When it comes to delivering some of the best horror films of the '70s, '80s, and beyond, one name repeatedly finds its way into the lists of the genre's top directors: John Carpenter. That's not to say that he's a man who's only comfortable within a single type of storytelling, however, which is why there's more than a little bit of diversity within EW's list of Carpenter's best films. Below, we're dipping into action, comedy, and even a biopic!
While this is unquestionably a "one of these things is not like the other" entry on this list — both because it's a biopic and a TV movie, two rarities in the Carpenter canon — it doesn't mean its inclusion isn't warranted. Indeed, given the recent popularity of another film with the same name, it's very much a Carpenter effort that deserves a higher profile.
Debuting only two short years after the death of the King of rock & roll, Elvis finds Kurt Russell in the titular role, teaming him with Carpenter for the first — but certainly not last — time in his career, and with the actor lip-syncing to vocals by country singer Ronnie McDowell. The cast is filled with a number of familiar character actors, including Shelley Winters as Elvis' mama, Gladys, Kurt's own dad, Bing Russell as Vernon Presley, and Pat Hingle as Colonel Tom Parker. But there are also some still-working faces in the mix, including Joe Mantegna as Joe Esposito and Ed Begley, Jr. as DJ Fontana.
While Elvis doesn't lead all the way up to Presley's death (it concludes in 1970), it still makes a concerted effort to cover as much of the King's career as possible. Though Carpenter doesn't exactly look back on the film as a fabulous experience — his particular gripe seems to have been with his inability to participate more in the editing process — it was tremendously popular at the time and earned Russell an Emmy nod for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Special.
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Written by Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon (the future screenwriter of Alien and writer-director of Return of the Living Dead who also starred in this film), Dark Star originally began its existence as a student film for the University of Southern California. Over time, however, Carpenter gradually expanded it to feature-length and eventually got it into a limited theatrical release, which is pretty impressive for a flick that only cost a grand total of $60,000 to make.
Set in the mid-22nd century, Dark Star isn't just the title of the film, it's the name of the starship that serves as the film's predominant setting. Armed with Thermostellar Triggering Devices, the Dark Star is on a mission to search for planets that might get in the way of Earth's attempt to colonize the galaxy, but after 20 years in space, the ship is malfunctioning a fair amount, and its crew have gotten more than a little star crazy.
Borrowing much from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dark Star still holds up relatively well as a sci-fi comedy, even if some of the effects — like, say, the beach-ball alien — are definitely borne out of cost-saving measures. For Carpenter fans, however, the biggest reason to watch the film is to see what his work was like at the very beginning and how strong he was as a director straight out of the gate.
Looking back, it's ironic that John Carpenter almost couldn't helm the adaptation of this Stephen King novel because it looked like it was going to interfere with his work on a different King adaptation. Producer Richard Kobritz, who'd previously worked on the Salem's Lot miniseries and had purchased the rights to Christine, had envisioned Carpenter as director from the get-go. Thankfully, when production on Firestarter — for which Carpenter had been adapting the screenplay — was delayed, Kobritz was able to secure his first choice after all.
With Christine, Carpenter didn't bother casting famous faces in its leading roles. Despite the studio lobbying for Brooke Shields as the female lead, the director and his cohorts opted for relative unknowns, and it works out particularly well in the case of Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham, the teenager who buys the namesake killer car. Gordon's performance and the creepy way he descends into obsession is the performance that drives the film… whenever Christine herself isn't driving it, of course.
Once again, Carpenter fleshes out his world with solid character actors, including Robert Prosky as garage owner Will Darnell, Harry Dean Stanton as Detective Rudy Junkins, and Roberts Blossom as George LeBay, Christine's previous owner. As noted, however, this film is really down to two performances: Gordon's and Christine's. Despite the inherent ridiculousness in the concept of a sentient 1958 Plymouth Fury going on a killing spree, Carpenter's direction makes it come across far more credible than you'd have any reason to expect.
For all of the films in Carpenter's catalog, one word that doesn't necessarily get bandied about a great deal as a descriptor is "romantic," but this is that rare film within his oeuvre where it's not only appropriate but, indeed, required.
Starman's plot spins out of the Voyager 2 space probe, specifically the fact that it carried into space a gold phonographic disc of peace. The film posits that an alien planet intercepted the probe and sent one of its own vessels to make first contact with our planet, only to be shot down by the U.S. government. Crash-landing in Wisconsin, the alien stumbles upon the home of Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen), finds a lock of hair belonging to her late husband, Scott (Jeff Bridges), and creates a body for himself that's a clone of her spouse. While this is understandably disconcerting for Jenny at first, particularly since Starman is also still getting the hang of speaking English, she soon comes around and helps him stay on the run from the government, which proves harder than either of them expect.
Starman is also notable for another reason: it's the only Carpenter film that led one of its actors to an Academy Award nomination, with Bridges earning a nod for Best Actor. Alas, he didn't win, but as the cliché goes, it's an honor just being nominated.
Available on: Pluto TV or to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
Inspired equally by Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo and George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, this action thriller really saw Carpenter come into his own as a one-man filmmaking machine, handling the writing, directing, scoring, and even the editing all by his lonesome.
With a movie poster promising "a white-hot night of hate" revolving around "the gang that swore a blood oath to destroy Precinct 13 and every cop in it," Assault on Precinct 13's predominant location is spoiled by its title, but the story really revolves around the fact that the precinct in question has been decommissioned and left with a skeleton crew for its final hours. During those hours, however, not only is Lt. Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) tasked with commanding the station, but he and his handful of staff abruptly find themselves on the receiving end of a whole lot of gunfire.
The gritty intensity of Assault on Precinct 13 has regularly kept it appearing in critics' lists of the best films of the '70s, with one scene in particular — featuring future Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards – proving just as shocking now as it was in 1976. Remember, kids: if you ask the ice cream man for vanilla swirl and he just gives you vanilla, THIS IS FINE.
Available on: Tubi, Showtime, the Roku Channel
While critics have not always been overly kind to Carpenter's later work, In the Mouth of Madness — the final chapter in his "Apocalypse Trilogy" — has gradually found a significant cult following as a result of its reappraisal by critics and horror fans.
Sam Neill stars as John Trent, a freelance insurance investigator who's been tasked with digging into the disappearance of famed horror author Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow) and doing whatever he can to recover the manuscript for Cane's final novel. After a close encounter with Cane's axe-wielding former agent, Trent meets with Cane's publisher (Charlton Heston), who teams Trent with Cane's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), and although Trent is convinced that the whole thing is a publicity stunt, he and Linda embark on a drive to New Hampshire, ostensibly to Hobb's End, the fictional setting for many of Cane's novels.
By now, you're probably getting a serious Stephen King vibe from Cane, and you're not wrong, but there's also a whole lot of H.P. Lovecraft in the DNA of this film. Still, the real star here is Neill, who plays Trent with the same sort of annoyed skepticism that made him so effective in Jurassic Park. Ignore what the critics said about the film during its initial release: this is definitely an underrated entry in Carpenter's filmography, one that holds up extremely well.
Available: To rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu
While it may not actually be required of every popular horror director to delve into devil worship at some point in their career, it's certainly one of those subjects that regularly recurs within the world of horror. So, it did feel a little like it was only a matter of time before Carpenter took his shot at the topic.
The second part of his "Apocalypse Trilogy," Prince of Darkness found Carpenter re-teaming with Halloween star Donald Pleasence, with the actor this time playing a Catholic priest who joins forces with a quantum physicist — Professor Howard Birack (Victor Wong) — in order to help him investigate a strange cylinder containing an equally strange green liquid that's housed in the basement of a church. Birack invites his students to join him in trying to crack this mystery, but things start to get particularly eerie when they decipher a text which says that the liquid is, in fact, Satan, and it only gets worse when the cylinder begins to emit small spurts of the liquid which possess anyone touched by them.
Prince of Darkness has a more claustrophobic feel than most of Carpenter's films, in that the majority of the film takes place predominantly in the same Los Angeles-based location — but that works in its favor as the tension mounts, possession count rises, and Alice Cooper becomes more prominent. While it may not be as recognized as Carpenter's earlier classics, the film nonetheless has a concept that remains intriguing enough to keep most horror fans happy until the bitter end.
Available: To rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video
Inspired partially by the 1958 British film The Trollenberg Terror and partially by a fog that began to roll in while Carpenter and his longtime cowriter/producer Debra Hill were visiting Stonehenge, The Fog was a film that evolved considerably during the course of its production, owing to Carpenter's disappointment with the initial rough cut.
The film begins on the eve of the 100th anniversary of coastal town Antonio Bay, California, with an old man (played by John Houseman) telling ghost stories to a bunch of kids around a campfire, one of which revolves around a local ship that once crashed on the rocks, resulting in the drowning of the entire crew. Unsurprisingly, when the clock strikes midnight and the 100th anniversary commences, so begins a series of paranormal activities, not least of which is a glowing fog. Caught up in the strange goings-on: Nick Castle (genre icon Tom Atkins), hitchhiker Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis), DJ Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau), local weatherman Dan O'Bannon (Charles Cyphers), and a plethora of other familiar faces, including Hal Holbrook and Janet Leigh.
Even with the reshoots that occurred after Carpenter's dissatisfaction with the rough cut, The Fog ended up being a relatively inexpensive film, with the studio spending more than twice as much to promote it as it cost Carpenter to make it. Although it was one of those films that critics initially didn't entirely love upon its initial release, The Fog has been eventually reassessed and deemed to be an atmospheric thriller made even more intense as a result of Carpenter's icy and chilling score.
Available: To rent on Amazon Prime Video
Although Carpenter has several efforts within his filmography which qualify as "cult films," it's arguable that this is the film that really nails the definition of the concept: it's quirky, veering between action, comedy, fantasy, thriller, and martial art. But while you can understand why it wasn't a massive box office hit, you can absolutely appreciate why it's developed a devout following since its initial release.
Kurt Russell once again takes the starring role, this time playing truck driver Jack Burton, a smart-ass tough guy who seems as though he'd be the perfect romantic lead in an action flick, only to invariably say the wrong thing or make the wrong move at every turn. After winning a bet with his friend Wang Chi, Jack makes a delivery to Chinatown in San Francisco, only to unwittingly finds himself in the middle of an epic battle between good and evil, one for which he is woefully unprepared. In the process, he also meets up with a gorgeous lawyer named Gracie Law (Kim Cattrall), a woman who in any other film would probably end up with Jack, but as with everything else that goes on, Big Trouble in Little China keeps you guessing as to whether that'll actually happen or not.
While Big Trouble in Little China proved disappointing in its initial theatrical release (a situation which both Carpenter and Russell have suggested wasn't helped by the release of Aliens in its immediate wake), it was beloved by both critics and fans straight out of the gate, with even the notoriously forthright Harlan Ellison praising the comedy and calling it "a cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives." Ellison may have since passed on, but the validity of his remarks remains strong.
Stepping back (somewhat) into sci-fi for the first time since Dark Star, this slightly futuristic action thriller finds Carpenter positing a dystopian version of America where the government has turned the entirety of Manhattan into a maximum-security prison with 50-foot walls. Unfortunately, the President of the United States ends up behind those walls when Air Force One is hijacked by the National Liberation Front of America, and the only man who might be capable of excising him from his imprisonment — and who's also completely expendable — is a gentleman by the name of Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell.
In addition to cementing the Carpenter/Russell relationship, Escape from New York also provided Carpenter with the opportunity to populate his dark future with a number of actors from his regular rogues' gallery, including Donald Pleasence as President Harker, Charles Cyphers as the Secretary of State, and Adrienne Barbeau as Maggie. Additionally, Lee Van Cleef plays Police Commissioner Bob Hauk, Ernest Borgnine takes a fun turn as a cabbie who seems to have dropped straight out of a 1940s film (and it's wonderful), and Isaac Hayes goes against type as the despicable "Duke."
The look and feel of Escape from New York combined with the fantastic cast make it one of Carpenter's most memorable films as well as one that feels timeless despite its portrayal of a future that never actually came to pass. The belated sequel, Escape from L.A., doesn't hold up nearly as well, but to be fair, it wasn't all that great when it was initially released, either.
Available on: Sling TV or to rent on Amazon Prime Video
Based on Ray Nelson's 1963 short story Eight O'Clock in the Morning, The Live is one of those Carpenter films that's never really gone out of vogue, in no small part because it delivers social commentary that remains all too relevant.
Wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper plays Nada, a drifter who makes his way into Los Angeles in search of employment, only to first stumble onto a street preacher talking up the idea that an unnamed "they" is co-opting the rich and powerful of America. Then, after finding a job and meeting up with fellow construction worker Frank (Keith David), Nada happens to stroll past a television broadcast where a hacker starts talking about an alien signal that's enslaving the population of the planet through the use of subliminal messages. Fast-forward a little bit more, and Nada finds a pair of sunglasses that, when he wears them, shows him who's an alien and who isn't.
Even without the sunglasses, of course, viewers can still see how the premise of the film remains relatable even almost 35 years after its initial release. Carpenter really took a risk by hiring Piper, an untested actor, to serve as the lead of the film, but he handily holds his own against co-star David, particularly during the pair's absurdly long but wonderfully choreographed fight scene, which lasts for almost six minutes but remains enthralling throughout.
Available: To rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video
It began as a 1938 John W. Campbell novella entitled Who Goes There? and was loosely adapted into the 1951 Howard Hawks / Christian Nyby film The Thing from Another World, but no matter what the source of its inspirations may have been, it's fair to say that John Carpenter made The Thing his own. (Indeed, it's the first part of his "Apocalypse Trilogy.".)
Set at an American research station in Antarctica, The Thing begins with a helicopter pursuing a sled dog through the snow and ice, a chase that ends in the destruction of the helicopter and the death of its pilot and passenger but with the dog safely finding its way into the research station. This, as it turns out, is the worst possible outcome for all parties concerned, since the dog is serving as the host of an alien creature which can assimilate any life form, taking on its outward appearance with such perfection that it's downright impossible to tell them apart from the original. At first the members of the research station — including Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, Donald Moffat, and a wealth of other talented journeyman actors can't wrap their heads around what's happening, but once they know, paranoia runs rampant — as does bloodshed.
The practical special effects in The Thing, crafted by FX maestro Rob Bottin and crew, were grotesque and groundbreaking at the time and still manage to be pretty darned disturbing even 40 years on. And after combining that creepiness with Carpenter's directorial acumen and the atmospheric soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, viewers may rightfully argue that this is the most effective film in Carpenter's catalog.
Available: To rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu
1978 was a good year to be John Carpenter: not only did he find himself credited as the writer of a major studio hit (The Eyes of Laura Mars, which was adapted from a spec script he'd penned), but it was the year he gifted horror fans with one of the most iconic films of the genre, which continues to spawn sequels and reboots to this day.
Directed by Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Debra Hill and composed the score, Halloween is set in Haddonfield, Illinois (though actually shot in Pasadena, CA) and kicks off with a six-year-old boy named Michael Myers stabbing his sister to death with a kitchen knife on Halloween night. After spending fifteen years in a sanitarium, Michael, credited as "The Shape," escapes from custody, steals his trademark outfit and mask, and drives his way back to his hometown, where he crosses paths with a teenage girl named Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, in her film debut). In the process of stalking her, Myers adds a few more victims to his kill count, and all the while, his psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is trying to find his patient and get him back into the relative safety of the sanitarium.
Although he might be mentioned in the same breath as Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, make no mistake: Michael Myers came first. And with minimalism, deft camerawork, and and an all-time-great score, John Carpenter set the industry standard for slasher films that remains to this day.