The 17 movies John Carpenter considers “guilty pleasures”
The merged cinematic worlds of the horror, action and science fiction genres would be nothing without the film icon that is John Carpenter. For over five decades, Carpenter has consistently delivered his vision through classic movies, including Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China.
However, while undoubtedly brilliant in their own unique way, it’s fair to say that Carpenter’s movies can sometimes border on the guilty pleasure side of things. After all, his best are mostly independent movies made in the 1970s and 1980s, free from overproduction. A guilty pleasure is no strange thing to the director himself, who once named his 17 favourite “trashy flops” in a feature with Film Comment Magazine in 1996.
“Let’s talk about flops and trash,” Carpenter said. “The Poor, The Awful, The Stupid – movies I dearly love and would much rather watch than classics. As a kid, I knew a lot of the movies I saw were hideous, but I didn’t care. I loved them anyway. I forgave everything. Now, when I see these same films, I still love and forgive.”
The first of Carpenter’s “trashy” favourites is 1968’s The Green Berets, directed by John Wayne and Ray Kellogg, starring Wayne, David Jansen and Jim Hutton, based on Robin Moore’s 1965 novel of the same name. “John Wayne’s epic Vietnam War movie,” Carpenter said. “Amazing extreme-right fantasy. Great siege on a firebase. A must-see.”
Another significant entry on the list is Russ Meyer’s 1968 musical melodrama satire Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, made from a screenplay by Roger Ebert. the project looks to be one of Carpenter’s favourites, let alone a guilty pleasure, with him noting: “An absolute masterpiece. Rock and roll. Beautiful naked babes. Gratuitous sex and violence”.
The films of Roger Corman also look to have a special place in the heart of Carpenter, particularly Sorority Girl, a “superlative teen exploitation in which a “troubled Susan Cabot makes life hell for a sorority house”, Attack of the Crab Monsters (“Giant talking crabs with eyeballs and eyelids terrorise scientists on a Pacific atoll”) and Viking Women and The Sea Serpent, which Carpenter describes as “irresistible”. Interestingly, all three films were released in 1957.
There are several amusing titles on Carpenter’s list of “trash” too, including “the ultimate Japanese monster movie” War of the Gargantuans, the “brilliantly dumb” The Giant Claw and Dan Milner’s “incredible” 1957 film From Hell It Came.
Check out the complete list of John Carpenter’s “guilty pleasures” below.
John Carpenter’s “guilty pleasures” movies:
- The Green Berets (John Wayne & Ray Kellog, 1968)
- The Unconquered (Cecil B. DeMille, 1947)
- The Giant Claw (Fred F. Sears, 1957)
- Viking Women and The Sea Serpent (Roger Corman, 1957)
- Blue Hawaii (Norman Taurog, 1962)
- Invisible Invaders (Edward L. Cahn, 1959)
- Ice Station Zebra (John Sturges, 1968)
- From Hell It Came (Dan Milner, 1957)
- Radio Ranch (Otto Brewer & B. Reeves Easton, 1938)
- Motorcycle Gang (Edward L. Cahn, 1957).
- Invasion U.S.A. (Alfred E. Green, 1952)
- Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (Russ Meyer, 1968)
- Sorority Girl (Roger Corman, 1957)
- Goliath And The Barbarians (Carlo Campogalliani, 1960)
- The Conqueror (Dick Powell, 1956)
- Attack Of The Crab Monsters (Roger Corman, 1957)
- War Of The Gargantuans (Inoshiro Honda, 1966)
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