John Carpenter
Personal Info
Known For
Directing
Known Credits
118
Gender
Male
Birthday
1948-01-16 (77 years old)
Place of Birth
Carthage, New York, USA
John Carpenter
Biography
An American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction. Most films in Carpenter's career were initially commercial and critical failures, with the notable exceptions of Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), and Starman (1984). However, many of Carpenter's films from the 1970s and the 1980s have come to be viewed as cult classics, and he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker. Cult classics that Carpenter directed include: Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988) and In the Mouth of Madness (1995). His films are characterized by minimalist lighting and photography, static cameras, use of steadicam, and distinctive synthesized scores. Carpenter is also notable for having composed or co-composed most of the music of his films; some of them are now considered cult as well, with the main theme of Halloween being considered a part of popular culture. His music is generally synthesized with accompaniment from piano and atmospherics. He released his first studio album Lost Themes in 2015, and also won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Vampires (1998). 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. The Ward was shot in Super 35, the first time Carpenter has ever used that system. Carpenter has stated he feels that the 35mm Panavision anamorphic format is "the best movie system there is", preferring it over both digital and 3D film. Many of Carpenter's films have been re-released on DVD as special editions with numerous bonus features. Carpenter has been the subject of the documentary film John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies, and American Cinematheque's 2002 retrospective of his films. Moreover, in 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed Halloween to be "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Carpenter about his career and films for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror. Carpenter appears in all three episodes of the series. He was also interviewed by Robert Rodriguez for his The Director's Chair series on El Rey Network. Many filmmakers have been influenced by Carpenter, including James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino (The Hateful Eight was heavily influenced by The Thing), Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, Nicolas Winding Refn, Bong Joon-ho, among others. The video game Dead Space 3 is said to be influenced by Carpenter's The Thing, The Fog and Halloween, and Carpenter has stated that he would be enthusiastic to adapt that series into a feature film.
Known For
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The Rifleman
The Thing
Halloween
Big Trouble in Little China
The Movies That Made Us
It Takes a Village: The Making of Village of the Damned
Dark Glamour: The Blood and Guts of Hammer Productions
Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon
Big John
Escape from New York
They Live
Let There Be Light: The Odyssey of Dark Star
Halloween: The Inside Story
Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet
Through the Night with...
Dark Star
Scream and Scream Again: A History of the Slasher Film
John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in L.A.
Studio 666
Christine: Ignition
Something to Do with Death
Horror Cafe
Starman
Guns for Hire: The Making of 'The Magnificent Seven'
Nightmare Factory
Halloween: Unmasked
The Fog
Village of the Damned
The Real History of Science Fiction
Bloodsucking Cinema
The American Nightmare
Jean-Michel Jarre: A Journey into Sound
Fantastic Flesh: The Art of Make-Up EFX
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film
Assault on Precinct 13
The Wages of Sin
Charles Band’s Full Moon Freakshow
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
The History of Metal and Horror
After Sunset: The Life & Times of the Drive-In Theater
Red Desert Nights: Making Ghosts of Mars
Scary Girl
An Opera of Violence
The Boy Who Could Fly
100 Scariest Movie Moments
Dario Argento: An Eye for Horror
The AGFA Mystery Mixtape Vault
Amityville: An Origin Story
Commemoration: Howard Hawks' 'Rio Bravo'
Halloween in Hollywood
Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown
In Search of Darkness: 1990-1994
AGFA Mystery Mixtape #4: Follow Your Own Star
The Debra Hill Story
The Perfect Scary Movie
Masters of Horror
The Silence of the Hams
The Thing Expanded
100 Years of Horror
Hollywood's Creepiest Creatures
Halloween: A Cut Above the Rest
The Director's Chair
Halloween: 25 Years of Terror
In Search of Tomorrow
A History of Horror
Body Bags
The Future of Fear
John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of Hitchcock
In the Master's Shadow: Hitchcock's Legacy
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue
Christine: Finish Line
Masters of Illusion: The Wizards of Special Effects
Christine: Fast and Furious
Take One: Fear on Film
Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters
The Thing: Terror Takes Shape
In Search of Darkness: Part III
Tales from the Mist: Inside 'The Fog'
Working with a Master: John Carpenter
Fear on Film: Inside 'The Fog'
Monsterland
Charlie Brown: Blockhead's Revenge
In Search of Darkness
John Carpenter: Live Retrospective
The Making of 'The Thing'
The Rise of the Synths
Mario Bava: Maestro of the Macabre
The Making of 'They Live'
Henchman: The Al Leong Story
The Puppet Man
In Search of Darkness: Part II
Tales from the Script
Do You Remember Laurie Zimmer?
Partners in Crime: Hitchcock's Collaborators
The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style
Bernard Herrmann: Hitchcock's Maestro
Carpenter on Quatermass
Stephen King's World of Horror
The Birds: Hitchcock's Monster Movie
1982: Hollywood Summer
Track Stories
Hollywood's Greatest Villains
Stephen King's World of Horror
First Works
The Original Monster Mash
Why Horror?
Fasten Your Seatbelt: The Thrilling Art of Alfred Hitchcock
Scoring Resident Evil
Fear in the Dark
John Carpenter: Live At Primavera Sound 2016
Born to Controversy: The Roddy Piper Story
Monstres, l'ennemi de l'intérieur
Bringing A Legend To Life
Hidden Values: The Movies of the Fifties
Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story
Snake Plissken: Man of Honor
