The director John Carpenter called “one of the best filmmakers working today”
He’s one of the most serially underappreciated artists of his generation, yet John Carpenter is always willing to heap praise on others. While it should certainly be noted that, within certain blood-stained circles, Carpenter is rightly regarded as the horror master he is, with his work in the late 20th century arguably among the most influential of any genre ever. However, Carpenter’s movies are not always given the artistic clout they deserve in the wider world.
With his seminal work, 1978’s Halloween, Carpenter didn’t just create a masterful movie capable of both capturing and terrifying millions of cinemagoers with a slasher movie (and villain) that will live on in the annals of cinema history, but he created the blueprint for modern horror as we know it.
The dread-inducing Michael Myers, with his inescapable gait, is one of the most enduring images of cinema from the century. Likewise, the pin-sharp minimalist score, fearsome tension and sharp social commentary all provide the ultimate boogeyman with a movie as brutal and entertaining as his endless, and sometimes comical, kills. These nuances are not just restricted to his picture, either. The same unique style points can be found in the sci-fi epic The Thing and 1988’s cult hit They Live.
The director was also a dab hand when it came to action cinema, providing a bucket full of brilliance with the release of Big Trouble in Little China. All in all, Carpenter’s work remains a gold standard for genre filmmakers, with his iconic synthesiser scores and signature visual style ensuring his films continue to haunt, thrill, and inspire. Coupling his unique style and vision with his appreciation for all cinema means Carpenter is one of the finer critics we have at our disposal.
It was when speaking with another iconic critic, Roger Ebert, that the director opened up about whom he considered to be a great filmmaker today. The conversation, from 2014, saw Carpenter muse about the state of cinema in the modern age in comparison to his own time in the limelight, especially the remakes of his own movies: “I have seen a couple of them, but I won’t comment on them because they are somebody else’s movie,” he explained.
However unwilling he may have been to offer up his opinion on the pictures, in removing them from his own work entirely, he makes perhaps the most imposing verdict: “That is really how I feel about it—they aren’t my movies anymore. I prefer it when they are the kind of remakes where the producers have to pay me money. That is the best kind of remake that there is.”
Remakes of his work are one thing, but Carpenter has never been scared of sharing his appreciation for other directors and was happy to do so again when asked about his preferred filmmakers of the day: “I think that David Fincher is really talented,” he said. “I really like his work, and I think that he is one of the best filmmakers working today.”
Like Carpenter, Fincher has found himself in a comfortable niche in which to operate. Preferring psychological thrillers to horror, Fincher established himself with 1995’s Se7en before delivering the ultimate gut punch in 1999 with Fight Club. Add to this The Social Network, which saw him step out of his comfort zone, and Zodiac, which saw him step back in, and you have as well-rounded a director as you could hope to find. John Carpenter certainly thinks so.
