Cinema of John Carpenter and sample films

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas… Some of the most influential, famous and successful American directors of their generation. However, there is an American filmmaker whose career began in the 1970s and who undoubtedly had the same impact as this trio on understanding the filmmaking of his time. Yes, you read that right… His name is John Carpenter…

John Carpenter never had the apprenticeship that many directors go through, including Brian De Palma and Francis Ford Coppola. Carpenter wasn’t impressed with the Oscars the directors won or their multi-million dollar empires. However, almost every modern director; He admired John Carpenter’s unique genre work, especially the creations he created during his extraordinary directing experience in the 70s and 80s. Today’s young filmmakers continue to inspire the same admiration. So, without wasting time, let’s take a closer look at the Carpenter Cinema.

Typical features of John Carpenter’s cinema

Carpenter’s films are dominated by original moments, such as drawing the viewer into the inner world of the film’s perception of time and space and framing the plot in a lengthy process that creates tension along with a lengthy process of creating space.

These aspects, which also affect contemporary works such as The Green Room, have become a model for contemporary horror and thriller studies. Who, before Carpenter, would have thought that electronic music playing in the background of movie scenes full of paranoia and suspicion that would make you tense up would be so effective?

Along with paranoia, clairvoyance, and existential panic, John Carpenter’s films also have a good range of sarcastic humor. These elements of humor, fueled by cynicism, also make political references from time to time. John Carpenter’s blue-collar cinema does not come from a mysticism that feeds apoliticality, contrary to the general trend. Known for his interest in Western films, Carpenter instilled in his audience a love of Westerns by infusing Western elements into his films despite being a director appealing to a completely different genre.

Since his first feature film, Dark Star, Carpenter has been able to create the most competent productions on a small budget and limited resources. From his debut to recent productions, Carpenter’s films have been mostly simple. Urban thrillers, slashers or classic ghost stories like The Fog; Regardless of which one, another common aspect of Carpenter’s films is the reduction of plot to its most basic features.

Even though budgets grew as the director’s profile grew in the 1980s, the plot remained the same. The Thing takes place almost entirely within the confines of an Antarctic research station. Action comedy Big Trouble in Little China takes place primarily in a building in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Even the post-apocalyptic horror film The Prince of Darkness spatially confines the horror elements to the old church.

John Carpenter, who has had a lasting impact on the world of cinema and earned a well-deserved reputation as a result of the impact of this effect on the audience, will today top our list with 13 feature films. Here are 13 John Carpenter films that have left their mark on film history!

Enjoy reading…

You can also view this article: Wes Craven Movies: 10 Little-Known Films and Reviews from a Famous Director

1. Chamber – Chamber (2010) – IMDB: 5.5

in 1966 in North Bend, Oregon; After a runaway Kristen set fire to a farmhouse, she was caught by the police and admitted to the North Bend Psychiatric Hospital. Kristen, using experimental therapy, Dr. He is introduced to Gerald Stringer and shortly thereafter meets fellow inmates Emily, Sarah, Zoe, Iris, and the stern nurse Lundt. Kristen sees the ghost of a woman at night and then in the shower and sees her; He learns that it is Alice Lee Hudson, a mysterious evil intern who has disappeared. The brutality and murders that will take place some time later will make him question the truth about Alice and what happened to her.

2. Memories of the Invisible Man – The Adventures of the Invisible Man (1992) – IMDB: 6.0

Stockbroker Nick Halloway from San Francisco is a man who does not like emotional attachments, he has no family and few friends. One day he goes to a bar and meets a woman named Alice Monroe through his friend George Talbot. Soon after, Nick and Alice make love in the bar’s bathroom. The next morning, hungover, Nick is forced to visit a client company, Magnascopic Laboratories, and decides to take a nap in the company’s bathroom. But there is an accident in the building, and Nick does not hear the evacuation signal. Soon after, Nick becomes invisible along with part of the building. When CIA agent David Jenkins finds out that Nick is invisible; He convinces his superior, Warren Singleton, to get a warrant for Nick’s arrest to investigate, and starts looking everywhere for Nick. Meanwhile, Nick hopes to regain his fame as a doctor. Bernard calls Wax. Will it be successful?

3. The Prince of Darkness – The Prince of Darkness (1987) – IMDB: 6.7

For many years, a sinister secret has been hiding in the basement of an abandoned church in Los Angeles. With the death of a priest belonging to a mysterious cult, another priest opens the door to the basement and discovers a vat of green liquid. A priest contacts a group of physics graduate students to investigate a vat of liquid.

Unfortunately, he really has no idea what the liquid contains or what it will show. When they discover this, it will be too late for anything. The liquid, reviving on its own, begins to turn other students into the living dead with a grudge against historical and religious showdowns. Will this chaos be stopped somehow?

4. Christine (1983) – IMDB: 6.7

Ridiculed for his incompetence and seen as a weak school nerd by his friends, Arnie Cunningham finally finds solace in Christine. What was once a bright red 1958 Plymouth Fury sports car is now a twenty-one-year-old pile of rusty junk. Deciding to restore this classic car, Arnie becomes increasingly distant from a few of his already few friends, immersing himself in this delicate task.

But Arnie, who became the owner of this car reborn from the ashes, is now the new Arnie with a smug and completely different character. Shiny, metallic and seductive, does Christine have anything to do with this situation and the sudden serial murders in the peaceful town of Rockbridge?

5. Fog – Fog (1980) – IMDB: 6.8

Preparations are underway to celebrate the centenary of Antonio Bay, a peaceful California beach town with a history filled with chilling tales of drowning sailors and a 100-year past of shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the sea. However, starting with strange supernatural events, a thick fog begins to cover the seaside town, overshadowing the festivities, leading to inexplicable disappearances. What happened in the past is unknown, but the restless dead from the depths of the past have returned to take revenge. What exactly does the evil lurking in the fog mean?

6 Starman (1984) – IMDB: 7.0

Jenny Hayden is a widow who never recovered from her husband’s death. So when the alien life form takes the form of her partner and appears in front of Jenny, Jenny tries to figure out what’s going on, not horrified, but rather confused. The alien or the so-called Starman has a date and a trip ahead of him, and for this he is going to kidnap Jenny.

7. In the Mouth of Madness – Beyond Madness (1994) – IMDB: 7.1

Skeptical and good freelance insurance researcher John Trent is hired by publisher Jackson Harglow to find out where famous horror writer Sutter Kane might be. Sutter disappears shortly before the release of his new novel, The Horror at Hobb’s End, after writing a series of best-selling horror books that left readers disorientated, amnesic, and paranoid.

There is mass hysteria and anxiety among the fans waiting for his new book. However, John believes that Kane’s disappearance was a marketing strategy. Following his instincts, John travels to New Hampshire with Cane editor Linda Stiles in search of the fictional town of Hobbs End. He can never predict the results of these efforts.

8. Escape from New York – Escape from New York (1981) – IMDB: 7.1

In the far future of the United States, crime is out of control and New York City’s Manhattan has become a maximum security prison. Grabbing a trump card, the convicts shoot down the presidential plane in Gotham. Rough Snake Plissken, a one-eyed and lone warrior who has just begun his prison life, is forced to smuggle the president and his cargo out of this unwanted realm.

9 They Live – They Live (1988) – IMDB: 7.2

Nada, a hapless construction worker, finds a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, she can see the world for what it really is: unlike people who are bombarded by the media and the government with messages such as “Stay asleep,” “Unimaginative,” “Submit to authority.” What’s even more horrific is that some seemingly normal people can see that they are actually ugly aliens responsible for a massive campaign to subjugate humans.

10. Big Trouble in Little China – Big Trouble in Little China (1986) – IMDB: 7.2

When truck driver Jack Burton agreed to pick up his friend Wang Chi’s fiancée from the airport, he didn’t expect to be caught up in a supernatural battle between good and evil. Wang’s fiancée is the human and target of an immortal sorcerer named Lo Pan, whom he must marry in order to regain his physical form. Now Jack must save Wang’s fiancée from Lo Pan and his henchmen and retrieve the stolen truck. But how can he defeat a disembodied enemy?

11. Assault on the 13th Precinct – Assault on the Police Station (1976) – IMDB: 7.3

The police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. The gang members make a bloody deal to get revenge on the police and lay siege to a near-abandoned police station that is about to close down. The personnel of the closed zone and the criminals held there for deportation must work together to fight the gang members.

12. Halloween – The Stranger (1978) – IMDB: 7.7

15 years ago, 6-year-old Michael Myers brutally murdered his older sister and was committed to a psychiatric hospital under the supervision of psychiatrist Sam Loomis. The city of Haddonfield is about to put the incident to rest when it receives word that Myers has escaped from the mental hospital. Loomis turns to the town’s sheriff for help to stop Michael, who is preparing for more murders, before it’s too late.

13. Thing – Well (1982) – IMDB: 8.2

An alien vessel has been discovered at a research site in Antarctica, led by graduate student Keith Lloyd and scientist Dr. K. This leads to conflict between Sander Halvorson. As Halvorson continues his research, Kate teams up with helicopter pilot Sam Carter to hunt down an alien life form that has appeared with the ship.