Vampires (1998)
[3] I love John Carpenter. I'd even go so far as to say he's one of my favorite directors. But only up through 1988's They Live. For some reason, nothing Carpenter has done in the '90s or beyond connects with…
The Thing (1982)
[10] This movie does two things extraordinarily well. It transports me and it terrifies me. Before anything scary even happens, director John Carpenter (Assault on Precinct 13, Starman) succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that locks me…
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
[5] Master of Horror John Carpenter directs this Lovecraftian horror thriller about an insurance investigator (Sam Neill) who teams up with a publishing company rep (Julie Carmen) to find a missing horror novelist named Sutter Cane (Jurgen Prochnow). Their search…
Village of the Damned (1995)
[6] After helming one of the best remakes of all time with 1982's The Thing, John Carpenter tackles another atomic-age remake. Village of the Damned is pretty faithful to the original 1960 film's storyline, which is based on a 1957…
Starman (1984)
[7] Director John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) takes a break from the horror genre for this sensitive sci-fi romance starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. Bridges plays an alien who takes the form of Allen's deceased husband. After the initial…
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
[6] Hot off her Oscar win for Network, Faye Dunaway headlines this thriller about a controversial photographer whose focus on sex and violence makes her a sensation in New York's advertising world. Dunaway's title character begins having visions of murder…
Halloween (2018)
[7] Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the franchise that launched her career in Halloween (same title, 40 years apart). This new film ignores every single sequel in the franchise and serves as a direct follow-up to John Carpenter's original 1978…
The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
[6] A 1943 Navy experiment to cloak a ship from enemy radar accidentally sends two sailors forty-one years into the future. Once they arrive in 1984, they are pursued by the military and begin suffering a mysterious illness that threatens their…
Ghosts of Mars (2001)
[2] John Carpenter has given us a handful of gems over the years, but Ghosts of Mars is not one of them. The movie's too exotic for its own good. It starts with some quick but tedious exposition, then plops…
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
[7] The skeleton crew of an isolated police precinct battle a vengeful street gang that lay siege to the building. John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) writes and directs this simple, straight-forward, solidly executed action/thriller, imbuing it with his love of…