The surprising video game John Carpenter was addicted to
John Carpenter has established himself as one of the most beloved horror directors of all time, with newer generations of fans also appreciating his unique artistic sensibilities. However, in recent years, Carpenter has been obsessed with a completely different artistic medium: video games.
In a recent interview with the A.V. Club, Carpenter opened up about his love for the medium and his desire to make a film adaptation of one of his favourite video games. The filmmaker started discussing his love for games after the interviewer told him about the upcoming TV series based on The Last of Us. He responded: “Are you kidding me? That’s unbelievable. Unbelievable.”
After the trailer for the latest Mario film was released, it sparked many discussions about the viability of such adaptations across social media platforms. Over the years, directors like Edgar Wright have repeatedly claimed that video game adaptations are impossible to make because of the differences between the mediums.
However, Carpenter has one potential adaptation that he wants to direct. He revealed: “The only one I can think of [adapting], and I’ve mentioned it before, is Dead Space. That would make a real great movie. I could do that. Well, any of them were really good. I even like the last one, the action one that nobody else liked.”
A beloved sci-fi horror franchise, the Dead Space games pushed the boundaries of the survival subgenre and brought forth multiple innovations to maximise the tension in the gameplay. Incorporating larger themes into the game’s unique universe, Dead Space was truly ahead of its time.
While talking about video games, Carpenter added: “Well, I don’t like things jumping out at me and threatening my character, no! Don’t threaten my character, I want to survive. A lot of games, they penalise you for dying. It’s one of the things I like about Fallout, they don’t penalise you. You die over and over again on a hard mission. I like that.”
In the same interview, Carpenter admitted that he has recently spent many hours on video games and was severely addicted to Fallout 76. Although the game received negative reviews from multiple outlets after a “historically bad launch”, Carpenter found the game to be an extremely engaging adventure.
The director explained: “I got hooked on this Fallout 76 game. Been hooked for a good long time on it. You know, I know it had bugs coming out, and a lot of it was put down, but I thought it was great. It’s really fun to play.” According to Carpenter, he loved the freedom offered by the game and the nuanced world the players inhabit. A post-apocalyptic Fallout film directed by John Carpenter might just be one of the most interesting video game adaptations never made.
