1970s: From student films to major theatrical releases
His first major film as director,
Dark Star (1974), was a sci-fi black comedy that he cowrote with
Dan O'Bannon (who later went on to write
Alien, borrowing freely from much of
Dark Star). The film reportedly cost only $60,000 and was difficult to make as both Carpenter and O'Bannon completed the film by multitasking, with Carpenter doing the musical score as well as the writing, producing and directing, while O'Bannon acted in the film and did the special effects (which caught the attention of
George Lucas who hired him to do work on the special effects for
Star Wars). Carpenter's efforts did not go unnoticed as much of Hollywood marveled at his filmmaking abilities within the confines of a shoestring budget.
Carpenter's next film was
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a low-budget thriller influenced by the films of
Howard Hawks, particularly
Rio Bravo. As with
Dark Star, Carpenter was responsible for many aspects of the film's creation. He not only wrote, directed and scored it, but also edited the film under the pseudonym "John T. Chance" (the name of
John Wayne's character in
Rio Bravo). Carpenter has said that he considers
Assault on Precinct 13 to have been his first real film because it was the first movie that he shot on a schedule. The film was also significant because it marked the first time Carpenter worked with
Debra Hill, who played prominently in the making of some of Carpenter's most important films.
Working within the limitations of a $100,000 budget, Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two leads were
Austin Stoker, who had appeared previously in science fiction, disaster and
blaxploitation films, and
Darwin Joston, who had worked primarily in television and had once been Carpenter's next-door neighbor.
The film was originally released in the United States to mixed critical reviews and lackluster box-office earnings, but after it was screened at the 1977
London Film Festival, it became a critical and commercial success in Europe and is often credited with launching Carpenter's career. The film subsequently received a critical reassessment in the United States, where it is now generally regarded as one of the best
exploitation films of the 1970s.
A long forgotten, but still very note worthy film that Carpenter both wrote and directed was the Lauren Hutton thriller
Someone's Watching Me! (aka High Rise) in 1978, a very busy year for the director. This made-for-television movie tells a very simplistic, yet rather effective tale of a single, working woman who, shortly after arriving in L.A., discovers that she is gradually being stalked and constantly observed by an unseen predator in the high rise building across from her apartment. For being a TV movie, "Someone's Watching Me!" does stand out from others of the time period. Borrowing heavily from Hitchcock classics, Carpenter slowly builds the suspense and intrigue before the final confrontation ensues, making the most out of the theory that what one can't see is far more interesting than what is gratuitously featured on the screen. Although it has never received much attention, it's interesting to draw some parallels between the story, concept, and visuals in this film with those featured in the director's next immediate production, a little movie called
Halloween.
Halloween (1978) was a smash hit on release and helped give birth to the
slasher film genre. Originally an idea suggested by producer
Irwin Yablans (entitled
The Babysitter Murders), who envisioned a film about babysitters being menaced by a stalker, Carpenter took the idea and another suggestion from Yablans that it take place during Halloween and developed a story. Carpenter said of the basic concept: "Halloween night. It has never been the theme in a film. My idea was to do an old haunted house movie." The film was written by Carpenter and Debra Hill with Carpenter admitting that the film was inspired by both
Dario Argento's Suspiria and
William Friedkin's The Exorcist. Carpenter again worked with a relatively small budget of $325,000 and the film grossed over $65 million, making it one of the most successful independent films of all time.
Carpenter relied upon taut suspense rather than the excessive gore that would define later slasher films in order to make the menacing nature of the main character,
Michael Myers, more palpable. At times, Carpenter has described
Halloween in terms that appeared to directly contradict the more thoughtful, nuanced approach to horror that he actually used, such as: "True crass exploitation. I decided to make a film I would love to have seen as a kid, full of cheap tricks like a haunted house at a fair where you walk down the corridor and things jump out at you." The film has often been cited as an allegory on the virtue of sexual purity and the danger of casual sex, although Carpenter has explained that this was not his intent: "It has been suggested that I was making some kind of moral statement. Believe me, I'm not. In
Halloween, I viewed the characters as simply normal teenagers." Of the later slasher films that largely mimicked Carpenter's work on
Halloween, few have met with the same critical success.
In addition to the film's critical and commercial success, perhaps its strongest legacy is the film's original score by Carpenter, which remains one of the most recognizable film music themes of all time along with other notable scores such as
John Williams' Jaws.
In 1979, John Carpenter began what was to be the first of several collaborations with actor
Kurt Russell when he directed the TV movie
Elvis. The made-for-TV movie was a smash hit with viewers and critics and revived the career of Russell, who was a child actor in the 1960s.
