His most famous movie is Halloween, which was shot in 1978 and became a series. Let's get to know this iconic director, who composed his soundtracks and shot excellent films with limited resources, even though he could not find the budget he wanted.
John Carpenter is a master artist who fully deserves the phrase "a jack of all trades". For Carpenter, who is known for writing and directing the scripts of many of his films, as well as composing their music, our planet's cinema database IMDb even suggested that a cinema term named after him be added to the Oxford English Dictionary: "Carpenteresque".
Born in New York on January 16, 1948, John Howard Carpenter moved to Kentucky with his family in 1953 after his father, music professor Howard Ralph Carpenter, became the head of the music department at Western Kentucky University and studied there until college. Carpenter, who attended the University of Southern California (USC) film school, wrote the story, composed the music, and edited it as a school project while at USC. The 23-minute short western film called "The Resurrection of Broncho Billy" (1970) was awarded the best in 1971. It won the Oscar for short film.
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, and composer. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award, lauding him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions".
John Carpenter's first feature film was the absurd science fiction comedy "The Dark Star" (1974), which he started as a school project and completed with additional scenes. The film, which almost puts a "hippie" touch on science fiction, includes political themes such as the destruction of intelligent life. Another thing that makes this film, whose post-modernist elements have been understood over time and reached cult status, important in terms of science fiction cinema history, is that Carpenter wrote the script of the film and the main story on which it is based, together with Dan O'Bannon. Let's remember that Dan O'Bannon was also the screenwriter of the science fiction-horror classic "Alien", directed by Ridley Scott in 1979.
His nickname is "the Master of Horror"
Attack on Precinct 13 is Carpenter's first big-budget film. The film is remembered as one of Carpanter's best films. In 1981, he shot the movie Escape from New York, which took its place among the cult films. In 1984, Carpenter shot "Starman", one of the best films of his career.
John Carpenter has directed a total of 34 films and 10 television series and movies.
He married actress Adrienne Barbeau on January 1, 1979, and they divorced in 1984. He has a son named John Cody (born May 7, 1984).
Godzilla
One of Carpenter's most well-known passions is Godzilla. Carpenter, who cited the first Godzilla movie called Gojira, shot in 1954, as an important source of inspiration for making his movies, states in many interviews that he has watched all the Godzilla movies shot to date many times. Carpenter, who stated that he was especially impressed by Godzilla's roar and his appearance when he spews fire from his mouth, also has a collection of Godzilla toys and figures.
Halloween
1978's Halloween, starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis, is one of the most popular films in John Carpenter's filmography. The film, which was shot with a budget of only 300 thousand dollars and earned a box office revenue of 47 million dollars in the USA alone, has had many sequels, as well as comic book and video game adaptations. Especially the main character, Michael Myers, is one of the favorite characters of horror movie fans. The masked character, played by Nick Castle in many scenes in the first film, appears as the main character in all films of the Halloween series except the third film.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis, who started her acting career with Carpenter's Halloween movie and later appeared in the director's different productions, says in the opening scene of the documentary Master of Cinema: John Carpenter, "I would never have had such a career if it wasn't for John Carpenter." Jamie Lee Curtis, who once again worked with Carpenter in The Fog, shot in 1980, wrote Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. He also appears as a voice actor in films.
Asylum
John Carpenter, who has always expressed his passion for comic books, started publishing the comic book series called Asylum, which he created with his wife Sandy King, in 2011. Published by Diamond Comics, Asylum won Indie Fab's Silver Medal award in 2014. Asylum, drawn by Leonardo Manco, who is especially known for his Master Darque comic strip published in 1998, takes place in Los Angeles and focuses on the adventures of a priest who can communicate with the devil.
Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble In Little China, released in 1986, is one of John Carpenter's films that combines horror elements with comedy. The film stars Kurt Russell as the main character Jack Burton, who goes on a mysterious journey through San Francisco's Chinatown to save his friend's fiancée from thieves, and is written by Gary Goldman and David Weinstein. In his interview on the DVD editions of the film, John Carpenter explained that Big Trouble in Little China was originally planned as a Western film, but they preferred the film to take place in modern times.
Charles Cyphers
New York-born actor Charles Cyphers is one of the most frequently encountered names in John Carpenter's filmography. Ciphers, whom we saw as Starker in the director's second feature, Assault on Precinct 13, also appeared in the next five Carpenter films. We last saw Charles Cyphers, who worked with John Carpenter in the movie Escape from New York in 1981, and in the movie Methodic, directed by Chris Notarile in 2007.
Ennio Morricone
Composer Ennio Morricone, who won the first Oscar award of his long career with the score of The Hateful Eight, was also responsible for the score of The Thing, one of John Carpenter's legendary films. Answering Christopher Nolan's questions after a screening of The Hateful Eight in Los Angeles, Morricone explained that the music in the film was originally composed for The Thing but was not used in that film. “I had composed all the compositions with a wide orchestration, but since John Carpenter liked synths more, I adapted the compositions to synthesizers,” said Morricone, adding that when he received the offer from Quentin Tarantino to compose music for The Hateful Eight, he did not have time to compose anything new in his calendar and said The Thing. He said that he could rework unused parts.