by Daniel Cote

Created on: October 14, 2008   Last Updated: February 19, 2009

John Carpenter is a multi-faceted film maker whose talents go well beyond directing. What many people don't know about John is that, in addition to directing such classics as Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), and Escape from New York (1981), he also wrote the screenplays, composed the soundtracks, and acted in these movies. His acting roles are often small cameo appearances that usually go unnoticed. Like any good film maker, John Carpenter has several trademarks that distinguish his movies from others who try to mimic his work.

One of the most common themes of John Carpenter's movies is the dark cinematography. Since most of his movies are of the horror genre, he does this to help create a sense of terror, fright, and suspense. It is more difficult for the audience to know what is going to happen if they can't see it. Another common theme of his movies, which is contrarian to most other horror flicks, is that he usually avoids showing gore even though numerous characters die in his films. There are some exceptions to this, especially in his more modern movies. Another common motif found in most of John Carpenter's movies is that the "bad guy" is often a zombie-like, or mindless creature that shows little personality or emotion. I believe this is Carpenter's most effective tool for creating a sense of horror and suspense because if the "bad guy" is mindless and shows little emotion, there is no telling what the character is capable of. This helps create the "unknown" factor in his movies. The audience does not know which characters are going to live and which ones will die because the villain could do anything.

There are also many other little nuances Carpenter enjoys reusing in the majority of his films. For example, there is always at least one scene inside an automobile in every one of his films; he makes frequent references to classic Westerns, and he reuses character's names from other classic movies. The character Sam Loomis in his movie Halloween is also the name of Janet Leigh's boyfriend in Alfred Hitchcock's movie Psycho. When is comes to casting actors in his movies, Carpenter frequently casts musicians. Examples of this include Ice Cube in Ghosts of Mars (2001), Isaac Hayes in Escape from New York (1981), and Alice Cooper in Prince of Darkness (1987).

When it comes to horror movies, there are few directors that can even be mentioned in the same sentence as John Carpenter. Despite the lack of success some of his more recent movies have had, his reputation and legacy as a superb director and film maker is well intact because of his hit classic movies of the late 70's and early 80's.

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