10 Greatest Horror Movie Directors Of All Time
3. John Carpenter
The recent release of David Gordon Green's Halloween (featuring a score by John Carpenter) stood out from the crowd of horror remakes and reboots in recent years, heralded as a return to form for the franchise first established by John Carpenter way back in 1978, when slasher films were still in its infancy and many of the tropes were yet to be introduced into the cinematic language of the genre.
Carpenter will be remembered as a pioneer of horror for the impact of Halloween, but his future horror movies would also prove to be hugely influential on the genre over the years to come.
His Apocalypse trilogy, comprised of The Thing (1982), Prince Of Darkness (1987) and In The Mouth Of Madness (1994) demonstrated a playfully varied approach to otherwise well worn themes, their protagonists fighting against visible and invisible forces of evil in a world on the brink of destruction (In The Mouth Of Madness to this day stands as a truly underrated horror gem).
It's a bold claim, but no film since The Thing has come close to delivering inventively disgusting practical monster effects quite so convincingly, while Carpenter's drifting, ominous camerawork and masterful use of tension has influenced a host of contemporary horror films, including Adam Wingard's The Guest and David Robert Mitchell's It Follows.