« Theoni V. Aldredge | Main | Ken Kercheval »
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.
Early life
Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, the son of Milton Jean and Howard Ralph Carpenter, a music professor. He and his family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1953. He was captivated by movies from an early age, particularly the westerns of Howard Hawks and John Ford, as well as 1950s low budget horror and science fiction films, such as Forbidden Planet and The Thing from Another World and began filming horror shorts on 8 mm film even before entering high school. He briefly attended Western Kentucky University where his father chaired the music department, but transferred to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in 1968 and graduated in 1971.
Academy Award - Live Action Short Film
At USC Cinema, one of his projects as a co-writer, film editor and music composer, The Resurrection of Broncho Billy (1970), produced by John Longenecker, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. The short film was blown-up to 35mm, sixty prints were made, and the film was theatrically released by Universal Studios for two years in the United States and Canada.
1970s: From student films to major theatrical releases
His first major film as director, Dark Star (1974), was a sci-fi black comedy that he cowrote with Dan O’Bannon (who later went on to write Alien, borrowing freely from much of Dark Star). The film reportedly cost only $60,000 and was difficult to make as both Carpenter and O’Bannon completed the film by multitasking, with Carpenter doing the musical score as well as the writing, producing and directing, while O’Bannon acted in the film and did the special effects (which caught the attention of George Lucas who hired him to do work on the special effects for Star Wars). Carpenter’s efforts did not go unnoticed as much of Hollywood marveled at his filmmaking abilities within the confines
Carpenter’s next film was Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the films of Howard Hawks, particularly Rio Bravo. As with Dark Star, Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the film’s creation. He not only wrote, directed and scored it, but also edited the film under the pseudonym “John T. Chance” (the name of John Wayne’s character in Rio Bravo). Carpenter has said that he considers Assault on Precinct 13 to have been his first real film because it was the first movie that he shot on a schedule. The film was also significant because it marked the first time Carpenter worked with Debra Hill, who played prominently in the making of some of Carpenter’s most important films.
Working within the limitations of a $100,000 budget, Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two leads were Austin Stoker, who had appeared previously in science fiction, disaster and blaxploitation films, and Darwin Joston, who had worked primarily in television and had once been Carpenter’s next-door neighbor.
The film was originally released in the United States to mixed critical reviews and lackluster box-office earnings, but after it was screened at the 1977 London Film Festival, it became a critical and commercial success in Europe and is often credited with launching Carpenter’s career. The film subsequently received a critical reassessment in the United States, where it is now generally regarded as one of the best exploitation films of the 1970s.
A long forgotten, but still very note worthy film that Carpenter both wrote and directed was the Lauren Hutton thriller Someone’s Watching Me! (aka High Rise) in 1978, a very busy year for the director. This made-for-television movie tells a very simplistic, yet rather effective tale of a single, working woman who, shortly after arriving in L.A., discovers that she is gradually being stalked and constantly observed by an unseen predator in the high rise building across from her apartment. Though a made-for-television film, Someone’s Watching Me! does stand out from others of the period. Borrowing heavily from Hitchcock classics, Carpenter slowly builds the suspense and intrigue before the final confrontation ensues, making the most out of the theory that what one can’t see is far more interesting than what is shown on the screen. Although it has never received much attention, it’s interesting to draw some parallels between the story, concept, and visuals in this film with those featured in the director’s next immediate production, Halloween.
Halloween (1978) was a smash hit on release and helped give birth to the slasher film genre. Originally an idea suggested by producer Irwin Yablans (entitled The Babysitter Murders), who envisioned a film about babysitters being menaced by a stalker, Carpenter took the idea and another suggestion from Yablans that it take place during Halloween and developed a story. Carpenter said of the basic concept: “Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house movie.”[12] The film was written by Carpenter and Debra Hill with Carpenter admitting that the film was inspired by both Dario Argento’s Suspiria and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist .
Carpenter again worked with a relatively small budget, $320,000. The film grossed over $65 million initially, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.
Carpenter relied upon taut suspense rather than the excessive gore that would define later slasher films in order to make the menacing nature of the main character, Michael Myers, more palpable. At times, Carpenter has described Halloween in terms that appeared to directly contradict the more thoughtful, nuanced approach to horror that he actually used, such as: “True crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you.” The film has often been cited as an allegory on the virtue of sexual purity and the danger of casual sex, although Carpenter has explained that this was not his intent: “It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I’m not. In Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers.” Of the later slasher films that largely mimicked Carpenter’s work on Halloween, few have met with the same critical success.
In addition to the film’s critical and commercial success, Carpenter’s self-composed “Halloween Theme” remains a recognizable film music theme to this day.
In 1979, John Carpenter began what was to be the first of several collaborations with actor Kurt Russell when he directed the TV movie Elvis. The made-for-TV movie was a smash hit with viewers and critics and revived the career of Russell, who was a child actor in the 1960s.
Personal life
Carpenter was romantically involved with his creative partner, Debra Hill, from the time they worked on Assault on Precinct 13 until Carpenter met his future wife, actress Adrienne Barbeau, on the set of his 1978 television movie, Someone’s Watching Me.
Despite the end of their romantic relationship, Carpenter and Hill continued to collaborate on films and were able to maintain their friendship. Working with both Carpenter and Barbeau on The Fog, however, was reportedly an emotionally difficult experience for Hill.
Carpenter was married to Barbeau from January 1, 1979 to 1984. During their marriage, Barbeau starred in The Fog, and also appeared in Escape from New York. The couple had one son, John Cody Carpenter (born May 7, 1984).
Carpenter has been married to producer Sandy King since 1990. King produced a number of Carpenter’s later feature films, including: They Live, In the Mouth of Madness, Ghosts of Mars and Escape from L.A. She also functioned as script supervisor for some of these films as well as Starman, Big Trouble in Little China and Prince of Darkness.
Film
The Resurrection of Broncho Billy
Dark Star
Assault on Precinct 13
Eyes of Laura Mars
Halloween
The Fog
Escape from New York
Halloween II
The Thing
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Christine
The Philadelphia Experiment
Starman
Big Trouble in Little China
Black Moon Rising
The Boy Who Could Fly
Prince of Darkness
They Live
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
The Silence of the Hams
In the Mouth of Madness
Village of the Damned
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Escape from L.A.
Vampires
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Ghosts of Mars
Vampires: Los Muertos
Halloween: Resurrectio
Assault on Precinct 13
The Fog
Halloween
The Ward
Photo Gallery:
Topics: Actor, Celebrities
Tags: Black Moon Rising, Christine, Dark Star, Ghosts of Mars, Halloween, Halloween II, Prince of Darkness, Starman, They Live, Vampires
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
