The legendary director who inspired one of John Carpenter’s worst movies: “Editing is the whole game”
Throughout his illustrious career, John Carpenter has redefined the frameworks of horror cinema time and again. Be it the definitive impact of Halloween or the timeless lessons about crafting cinematic atmosphere, Carpenter’s body of work is almost religiously revisited by both hardcore fans as well as aspiring filmmakers who also want to make it big in the genre.
When we look back on Carpenter’s trajectory, it is easy to identify how much the initial negative criticism got it wrong. The greatest example of this is his 1982 magnum opus, The Thing, delivering a fascinating sociopolitical commentary about the Cold War while creating one of the most unforgettable monster flicks ever made. Even though it was dismissed by many because of its unforgiving view of the world, Carpenter’s genius has stood the test of time.
However, it would also be unfair to say that the American filmmaker hasn’t had his fair share of duds, and sometimes, the critics did get it right. That’s the case with Carpenter’s 1998 action horror film Vampires, featuring James Woods as a vampire hunter who embarks on a quest to avenge the death of his parents after receiving training from the Catholic Church.
On many of his works, Carpenter has actively drawn from the westerns he grew up watching, especially the movies made by his all-time cinematic hero: Howard Hawks. However, on Vampires, he was inspired by the subversive takes on the genre by another filmmaker who also became a different kind of western icon: Sam Peckinpah.
Talking about the source of inspiration, Carpenter told Filmmaker Magazine: “I’m mostly attracted to Howard Hawks movies and Hawks’s style, but I also love Peckinpah’s work, especially The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, and I found myself thinking much more about him than Hawks on Vampires.”
He elaborated: “That comes from being influenced by somebody like Peckinpah, where editing is the whole game. Now, my approach was much more controlled than Peckinpah, who used to cover everything with a bunch of cameras and then sort it out in the editing room. I didn’t do that; for the most part, everything was planned out the way I usually do. I write down a shot list on a piece of paper, and I take it with me, and then I forget about it – I don’t really refer to it until the end of the day, and then I’ll take it out and look at it and make sure I got everything I needed.”
Maybe Carpenter should have stuck to Howard Hawks because Peckinpah’s sensibilities do not come across at all in Vampires. It cannot exactly be classified as a horror film because it isn’t scary at all, with younger generations of audiences only extracting unintentional comedic value out of it.
