#IconosMacabros: John Carpenter, the master of horror

The career of the master of horror, John Carpenter, began while he was attending film school at the University of Southern California with the project Dark Star, a short film that combined science fiction and comedy, which he later turned into a feature film with a commercial release in 1975. Carpenter has said that his second film, Assault on Precinct 13 was conceived as a tribute to Rio Bravo by Howard Hawks, set in an urban context. He would later go on to make Halloween, a seminal horror film that, with a budget of just US$300,000, became one of the most successful independent films on multiple levels — from the profits it generated to the countless sequels and remakes it spawned — not to mention its cinematic influence on the evolution of the genre and the slasher subgenre.

John Carpenter's reputation as the “master of horror” was cemented with films such as The Fog, They Live, The prince of darkness, In the mouth of madness, Christine and The Ward. He also grew in stature as director and producer with films such as Escape from New York, Vampires, The thing, Ghosts of Mars, Escape from L.A. and Big trouble in Little China.

Carpenter's involvement in other media includes his television productions Elvis, John Carpenter presents Body Bags and two episodes of the series Masters of Horror. In the field of video games, he co-wrote FEAR 3 for Warner Bros. Interactive, and in comics he co-wrote John Carpenter’s Asylum and the collection, John Carpenter’s Tales for a HalloweeNight.

In recent years, Carpenter has devoted his attention to his career as a musician and composer. In 2014 he released Vortex, the single from his album Lost themes, his first record that wasn't made up of film music. The director had also stood out for composing most of the music for his films, notably the themes from Halloween, The Fog and The thing.

In 2019, the Cannes Film Festival recognized his career and his contribution to cinema with the Carrosse D’Or, awarded by the French directors' association at the opening ceremony of the Directors' Fortnight. https://macabro.mx/noticias-john-carpenter-es-reconocido-en-el-festival-de-cannes/

Among the many awards he has received are the Saturn Awards, presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in the United States, countless awards from the Sitges Film Festival in Catalonia — the most important and longest-running festival of its kind — as well as from Fantasporto in Portugal.

To learn a little more about what Carpenter thinks about film, horror, and his career, we leave you with this conversation from the series The Director’s chair with fellow renowned director Robert Rodríguez.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSlq2yAkyTE (abre en nueva pestaña)

With information from The John Carpenter Official Website (abre en nueva pestaña) and Doggian’s Documentaries (abre en nueva pestaña).