JOHN CARPENTER’S 10 BEST NON-HALLOWEEN HORROR MOVIESby Paul Lonardo

 

 

John Carpenter is known as “The Master of Horror” for a reason, but it’s not based solely on his directing of 1978’s Halloween, which many consider a masterclass in terror and suspense. To highlight this point, I’m presenting my list of John Carpenter’s Top 10 horror films. However, to give the other films in Carpenter’s remarkable film catalog a fair shake, and with all due respect to the 1978 all-time classic, my list will not include Halloween. It also excludes any movie that Carpenter did not personally direct. He has produced a number of films he did not direct, and he also wrote several that others have directed.

My one wish is that this list will not be a final tally on Carpenter’s contributions to the horror genre. It has been fifteen years since he was last in the director’s chair with 2010’s The Ward. He recently told Variety that he still has no active plans to direct, but he stopped short of saying that he was retired.

“I would love to direct again, given the right circumstances,” Carpenter said. “But I’m not the same kid anymore who will do it for any amount of money. I can’t back into a budget anymore. I’m too old. It’s too hard. But directing is the love of my life. I’ll never stop loving that.”

And we’ll never stop enjoying your films, these among them:

#10 Someone’s Watching Me! is a 1978 made-for-TV movie that starred Lauren Hutton, Adrienne Barbeau, and David Birney. Hutton’s plays a character being stalked by a stranger, and while the plot may seem derivative, Carpenter is able to keep the tension ramped up while keeping the audience guessing what is going to happen next. Carpenter seems to pay homage to suspense master Alfred Hitchcock with the voyeur motif, but Capenter puts his stamp on the film with a strong female lead in Hutton, who fends off her homicidal admirer and kills him, ala Laurie Strode, stabbing him and watching him fall presumably to his death at the end. While this killer doesn’t get up and become a franchise, Someone’s Watching me! is a well-acted thriller that clearly exhibits a director coming into his own.

#9 Body Bags is another television film, this one an anthology which features three unconnected stories, the first two directed by Carpenter, with the third directed by another horror legend in Tobe Hooper. This is a movie that may have slipped under the radar for many Carpenter fans. It premiered on August 8, 1993 on Showtime Networks, and it was clearly striving for a Tales from the Crypt vibe, and even if it doesn’t quite get there, it’s great fun for horror fans.

The first segment, “The Gas Station,” features Robert Carradine with appearances from Daivd Naughton, Sam Raimi, and Wes Craven. The story is about a young woman working at a gas station in Haddonfield, Illinois the night a serial killer escapes from a local mental institution. Sound familiar? The killer is not Michael, but the story is full of tension and thrills, as you would expect from such a set up and direction from Carpenter.

The second segment, “Hair,” is about a man who answers a television ad for a miracle hair growth procedure and winds up with hair growing all over his body, including in his mouth. The character goes full Jordy Verrill with locks, with alien angle explanation for the hirsuteness.

Honestly, I would have placed Body Bags higher on this list if it had been a theatrical release.

#8 Prince of Darkness is considered the second part of what Carpenter calls his Apocalypse Trilogy, which is a loose collective of three of his films (that also includes The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness), which all focus on a scenario depicting how the end of the world begins.

In this film, we get to see Donald Pleasance play a Catholic priest who helps investigate a strange cylinder containing a green liquid stored in a church basement. Turns out to be liquid Satan, possessing anyone who touches it.

All the things that Carpenter is best known for, including suspense, tension, and a feeling of claustrophobia, are present in abundance in 1987’s Prince of Darkness. We even get Alice Cooper, a living urban legend, playing a murderous vagrant named Street Schizo. What more could you ask for?

#7 Vampires. This film certainly has its share of critics, but I enjoyed James Woods’ portrayal of Jack Crow, a seen-it-all-before mercenary vampire hunter on a crusade to put an end to the night creatures who slaughtered his family. How fun is it to see vampires attached to the winch of a Jeep and dragged into the sunlight where they explode like so many fireworks being set off.

The cryptic dialogue is delivered with a sense of strength as well as humor that Woods pulls off masterfully. And for a Carpenter film, this one has a lot more gore to enjoy. And you will enjoy it.

#6 Christine. I am still amazed by how many people don’t realize that 1983’s Christine was directed by John Carpenter, even though the films onscreen title is John Carpenter’s Christine. Regardless, this movie might be more Carpenter than King.

As Arnie Cunningham, Keith Gordon does a better than credible job portraying the unbelievable, a teenager who basically falls in love with a killer car. Even the hot girl at school, Leigh, played by Alexandra Paul, whom Arnie begins dating, takes a back seat to the 1958 Plymouth Fury.

Gordon’s performance is creepy, and that’s what transcends the incredulous plot. His obsession drives the film to its inevitable conclusion as the car takes on a maniacal life all its own and cannot be destroyed. However, immortality is not something that other characters in the film can boast. With vengeance being the driving force behind all the violence and death, it’s satisfying to see the victims meet their fate, including Arnie, who gets what he deserves.

#5 In the Mouth of Madness stars Sam Neill as an insurance investigator searching for horror author, Sutter Cane, who’s gone missing, but his true mission is locating Cane’s final manuscript. While there’s more than a hint that this wild goose chase is all a gimmick to garner publicity for the book, the narrative takes us along with the insurance investigator on a Lovecraftian a journey into the author’s imagination and madness, which appear to be one in the same. Cane’s literary monstrosities come to life, tormenting Neill’s character and leading him to question his own sanity.

It seems to me that a lot of people agree that his is a highly underrated film, and I’m one of them. Neill’s reactions to the nightmarish visuals are right on the mark, and together with the mood and tempo Carpenter creates, this 1995 film holds up remarkably well.

#4 Village of the Damned. Christopher Reeve stars alongside Kirstie Alley in a remake of the 1960’s original Village of the Damned about a group of small-town women who give birth to emotionless, telepathic, demonic children with creepy platinum-white hair. These little monsters use their psychic influence to induce adults to commit suicide in brutal ways.

Despite the acting talent assembled, Carpenter did not have a big budget to work with. It’s not an excuse, Village of the Damned may have turned out to be a box office failure, but there is plenty about this 1995 film to appreciate, including some powerful performances, not the least of which are by the children, who are authentic as inherently evil brats. The visual effects, particularly the sinister eyes, were top notch and highly effective in depicting the malevolence of these little demons. Even the soundtrack, a score that Carpenter provides himself, creates an atmosphere of terror, heightening the threat of danger that awaits at every turn.

#3 The Fog. Carpenter and his longtime co-writer/producer Debra Hill teamed up to bring us this follow-up to Halloween. A dreary coastal California community experiences strange paranormal occurrences and unaccountable disappearances when a blanket of eerie, glowing fog descends upon it. The reason behind this supernatural horror is eventually revealed; a hideous crime that the town elders were responsible for perpetrating many years ago has come back seeking vengeance.

With an unsettling atmosphere and Carpenter’s spine-chilling score, this is another one of those movies that if are able to catch playing at one of the few remaining drive-ins, you’d be well-served to ditch the streaming service to watch this one through your windshield.

#2 They Live. Released in 1988, this film has a cult following for a reason. The tension is nonstop, and it features a whole lot of violence. The storyline follows a drifter played by professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, who stumbles upon a pair of special sunglasses that let him see that the world is actually inhabited by skull-faced aliens disguised as humans. He learns that regular people like him have been living their lives alongside these beings without knowing it, and worse still, are being manipulated and controlled to work and spend their money on consumer goods.

Piper portrays his character tongue-in-cheek from beginning to end, and it’s the kind of humor that makes this movie a lot of fun to watch. Perhaps the most entertaining scene is a long fight sequence between Piper’s character and co-star Keith David’s character. The two men trade blows, exchange punches, and land kicks for nearly six straight minutes. As vicious and sustained as this fistfight was, it is one of the funniest moments in the movie.

#1 The Thing happens to be a personal favorite that appears at or near the top of multiple lists. This film has it all, from the beginning when a helicopter pursues a sled dog to a base in the Antarctic where a group of American researchers are working to the final standoff between two survivors who don’t know if the person looking back at them is human or an alien imitation. Carpenter is responsible for the rampant paranoia, escalating tension, and the feeling of total isolation that becomes palpable for the audience, and Rob Bottin’s practical special effects, which were groundbreaking at the time, remain as disturbing today as they were in 1982 when this movie came out.

For any other John Carpenter horror films lists, the number one spot is forever reserved for Halloween, but The Thing deserves its due.