# John Carpenter, How does he rule so hard?



## Metal Ken (Dec 11, 2007)

So i've seen about 5-6 John Carpenter movies. Now, according to IMDB, he has a couple of flops, but god damn, how does he manage to be so consistently awesome? I've never been one for following directors or actors or anything, but shit... I think so far i've seen:

Dark Star
The Thing
They Live
Escape from LA
Escape From New York
Halloween

How does he manage to rule so hard?


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 11, 2007)

You forgot 'In the Mouth of Madness' and 'Prince of Darkness'.


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## The Dark Wolf (Dec 11, 2007)

Escape from NY was badass.

Escape from LA... not so much. 

Halloween was pretty good, too. And so was They Live.


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## darren (Dec 11, 2007)

The Thing is one of my favourite movies ever. The petri dish scene still makes me jump out of my skin.


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## smueske (Dec 11, 2007)

Carpenter is hit or miss with me. The Thing, a remake, is awesome. They Live, is awful. Escape from NY, cool. Escape from LA, not so cool. Romero is that way with me, too. 

Off topic, Pumpkinhead is one of my favorite horror movies of all time, but the sequels just suck. The one with Clinton's brother was just an embarrassment.


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## Karl Hungus (Dec 11, 2007)

The guy was an absolute master (Don't forget The Fog!) but dear god, his more recent films are some of the greatest abominations you could imagine.

Never watch Ghosts Of Mars. Seriously. Never.

You'd be in awe of how bad it is, and think to yourself "Did John Carpenter direct this from inside a locked, soundproof box, and his only means of communication with the cast and crew is by crudely drawn stick figures...?"

But in his prime, the man directed some of the greatest horror movies ever. The fact that The Thing has barely dated at all is a testament to his genius.


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## poisonelvis (Dec 11, 2007)

my 14 year old,love his movies,the thing is his fav,i turned him onto big trouble in little china.he does rule!!!my sons myspace is "the duke of new york-a#1"


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## Metal Ken (Dec 11, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> You forgot 'In the Mouth of Madness' and 'Prince of Darkness'.



Havent seen those ones. 


I didnt think escape from LA was TOO bad 

Smue -- i loved They Live


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## Blexican (Dec 11, 2007)

How could you guys forget John Carpenter's Vampires? It's James Woods owning vamps with cool-ass weapons.

YouTube - John Carpenter's Vampires - Theatrical Teaser (Fan Edit)


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## Metal Ken (Dec 11, 2007)

Havent seen it yet


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## DelfinoPie (Dec 11, 2007)

Blexican said:


> How could you guys forget John Carpenter's Vampires? It's James Woods owning vamps with cool-ass weapons.
> 
> YouTube - John Carpenter's Vampires - Theatrical Teaser (Fan Edit)



And an antagonist with an awesome name; "Valek".


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## sakeido (Dec 11, 2007)

darren said:


> The Thing is one of my favourite movies ever. The petri dish scene still makes me jump out of my skin.



That whole movie was terrifying (and totally brilliant). Probably my favorite horror movie of all time.


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## The Dark Wolf (Dec 11, 2007)

The original 'The Fog' was scary as shit back in the day.

The remake,... not so much.


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## Metal Ken (Dec 12, 2007)

Just watched the Prince of Darkness. 

FUCK.

FUCK.
FUCK.
FUCK.
FUCK.

That movie was FUCKED up. 

God DAMN.


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 12, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> Just watched the Prince of Darkness.
> 
> FUCK.
> 
> ...



You have no idea how much it freaked me out when I saw it at age 14. One of the best horror films EVER!!!!!


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## Desecrated (Dec 12, 2007)

I like his music. Ghost of mars was an eye-opener for me.


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## Vegetta (Dec 13, 2007)

I like a lot of his films My fav is probably Escape from New York, the Thing and Big Trouble in little China. I agree his later stuff leaves a bit to be desired.

I absolutely cannot stand Halloween tho.


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## Metal Ken (Dec 13, 2007)

Vegetta said:


> I absolutely cannot stand Halloween tho.



I Watched it this morning. It was pretty good. It had all the slasher flick cliches, but if you keep in mind it was doing this before lame slasher flicks got to be a dime a dozen, its pretty good.


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## Vegetta (Dec 13, 2007)

I prefer Halloween to any film by Wes Craven


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## zimbloth (Dec 13, 2007)

Escape from LA is one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but the rest, yeah really good stuff.


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## The Dark Wolf (Dec 13, 2007)

I just got the Prince of Darkness DVD from the library. Gonna check that shit out in a few, yo.


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## Metal Ken (Dec 13, 2007)

One of the main characters has an EPIC mustache.


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## technomancer (Dec 13, 2007)

I'm a HUGE John Carpenter fan 

And Prince of Darkness kicks ass. As do The Thing, The Fog, In the Mouth of Madness, Escape from New York, and Halloween.

Oh and the thing to keep in mind about Halloween is that there really weren't slasher pics before it was made. Is pretty much kicked off that whole genre.


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 14, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> One of the main characters has an EPIC mustache.



 We're talking Ned Flanders quality here.


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## Karl Hungus (Dec 14, 2007)

One great thing about The Thing that many people overlook was that it had Wilford "Diabeetus" Brimley.


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## Metal Ken (Dec 14, 2007)

Karl Hungus said:


> One great thing about The Thing that many people overlook was that it had Wilford "Diabeetus" Brimley.



I Know 

when i watched it for the first time, i was watching it with a friend, and i was like "Is that the fucking beetis dude?"
"The beetis guy?"
"You know, the guy that gave Stephen Colbert a cocoon ... you know.. from the movie 'cocoon'?"


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 17, 2007)

The Dark Wolf said:


> I just got the Prince of Darkness DVD from the library. Gonna check that shit out in a few, yo.



Hey Bob, what did you think of PoD?


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## Naren (Dec 18, 2007)

I like a lot of John Carpenter films. My favorites are "In The Mouth of Madness" and "Prince of Darkness." I also really like "The Thing" and so on. Halloween was really entertaining.

I haven't really seen any of his recent films, so I can't comment on them.


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## zimbloth (Dec 18, 2007)

Naren said:


> My favorites are "In The Mouth of Madness" and "Prince of Darkness." I also really like "The Thing" and so on.



Do you read Sutter Kane??


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## Metal Ken (Dec 18, 2007)

zimbloth said:


> Do you read Sutter Kane??



Its funny, isn't it? For years, I thought i was making all this up. But they were telling me what to write... giving me the power to make it all real!


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## zimbloth (Dec 18, 2007)

Metal Ken said:


> Its funny, isn't it? For years, I thought i was making all this up. But they were telling me what to write... giving me the power to make it all real!



 Well played..


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## Metal Ken (Dec 18, 2007)

Did you see that episode of Master of Horror he did? He didnt write the script, but he directed it. Its fucked up. Its SORTA like in the mouth of madness, but its about a movie so messed up that it caused riots. Its worth checking out, its called "Cigarette Burns". its WAY more violent than anything else he's done.


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## zimbloth (Dec 18, 2007)

Nice. No I'll have to check that out. I haven't seen any of the Master of Horror series unfortunately


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## Metal Ken (Dec 18, 2007)

I've only seen Cigarette Burns and the episode based on the HP Lovecraft "Dreams in the Witch House". Fucking awesome stuff. They're on Showtime, so they're actually a full hour of uninterrupted film, so they feel kinda of like a slightly faster horror movie. 
Carpenter's work on Cigarette Burns was amazing though.


"Masters of Horror" John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (2005)
Plot summary:


> With a torrid past that haunts him, a movie-theater director is hired to hunt for the only known print of a film so notorious that its single screening caused the viewers to become homicidally insane


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## Naren (Dec 18, 2007)

zimbloth said:


> Do you read Sutter Kane??



 I love that movie. And I thought Sam Neil did a great job as the protagonist.

And the fact that a lot of the movie was inspired by HP Lovecraft makes me like it even more.


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 18, 2007)

'Cigarette Burns' is an amazing film, as is ITMOM. 

MK, if you're going to check out other episodes of Masters of Horror, try 'Jenifer' and 'Imprint'.


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 18, 2007)

Naren said:


> I love that movie. And I thought Sam Neil did a great job as the protagonist.
> 
> And the fact that a lot of the movie was inspired by HP Lovecraft makes me like it even more.



 It's easily the best Lovecraft-themed/inspired film I've seen so far.


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 18, 2007)

zimbloth said:


> Nice. No I'll have to check that out. I haven't seen any of the Master of Horror series unfortunately



Get the box sets. They're worth every penny, trust me.


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## Naren (Dec 18, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> It's easily the best Lovecraft-themed/inspired film I've seen so far.



I agree. I'm probably the biggest Lovecraft fan on this site (I've read everything he's written that's available). I absolutely love Lovecraft's work, but 99% of the movie adaptations are pure crap (I've probably seen 15 of them. I have no idea why I watched so many of them, even though I considered them crap). And I have to say that you're right. This is probably the best one of them all. I wrote a screenplay for one that I think would be much better, though (but it's based off of Lovecraft atmosphere and ideas instead of an actual Lovecraft story. Almost every Lovecraft-based movie completely ruins the atmosphere and can never get it right).

I'd recommend "In The Mouth of Madness" to anyone who enjoys movies in the genre.


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## JBroll (Dec 18, 2007)

They Live is epic.

Jeff


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## Shreddy Krueger (Dec 19, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> You have no idea how much it freaked me out when I saw it at age 14. One of the best horror films EVER!!!!!



What he said...

 

Fuck yeah!


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## Leaper (Nov 4, 2014)

Now this master of horror is releasing an album called Lost Themes due February 3rd. Sweeeet.

Google will pull up any number of articles and interviews about it. 

[Youtubevid]M4yacerq164[/MEDIA]


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## MFB (Nov 5, 2014)

What a bump! I mean, Carpenter rules and all, but 7 years!


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## Dusty Chalk (Nov 5, 2014)

smueske said:


> They Live, is awful.


Shun the heretic! Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn...

Oh, sorry, didn't realize this thread was necromancered...necromancied...?


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## technomancer (Nov 5, 2014)

I approve this necrobump on the grounds that Carpenter still rules and news of an album is awesome


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## UltraParanoia (Nov 5, 2014)

The dude is a master!!

Halloween
The Fog
Christine
Escape From New York
The Thing
Big Trouble in Little China
Prince of Darkness
They Live
In The Mouth of Madness
Escape From LA
Vampires
Ghosts of Mars


There are some total classics in there & some really underrated gems, like Vampires! He has made some of my favorite movies.


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## monkeybike (Nov 5, 2014)

They Live is one of my favorites!


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## Rev2010 (Nov 6, 2014)

LOL, come into this thread giving some likes then notice the posts are 7 freaking years old lmao. That said, yes, Carpenter has so many awesome wins!


Rev.


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## wankerness (Nov 6, 2014)

Rev2010 said:


> LOL, come into this thread giving some likes then notice the posts are 7 freaking years old lmao. That said, yes, Carpenter has so many awesome wins!
> 
> 
> Rev.



Well, he sure hasn't done anything in the last 7 years anyway  Now that I look at his IMDB page he apparently made "The Ward," which IIRC was not supposed to be good, but was better than his last few movies. 

I can't believe he's only 66, he looks ANCIENT in every interview I've ever seen with him. I also just watched Body Bags (from 1993) a couple weeks ago, where he's the "cryptkeeper" basically, and he looks about 66 there too. I guess he did have some makeup, but still! He's ageless, in a bad way.

I also saw In the Mouth of Madness for the first time a couple weeks ago, I guess that's generally regarded as the last good movie he made (well, except to the people that dislike it, anyway). He sure had a good run there, though, from Assault on Precinct 13 up through They Live.


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## VBCheeseGrater (Nov 6, 2014)

I just saw "They Live" recently. Pretty bad from what i saw. Maybe it was the lead actor that bugged me so much.


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## Dusty Chalk (Nov 6, 2014)

Shun the nonbeliever! SHUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN......nuh!

See, now it's appropriate.


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## Rev2010 (Nov 7, 2014)

VBCheeseGrater said:


> I just saw "They Live" recently. Pretty bad from what i saw. Maybe it was the lead actor that bugged me so much.



The lead actor is Rowdy Roddy Piper, wrestler from the WWF (now WWE) many many years ago: Roddy Piper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Rev.


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## neoclassical (Dec 9, 2014)

Dark Star, The Thing, and most of all Prince of Darkness and They Live indeed rule.


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## possumkiller (Dec 14, 2014)

As The Thing is in my top 3 all time favorite movies, I appreciate the bump! Now I know of more films to check out!

Also, after watching James Woods kick vampire ass when I was a teenager, I used the name Valek as my darkest kvlt black metal stage name lol. 

That give you a little mahogany, eh?

A little teak?


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## mongey (Dec 15, 2014)

Escape from New York is one of my all time faves. 

I bust out the blu ray and watch it a couple times a year. That said I think I'm due for a watching.


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## technomancer (Dec 18, 2014)

This page needs more Big Trouble in Little China 

... and The Fog as well

... and Halloween I and II

... and In the Mouth of Madness


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