John Carpenter - The Master of Horror 1978-1982 Part 1

Michael Myers, The Thing and Snake Plisskin have all come from the mind of one man. John Carpenter.

At the peak of his career in the late 70's early 80's John Carpenter was horrifying audiences all over America.

First came his legendary independent slasher film - Halloween in 1978 (Which has since had a terrible re-make thanks to singer turned director Rob Zombie), it broke box office records having been made on a budget of $320,000 and has made an estimated $47,000,000 (In 2008 this would equal almost $150,000,000). It was for a long time the most successful independent film of all time.

Halloween has been internationally recognised by many as the film that created the sub genre of Slasher films within the Horror genre. Many people have compared it to Alfred Hitchcock's film: Psycho. There is one big comparison in that Alfred Hitchcock cast Janet Leigh in the main female role. This was almost mirrored by John Carpenter as he cast Janet Leigh's daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in the lead female role in Halloween. Carpenter thought this was the biggest homage he could pay the Hitchcock.

Christopher Lee was initially offered the role of Dr. Sam Loomis but turned it down (Donald Pleasence was later cast in the role). Christopher Lee has been quoted since as saying it was the biggest mistake of his movie career. 

The movie soon turned into a franchise with nine sequels been made, although the two remakes, both by Rob Zombie, shouldn't of been allowed. Stick to the singing Rob. Please?

Next for Carpenter was The Fog released in 1980. 

The Fog has also had a terrible remake, directed by Rupert Wainwright, which was a box office failure. The original Fog had a bigger budget then Carpenter's last film with a budget of $1,000,000 and made a rather impressive $21,000,000 in the US alone, the remake didn't do quite as well..... In fact it did awful and was even criticised for "bad acting" and "many plot holes" so basically the film didn't make sense. So anybody watching it was confused and appalled by the acting skill's of the "professional" actors in the film. 

There are a few connections between this and Carpenter's last film Halloween. For a start the lead character in The Fog is called Nick Castle, which was the name of the actor who played "The Shape" in Halloween. Once again Jamie Lee Curtis was playing one of the lead female roles and Carpenter, much like Hitchcock, had a small cameo as the vicar's assistant but is uncredited, as he is for his role in Halloween.

The Fog has a simple but effective story and is filmed in a way only Carpenter can. The eerie music fits in well with the dark images on screen and the unseen pirates are just plain genius. 

As for the remakes i don't understand how people, especially producers, think they can remake John Carpenter films. It's like when a band cover a Beatles song, it will end up terrible so please don't even attempt it. Why mess with perfection?