12 Times A Director Went On An INSANE Streak Of Great Movies

9. John Carpenter: Five Films From 1976-1982

The Thing
Universal

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]

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.

Contributor

Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.