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Escape from New York

John Carpenter Calls Halloween Kills “The Quintessential Slasher Film” During Fantasia Q&A

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John Carpenter

With the Fantasia Film Festival having bestowed legendary Halloween director John Carpenter the Lifetime Achievement Award for his still prolific output in cinema and music, former Fangoria Editor-in-Chief and Fantasia Co-Director of International Programming Tony Timpone hosted a live streamed Q&A with the director this past Saturday.

An hour-long masterclass, Carpenter touched on many of his films during the discussion, from 1978’s Halloween and 1981’s Escape from New York to 1980’s The Fog, as well as the upcoming 2021 feature Halloween Kills (which he executive produced), which he called, “so intense,” and “the quintessential slasher film.” Interesting anecdotes abound, with Carpenter reminiscing on the late great actor Donald Pleasence to his short-lived involvement with The Exorcist III, and a whole lot more.   

You can watch the entire Q&A below.

Happy 72nd Birthday to The Master!

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From his 1978 groundbreaking masterpiece Halloween, a film which single-handedly introduced the slasher genre to general audiences worldwide (while simultaneously going on to become one of the most successful independent films of all time), to his early classic features The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing and Christine (and many more), John Carpenter’s unique and subversive work as a filmmaker has been instrumental in defining genre cinema as we know it.

As for his efforts as a musician and composer, he’s further created some of the most iconic melodies ever written for the screen (you’re humming the “Halloween Theme” right now, aren’t you?) and he continues to do so to this day, as evidenced by his recent “Lost Themes” albums and live performances, and his score for Halloween (2018), among others.

In celebration of the man and his incredible and still growing body of work, everyone here at HalloweenMovies.com would like to wish Mr. Carpenter a very happy 72nd birthday!

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Halloween (1978)

The Fog (1980)

Escape From New York (1981)

The Thing (1982)

Christine (1983)

John Carpenter 2018 Tour Promo

John Carpenter Talks Surviving Hollywood

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Filmmaker and master of horror John Carpenter sat down with Variety’s Jenelle Riley for an interview recently to discuss his career, and touched on such topics as the films which frightened him as a boy (1958’s The Fly and 1951’s The Thing from Another World, among them), growing up in a segregated South, his early years at USC, his approach to scoring film, and Jason Blum’s challenge to him of, “Why don’t you get off your lazy butt and make it good instead of sitting around and complaining?” as it pertained to the Halloween film series, which prompted his return as executive producer and composer in last year’s David Gordon Green-directed box office hit.

It’s a great watch (and if you pay close attention, you’ll even spy in the b-roll a Rick Baker-designed maquette of a Creature from the Black Lagoon suit mock-up, which was intended for a never-made remake of the eponymous 1954 film which Carpenter was once attached to direct for Universal).

Interesting stuff. Check it out below.

John Carpenter Teases Return to Directing Horror?

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In speaking to the press this week at the Cannes Film Festival (where he received the Golden Coach award), writer, composer, director and master of horror John Carpenter teased his interest in a possible return to the director’s chair, as well as to the horror genre itself.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker, whose impressive body of work includes the genre classics Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982) among others, stated, “I’m working on some TV stuff and a couple of feature ideas. It’s a different time now, so it takes a long time for them to get set up. You’ll know it when you know it. I don’t know it (yet).”

Expounding to Collider, Carpenter (whose last directorial feature was 2010’s The Ward) observed, “I made a lot of movies and I got burned out, and I had to stop for a while. I have to have a life. Circumstance would have to be correct for me to do it again. I’d love to make a little horror film that would be great or a big adventure film. It would be a project that I like that’s budgeted correctly. Nowadays they make these young directors do a movie for $2 million when the movie is written for $10 million. So you have to squeeze it all in there and I don’t want to do that anymore.”

What kind of flick would you care to see Carpenter helm? Sound off in the comments below.

John Carpenter to Receive the Prestigious Golden Coach Award at Cannes Director’s Fortnight 

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According to Variety, Halloween director and horror master John Carpenter is set to receive the 2019 Golden Coach Award (Carrosse d’Or) at the Director’s Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival on May 15th.

In its letter to Carpenter, The French Directors’ Guild, which chooses the recipient of the award, called the filmmaker “a creative genius of raw, fantastic and spectacular emotions,” and when on to say that each of his films “enhances the irresistible delight of staging. In each of them, the work on space, on what is off-screen, on the visible and on the invisible, is constantly renewed and regenerated in order to redefine fear – a fear that is always prone to trigger emotions in characters and actors who have now become iconic.”

Past recipients of the award include Martin Scorsese in 2018 and Werner Herzog in 2017.

Congratulations John from HalloweenMovies.com and everyone at Trancas!