My Top 5 John Carpenter Movies

 by Patrick Bromley

My favorite movies from the Original Master of Horror.

Few directors have ever had a run like John Carpenter did from the 1970s into the 1990s. My man didn't miss. What I love about his run, though, isn't just that all of the movies were bangers -- they were -- but that they were all so idiosyncratic and so distinctly his. Carpenter never compromised for someone else's ideas, never diluted his vision because of studio notes until probably Memoirs of an Invisible Man, which is not a terrible movie but the one that ends the run. There are more than five movies that could easily have been on this list because I love different Carpenter films for different moods, but these are the ones that moved me the most as of this writing.

1. The Thing (1982)

My favorite John Carpenter movie and one of the best horror movies of all time. This is Carpenter at the absolute peak of his powers, combining everything he had been doing formally for the first 8-10 years of his career with the cynicism and unrelenting bleakness of a worldview that would inform most of his work. Add in Rob Bottin's special makeup effects -- still the best of their kind ever put on film -- and a banger Ennio Morricone score and you've got one of the all-time masterpieces of the horror genre. This is the only one I'm actually ranking because I just don't see anything being put above it; the rest of the movies on this list aren't in any particular order.

2. Escape from New York (1981)

Not only is this one of my favorite John Carpenter movies, but Snake Plissken remains maybe my second favorite movie character of all time. The director's satiric vision of a future that's already past (1997), Escape from New York is one of the great sci-fi action westerns ever made. I absolutely love Kurt Russell's performance (it even beats out Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China, which is no easy feat), I love the colorful cast of supporting characters and performances (Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Donald Pleasance, Adrienne Barbeau, Isaac Hayes), I love the low-budget aesthetic, I love the music, I love it all. More than anything, I love that Carpenter put this movie out into the world. No one else would have.

3. Prince of Darkness (1987)

Carpenter's biggest grower for me is also his most Advanced Studies work -- you can love a lot of Carpenter but still be left cold by this one and I totally get it. This is a weird one to wrap your arms around. The antagonist is green goo. The protagonist is a wet noodle. The movie is kind of slow and talky. And, yet, I find the vibes to be impeccable, the slowly mounting tension and dread undeniable. Carpenter's score is one of my favorites and I like the ensemble built around Jameson Parker even if I find Jameson Parker lacking at the center. For as much as this is one of Carpenter's darkest, most apocalyptic movies, I find it to be weirdly comforting -- the kind of horror movie I can so easily put on and lose myself in. This is also Carpenter's scariest movie, which is saying something given his filmography.

4. They Live (1988)

I've always loved this movie but spent years believing it was B-tier Carpenter compared to some of his agreed-upon masterpieces. I rewatched it for F This Movie Fest a couple of years back and was blown away but what a truly great movie this is. From the lead performance by a professional wrestler to its somewhat lackluster makeup effects, it's intentionally schlocky in order to maximize its messaging. In designing it this way, its limitations actually become its strength. Of course, it helps that the world has only become an even more cartoonish version of what Carpenter was predicting in 1988.

5. The Fog (1980)

Another grower for me and another one I have to pick just for the vibes. I'm never fully drawn into the narrative of The Fog, about a town invaded on vengeance-seeking ghosts, but it's one of the Carpenter movies I put more than almost any other. Like so many of the picks on this list, I know a big part of my affection is driven by the score by John Carpenter, which I listen to every year when putting up our Halloween decorations. But it's also the Adrienne Barbeau voiceover and the New England lighthouse atmosphere. While the script isn't my favorite, Carpenter gets all the other details of the movie just right. Outside of maybe The Shining, this is probably my favorite ghost story put on film.

Your turn! What are your Top 5 Carpenters?