Artists

John Carpenter attended the USC School of Cinema in Los Angeles, where he began work on Dark Star, a science fiction comedy short that was later expanded into a feature length film and released theatrically in 1975. His second feature, Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), was partially an homage to his idol Howard Hawks, a reimagining of Rio Bravo in an urban setting.  Carpenter’s breakthrough film was Halloween (1978), the seminal horror film which to date has spawned several sequels. Other works include The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Starman (1984), and Big Trouble in Little China (1986), many of which he also scripted and scored. To retain a greater degree of control, Carpenter returned to making independent films in the late 80s with Prince of Darkness (1987), They Live (1988), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), and Vampires (1996). Carpenter also directed such TV movies as Someone’s Watching Me (1978) and Elvis (1979), as well as two episodes of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series and the trilogy Body Bags (1993), also for Showtime.