John Carpenter was easily the most influential filmmaker in my life. Because of him, I not only fell in love with movies, but, how movies are made. What always struck me about how his movies were made, particularly his early ones, is the fact that he was just out making small movies with his friends in the hopes that they'd find an audience that would enjoy them. Had I decided to pursue a career in film, this is exactly what I would've wanted it to be like. My favorite films of his aren't ENTIRELY original choices, but, here they are. Assault on Precinct 13 Escape from New York Halloween Body Bags The Thing They Live Someone's Watching Me! Christine I've grown to really like Escape from L.A. in recent years. I know it's sort of fun to bag on how it bad it is, but, honestly, it's a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously. And, in a way, it almost makes fun of the action movie genre - particularly that of the early 90s. I do enjoy Big Trouble in Little China a lot, though, I don't love it as much as everyone else seems to. Don't get me wrong, it's a really fun movie, but, I always enjoyed the dark side of Carpenter much more.
My top two are easily The Thing and Big Trouble in Little China. And they are such different films from one another that I'm not taking anything away from either of them to call it a draw. Of the others, these are the ones I can watch over and over with ease: Dark Star, The Fog, Escape From New York, Christine, Starman, Prince of Darkness, They Live, In the Mouth of Madness, Escape From L.A. and Vampires. And honestly, I don't hate any of his movies. Not even Ghosts of Mars.
No one can have a discussion about that film without mentioning the greatest fight scene in cinema history! Even though Carpenter stayed mostly in the sci-fi and horror genres, he was never afraid to try out other ones. I always appreciated that about him.
Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing, with Escape from New York being my favorite of the three.
Escape from New York. for sure... And, did you know he made the music and that it's Jamie Lee Curtis that talks on the intro?
Although I'm not a horror fan, the original Halloween is pretty iconic. I honestly don't think very much of the other movies I've seen by him, of which there's six or seven.
John's (and Dan O'Bannon) student film from his USC days, Dark Star will always be my favorite. Probably not a bad film in his resume TBH.
I don't think I've seen a huge number of his films, but my most rewatched is Big Trouble in Little China. I doown Dark Star and The Thing and watch those every so often.
I own Big Trouble In Little China as well. I tend to forget that one when thinking about Carpenter. The "Escape" films are obvious classics from the era.
I'm a big fan, though I still have some biggies of his still to watch. Haven't seen Christine, or even Big Trouble yet. But I haven't seen a Carpenter movie I didn't like, yet. Btw, if you haven't already, I'd really recommend the Joker comic book Carpenter co-wrote, which was released late last year. It's a single issue, so not much of a commitment, it's self-contained (nominally it was part of the Year of the Villain event, but it really wasn't), and where other big name directors and writers only lend their name to "co-write" a comic book, this one really has the Carpenter feel about it.
My favorite Carpenter is a tie between They Live and The Thing, though I have a lot of love for Escape From New York, Big Trouble in Little China and In the Mouth of Madness, too. I just recently revisited Eyes of Laura Mars, which Carpenter co-wrote but didn't direct. While I really enjoy it (more than a lot of people, it seems) I can't help but wonder how it would have turned out if Carpenter had been sitting in the director's chair. Of course, we might not have gotten Halloween if that had happened, so I guess it's a fair trade off.