John Carpenter turns 78 today. He was born on 16 January 1948. But I apparently have a problem with him.
If you asked me who my favorite director was, I would definitely not say, “John Carpenter.” That’s not a criticism; just a fact. I know I admire him and his work greatly. But I don’t have the passion for his work the way I do for a half-dozen other directors who disappoint far more often.
What’s with that?
I don’t know. But going through the data, I think John Carpenter is my favorite director. And that’s hard to say! The truth is, the competition is fierce. And I would say “Samuel Fuller” on a different day. (Maybe his birthday!)
I was planning to put a ranking of his films. But that would doubtless bias the list by genre. And how do you compare Starman to, well, anything else Carpenter ever did?
Consider my favorite Carpenter film, In the Mouth of Madness. It is such a fun film! But it’s also pretty intellectual. That’s certainly the level on which it delights me.
But The City of the Living Dead (or any of Lucio Fulci’s better films) affects me on a much deeper level. So does Tobe Hooper’s Spontaneous Combustion. Neither of these films are as well-made as In the Mouth of Madness.
But I think the issue is that in a certain way, John Carpenter plays it safe. He works in well-established areas. And he does an amazing job! Memoirs of an Invisible Man is the only one of his films that I think shouldn’t have been made.
So I think this all comes down to my wish to be shocked out of my analytical mode. But I can hear people say, “What about David Cronenberg?” And that’s a good point. He’s far more intellectual than Carpenter. But Cronenberg’s mind might as well come from another planet.
All this is to say: damn the data! John Carpenter is probably the best horror director of the last 50 years. I love his work! But for me and what I most love about films, he’s no Dario Argento. Or Don Coscarelli. Or Larry Cohen. What about Wes Craven? Carpenter is more like George Romero (but better). So this isn’t about quality. And I am always up to watch one of his films.
I don’t want to highlight In the Mouth of Madness, even though it is criminally under-viewed. (I’ll do an entire post about it next month.) Instead, let’s watch Body Bags. There is much to recommend it. First, all three of the shorts work. Tobe Hooper pitches in with the best of the three. Second, the connective narrative is great. And third, we get to see Carpenter in a wonderfully over-the-top performance.
Portrait of John Carpenter by Kyle Cassidy under CC BY-SA 4.0.