I’ve got another couple of titles to add to my quickly expanding list of the John Carpenter films I’ve seen recently. This Sunday afternoon, for instance, I watched his and Debra Hill’s movie, The Fog, a wonderfully atmospheric (if I may be so bold to use such a descriptive) ghost story set on the California coastline. Soon after John Houseman tells a spooky midnight tale to a group of kids around a campfire a glowing fog rolls in, bringing back the rotting carcasses of 100-year old leper sailors who, in search of their stolen treasure, terrorize the denizens of Antonio Bay. I dare not forget to mention that Carpenter’s chilling electronic musical score -- with its crystalline sirens, ticking clocks, piercing piano sequences, and rumbling base earthquakes -- contrasts eerily with the soothing Swing Era/big band music playing through all of the cursed town’s radios.

And last weekend, on Friday night of the 20th, I went with a couple of the Kitch ‘n Bitchers to see The Thing as part of the Carolina Theater’s Retrofansma series. And, like The Fog the scariest scenes in this one were those in which nothing happend. A friend aptly points to Carpenter’s ability to create mood and suspense (loosely paraphrased) as follows: “Those long sequences where the dog is running on the snow, navigating the interior of the Artic-based research station, and entering the husky kennel are intensely creepy. You KNOW there’s something wrong with the canine – you just don’t know WHEN all the scariness is going to pop!”

The Thing and The Fog bring my count up to 6 Carpenter movies seen in the last 6 months. Prior to these, the Kitch ‘n Bitch group screened (in this order)Big Trouble in Little China, They Live!, Escape from New York, and Assault on Precinct 13. Long ago I saw Starman, but other than some vague mental detritus (Jeff Bridges, I think, was the lead actor?) there’s not much I remember about this one.

The following is a John Carpenter filmography stolen from the Internet Movie Database. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are flims I’ve seen. Looks like I’ve still got a number to check off.

John Carpenter Filmography:

Dark Star (1974)
*Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Halloween (1978)
Someone’s Watching Me (1978, tv)
Elvis (1979, TV)
*The Fog (1980)
*Escape from New York (1981)
*The Thing (1982)
Christine (1983)
*Starman (1984)
*Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Prince of Darkness (1987)
*The Live! (1988)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992)
Body Bags (1993, TV)
In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
Village of the Damned (1995)
Escape from L.A. (1996)
Vampires (1998)
Ghosts of Mars (2001)

And this is a biography taken directly from The Official John Carpenter Website:

Born in Carthage, New York, and raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Carpenter was captivated by movies, especially Westerns, as a youngster. The son of a college music professor, he attended Western Kentucky University, then enrolled in the University of Southern California's School of Cinema.

After winning an Academy Award for his 1970 short subject, THE RESURRECTION OF BRONCO BILLY (completed while a film student at USC), Carpenter directed a series of low-budget, highly-commercial and critically-acclaimed movies, including DARK STAR, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and HALLOWEEN, which earned over $75 million worldwide on a budget of just $300,000, still the highest percentage earning per dollar spent.

Following HALLOWEEN, he established his reputation further with such genre hits as THE FOG, THEY LIVE, PRINCE OF DARKNESS and CHRISTINE. His rank as an action director on a wider scale is also evident in such productions as ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, THE THING and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.

His motion picture credits also include the comedy-thriller, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, the psychological horror film IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, the sci-fi love story, STARMAN, which earned Jeff Bridges a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED, the terrifying remake of the classic 1950s horror story. For the small screen, Carpenter directed the thriller SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME, the acclaimed biographical mini-series, ELVIS and the Showtime horror trilogy JOHN CARPENTER PRESENTS BODY BAGS.

As a screenwriter, Carpenter's first Hollywood credit was EYES OF LAURA MARS. He has also written original screenplays for HALLOWEEN II, THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT, BLACK MOON RISING, MELTDOWN and the TV western, EL DIABLO, winning a CableAce Award for Best Screenplay. He co-authored the screenplay of JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES with Dan Jakoby and Dan Mazar from the novel by John Stenkly, Vampire$.