John Carpenter shares his five favourite sci-fi movies
John Carpenter has become regarded as one of the finest horror filmmakers of all time. His third feature, Halloween, essentially invented the slasher genre and became a cult classic, birthing the tsunami of horror films that copied it soon after. What followed was a string of well-crafted and groundbreaking entries into the genre, The Fog, Christine, In The Mouth of Madness, cementing Carpenter as one of the best in his field.
However, Carpenter also directed notable sci-fi movies such as Escape from New York, The Thing, Starman, and the beautifully subversive and lesser-known They Live. Considering this, when Carpenter decided to compile a list of his favourite sci-fi movies, it certainly grabbed fans’ attention.
What sets Carpenter apart from other sci-fi and horror directors in his era is his ability to uncover complex societal issues while wrapping them in the fabric of the B-movie genre. A case in point is They Live – a science-fiction, action-horror that’s laced with a dose of tongue-in-cheek comedy, following a homeless drifter who discovers a pair of sunglasses.
When worn, these sunglasses allow him to see the true message behind billboards, advertisements, and television ads. What he soon discovers is that the ruling class on Earth are, in fact, aliens controlling humanity through the media. It’s an excellent film and a clever commentary on society’s ignorance towards consumerism and media culture.
Carpenter has a firm grip on the mechanics of the sci-fi genre, and the films he cites as being his favourites have clearly shaped his craft. Making the cut was the Shakespearean space adventure Forbidden Planet, an adaptation of The Tempest. This classic tells the tale of a spacecraft that ventures to a distant planet to unearth the mystery of what happened to a group of scientists that travelled there decades ago, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen.
The sci-fi maestro also adds the British horror classic The Curse of Frankenstein from 1957, starring Christopher Lee, to his list. The film was one of the earlier Hammer Film Productions and was the first of many remakes and spin-offs that later established the Hammer Horror brand of gothic cinema, a movement Carpenter has been vocal about his adoration for.
The Thing From Another World also gets a mention. The film is the ancestor to Carpenter’s own version, The Thing. Though much is different in Carpenter’s, based more on the novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr, but the original film is clearly of great importance to the director.
Check out the rest of Carpenter’s entries below. It’s a wonderful list, praising some true classics in the genre and mixed with movies that even the most well-versed sci-fi horror flick buffs may have passed by.
John Carpenter’s favourite sci-fi movies:
- The Curse of Frankenstein (Terence Fisher, 1957)
- The Creeping Unknown (Val Guest, 1955)
- X: The Unknown (Leslie Norman, Joseph Losey 1956)
- Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)
- The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951)
