John Carpenter

                             

 

 

 

 

 

John Howard Carpenter was born on 16 January 1948 in Carthage. He's my favorite director. He's also a writer, producer and musician. In 1953, he and his family went to Bowling Green, Kentuky. In his youth, he loved westerns of Howard Hawks and the 50' Independent Horror and Science Fiction Movies like The Thing From Another World  or Forbidden Planet. After High School, He made short movies with a 8mm camera. After, he worked at Western Kentucky University and at University of Southerm California's School of Cinematic Arts (USC) in 1968. He graduated in 1971.

In USC, he whote, edited, and made the music on the movie The Ressurection of Broncho Billy, the movie won the Best short movie's Oscar.

In 1974, John Carpenter made his first real movie, Dark Star. In this movie, he made the music but the movie was wrritten by Dan O'Bannon (In the future, this guy wrote the first ALIEN)

 

 

 

 

In 1976, John wrote, edited, directed and made the music of Assault on Precinct 13, a modern version of Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo (one of his favorite movies). The movie had little succes but more than than Dark Star.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1978, He made the music (always again), edited, co-produced and directed Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis (His first big role) and Donald Pleasence. With This Movie John Carpenter was recognizedaround the world because he created a new Genre : The Slasher Movie. In the time this movie was "Interdit aux moins de 16 ans" but now the movie is only "Interdit aux moins de 12 ans" because the movie has no blood !

 

 

 

 

In 1980, John composed, wrote and directed The Frog, a horror movie where the fog hides dead alive. This movie has the same success as Halloween because the actors are Jamie Lee Curtis (again) and Adrienne Barbeau (His future wife).

 

 

 

 In 1981, he made the music , wrote and directed one of my favorite films, Escape From New York (New York 1997 in French), his first action movie in the future (New York has become a prison) with a political message. In this movie there is Kurt Russell (One of his favorite actor) and Donald Pleasence. With this movie John Carpenter had the greatest success in his career. The caracter of Snake Plissken had became a big hero in the world !

 

 

 

 

In 1982, John Carpenter directed ONLY one of my favorite movie with Escape From New York : The Thing. But to my surprise, the movie DIDN'T work (Maybe because it was released at the same time as E.T.) But the movie was a second life when the VHS was released (Even if the Americain film industry has called it the Cursed movie !). The story is about a Norwegian in Antartica that is decimated by a creature from outer space (Which can take look like ay human). After the carnage, the creature decides to continue in the Americain base nearby. Although we don't see the carnage of Norwegians, There is supposed to be another film, 30 years later to telll what happened.

 

 

 

 In 1983, for the first time, John directed a movie based on a book : A book by Stephen King, it's Christine. Christine talks about a teenager who buys a car, car that is posseded by the devil. For me, this movie is average, so I don't want to talk about that too much!!!

 

 

 

 

In 1984, John Carpenter directed a movie that has NOTHING to do with the other movies, because this time he directed a Romantic S-F Movie ! It's Starman, a "E.T. for the adults" according Carpenter because I haven't seen this movie (Sorry !).

 In 1986, Mr Carpenter directed and made the music of a celebration of Chinese and Kung Fu movies, Big Trouble in Little China (Les aventures de Jack Burton dans les griffes du mandarin in French). For me, it's a very good movie with Kurt Russell ( he's his favorite actor, you see...). But, like The Thing, the movie was a flop when it was released. He is a shame the movie is now CULT !

 

 

 

 

In 1987, John Carpenter wrote, made the music and directed Prince of Darkness (Prince des Ténèbres in France). It's the COMEBACK in the world of horror. It's also the retun of John in the world of small budget movies. With this movie, John has a new nickname : "The Prince Of Darkness". This movie talks about the son of Satan who is imprisoned a cylinder. The movie was very CULT and very SCARY.

 

 

 

 

In 1988, John wrote, made the music and directed a Political SF movie, They Live (Invasion Los Angeles in French), the movie speaks about a poor man who finds glasses and with these glasses, he can see the world is controled by  invaders from outer space. The movie was made at the time where John didn't approved of the politics in his time but the movie is also very humouristic. For me, this movie is one of my favorites.

 

In 1992, John only directed  another comedy but with  fantastic, Memoirs of an Invisible Man (Les Aventures d'un homme invisible in French). In this movie, we speak about a scientist who was changed into an invisible man. But later, he's wanted by the CIA. That film was a very small success and it wasn't too popular.Too Bad !). 

 

 

 

In 1994, John directed a movie based on the books of H.P. Lovecraft and the books by Stephen King to make "In the Mouth of Madness (L'Antre de la Folie in French) with Sam Neill (Pr. Alan Grant in Jurssic Park). It talks about a guy who is haunted by the universe  of a dead writer's books. For the fans, this movie is very cult and very scaring.

 

 

 

One year later, for the second time (with The Thing), He made a remake of a horror movie, Village of the Damned (Le village des Damnés in French). The movie is  unknown because it wasn't too successful at the time because the film is very special because the kids were the monsters.

 

 

 

In 1996, to the greatest surprise of the fans, John Carpenter directed the sequel of Escape from New York, called Escape from Los Angeles (Los Angeles 2013 in France). This movie is the sequel of Escape from NY, but it is a lot like the first chapter : Same Story, Same Hero but Not same location. The movie, more than Escape From NY, contains a lot of humor and a political message (like the end with the presdient of the USA). The movie also contains  a lot of references to American movies like a cameo of Bruce Campbell (Ash in Evil Dead) in a crazy doctor.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1998, John carpenter directed and made the music of a movie based on a book, a fantastic action movie, Vampires, with James Woods and ... Vampires ! The movie tells about a group of vampire hunters who look forthe master of vampires, Valek. The movie was not very famous, but for the fans, it's the greatest vampire movie !

 

 

 

In 2001, John wrote and directed Ghosts of Mars, a science fiction movie with action. This movie is very strange because we don't find the "Carpenter touch" because the music is hard rock (?!?) and the story is very special. But, if I forget these fishy things, the movie was a very good one. After this movie, John stopped his carrerr of director for the cinema but he directed 2 episodes of the TV series Masters of Horror, Cigarette Burns (La fin absolue du monde in French) and Pro-Life (Piégé à l'intérieur in French) but I won't give more information about that because 1) It's not a movie 2) These episodes were qualified like the worst of his films ! So, since then, Carpenter hasn't directed movies... Until Now !

 

 

 

 

Definitly, John joined the world of cinema again  in 2009, where he  announced his new movie : The Ward ! A psychological and fantactic movie, in which a young lady, was captured in a psychiatric hospital, was haunted by a ghost in the hospital ! The movie was released in January 2011 in the United Kingdom, where the movie was a real flop ! (Too bad...) But, at the moment, we don't have a release date for  France. This movie is an unsuccesful one, but thefans' opinion was very good ! 

 

 

 

In 2011, John is going to direct Darkchylde, an adaptation based on a comic book. The comic talks about a girl who is tranformed into creatures of her nightmares. No more information but we had a video about the special effects made by Weta workshop (Narnia, Lords of the Rings , King Kong...). But, for now, we don't really  know when the movie will be  released and we also don't know who will play in the movie

 

 

 

 

My article is finally over, I wish you a good afternoon and a good night... with NIGHTMARES !!!!!!