“I don’t know those bums”: the last thing John Carpenter wanted to be was one of the ‘Movie Brats’
There is no denying that John Carpenter is one of the greats.
More than that, the director is even seen as the ‘Grandfather of Modern Horror’ and the name that seemed able to get America, and then the rest of the world, to wake up and get involved.
Before that, horror was relegated to its own, and kind of sleazy, zones. It was for the grindhouse cinemas, or to be circulated as nothing more than video nasties. Some projects managed to break through, like Night Of The Living Dead by George A Romero, or Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, but for true horror, with jump scares and monsters and gore to fully break through into blockbuster territory, it was going to take a little longer.
Yet Carpenter remained devoted. By his third project, he made himself a cult icon as Halloween hit the horror community so hard that whispers about it spread. It was made on a budget of only $300,000, all that could really be afforded to such a risky project, but after word got around about the slasher, it ended up grossing $70million, making it the most profitable independent movie ever made.
He believed in the project, and he believed in himself too, crafting it in his own image. It wasn’t even just that Carpenter wrote and directed the project, but his self-written and self-made score is also part of what made it so popular and then so iconic. It tied it to the tradition of horror films, creating tension through its tunes, but then, as he updated the genre into a new form of slasher, it seemed that he was going to be the one to break down the doors to the future.
By now, it would be tough to find a horror fan, or especially a horror filmmaker, who wouldn’t cite Carpenter as a key influence. Now, at a time when horror is finally getting its flowers and is finally being taken more seriously at awards shows with projects like Sinners and Weapons being nominated in 2026, it feels like the genre has a lot to thank Carpenter for – but he’s never been one for praise.
Undeniably, he sits at the table with the greats. However, he’d much rather sit with his friends. “Did you feel like a part of that community?” The New Yorker asked Carpenter, to which he replied, puzzled, “What community are you talking about?”
The line of questioning is trying to connect him to “the directors who ended up getting mythologised as the New Hollywood: Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola,” but Carpenter’s response is refreshingly human for an icon as he said simply, “I don’t know those bums – er, guys.”
After decades of ‘true Hollywood’ not accepting horror, he wasn’t going to be quick to abandon his side to join theirs. “I did know the horror directors. I was friends with all of them: Tobe Hooper and George Romero, those guys,” he said, staying true to the community that raised him, believed in him and backed each other even before the wider industry did.
