12 Times A Director Went On An INSANE Streak Of Great Movies
9. John Carpenter: Five Films From 1976-1982
The Streak: Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing
Like a lot of horror directors, John Carpenter has made his fair share of duds. From Ghosts of Mars to The Ward, there's some genuine stinkers for fans to sift through - but they’re completely excused by the insane hot streak Carpenter was on in the first decade of his career.
Kicking off with the outrageous action film Assault on Precinct 13, Carpenter decided with his next project he wanted to completely reshape the horror genre. Halloween essentially created the formula for every slasher going forward, and birthed an eternal horror symbol in Michael Myers’ blank face.
The Fog wasn’t quite on the same level, functioning as a far lighter, folklore-inspired thriller about ghost pirates. It’s a bit Scooby-Doo, but that was the point, and Carpenter’s real grounding of the film’s small-town community - all connected through the radio - conjured up social fears contrary to Halloween’s focus on the individual monster.
Cult-favourite Escape From New York followed, then came The Thing, a genre classic arguably just as influential as Carpenter’s first foray into horror, but one which was criminally derided at the time.
Starman would kill this run dead, but the likes of In the Mouth of Madness, They Live and Big Trouble and Little China still proved that initial spark didn't disappear entirely.
[JB]