John Carpenter names the two movies that “almost killed” him
It’s been almost a decade and a half since John Carpenter directed a feature film, and his output had been wildly inconsistent in the years prior. Still, the hot streak that came at the peak of his powers was more than enough to have him celebrated as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of a generation.
In the space of a dozen years between 1976 and 1988, the ‘Master of Horror’ was in unmatchable form, conspiring to deliver Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live. It was a remarkable stretch that he understandably failed to match for the remainder of his directorial career.
Of course, anybody would struggle to reach those heights twice over for such an extended period of time, but the latter years of Carpenter’s filmography were nonetheless defined largely by inconsistency and disappointment. The occasional ray of light would shine through, but for the most part, his latter features would underwhelm more often than not.
It’s clear that Carpenter began gradually losing interest in stepping behind the camera, with two productions, in particular, being named as among the key reasons why 2010’s The Ward marked his final stand. However, the Amber Heard-starring supernatural terror’s box office implosion and critical drubbing definitely didn’t help matters.
Having repeatedly addressed his future as a director, Carpenter has made it clear on a number of occasions that he isn’t necessarily permanently retired. He just needs a very good reason to end his lengthy sabbatical from wielding the megaphone. As he told Forbes, “I’m open to directing, but I don’t want to work as hard as I worked on Escape from L.A. and Ghosts of Mars.”
The 1996 sequel starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken and the 2001 sci-fi horror both flopped in cinemas and were hardly greeted by either audiences or critics as being comparable to his finest efforts, with Carpenter underlining how he “worked very hard on those movies”. So hard, in fact, that in his own words, “I almost killed myself, and I don’t want to work that hard again.”
Escape from L.A. and Ghosts of Mars were sandwiched in between 1998’s bloodsucking Western-inspired Vampires, so Carpenter opting not to mention that one would seem to hint he found it a lot easier to drag over the finish line than the productions on either side of it. His musical endeavours have kept him plenty busy in the meantime, though, so it’s not as if Carpenter had ever turned his back on the industry outright. There are plenty of fans hoping he’ll change his mind and direct at least one more movie, but as of yet, there’s nothing to come along that’s convinced him.
