars.
His favorite genre is Western.
Considers it bad luck to wear the hat of the show he's working on. Will not
wear a crew cap until the film is over.
Loves Elvis Presley and old Cadillacs.
Is a major NBA fan and has a satellite dish installed on his location trailer to
keep up with the games. Always has a portable basketball hoop on location.
He was given the chance to direct Top Gun, Fatal Attraction, Armed And
Dangerous and Zombieland but declined all offers.
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