John Carpenter's films and how they've affected me

I've been a film fanatic since adolescence, especially science fiction, horror, and anything strange. There's numerous creators of this type of content who are worthy of acclaim for the excellent work they've put out, but among them, Carpenter has affected me perhaps the most personally.

The films made my John Carpenter in the 1970s and 1980s are perhaps some of the most burned-into-my-mind cultural images I can think of. I really think he hit a sort of peak in the early 80s, having found a great niche for himself in gritty action and science fiction. Escape From New York (1981) and They Live (1988) are two fantastic examples of Carpenter's unique, gritty, dark style really making the concept pop. In the former, we are almost immediately immersed in a possible (then) future where even the plastic bubble of American contentment has faded, where an enitre metropolis has been made into a prison and the world is on the brink of nuclear war. In They Live, we are shown, from an average man's view, a horrifyingly vast and covert conspiracy that is well in control of everything we know and recognize as life on Earth. Films like these impacted me deeply for several reasons. One is that Carpenter's "heroes" are NEVER dressed in white or completely morally clean. Snake Plissken is, well, Snake Plissken, and They Live's George Nada is a character only Roddy Piper could have portrayed so effectively - a brash, brawling drifter with a buried sense of humanity. However, Carpenter's protagonists are always "enough" to win the day... even if it is by the seat of their pants.

The choices of tone and lighting, the overall "feel" of the films, that is what cements them visually into my mind. While the production values have not always been class A, Carpenter always makes the most of it by uncompromisingly filming the way he sees it. New York City as a prison is a dim, filthy place, and a lot of conveying that has to do with how it was filmed. Films like The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987) are appropriately... well... DARK. It starts visually, and then is galvanized by the writing and the other aspects of it... you feel trapped, even appropriately scared. The settings and shots aren't just planned, they seem SCHEMED. The pace is never too slow, always moving on at that perfect speed where you get all the basics the first time through and then want to watch the second time for details you missed. You'll also notice, finally, that whenever possible, Carpenter uses the same typefaces and color schemes for his title sequences. I can respect that, because it's another subtle way of putting your mark on something.

I feel I also have to mention that for several films, Carpenter wrote and performed the entire soundtrack. I find this in particular inspiring, since that is my plan.... should I ever finish these scripts and screenplays littering my hard drive.

This isn't an academic essay, I just felt like saying something about John Carpenter. I know he brought us Michael Myers, but I feel like a lot of his other early work is often overlooked.