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.