JOHN CARPENTER'S HALLOWEEN- PROFILES- JOHN CARPENTER

John Carpenter became known in the late 1970s for his expert handling of action and suspense sequences in masculine genre fare. But unlike some of his contemporaries, he used violence to provide a comic-book texture that advanced the plot rather than grounds for moral dilemmas or stylistic excess. In fact, his signature film, the horror classic "Halloween" (1978), has nary a drop of blood. Drawn to filmmaking by youthful viewings of relatively innocent entertainments like "It Came From Outer Space" (1953) and "Forbidden Planet" (1956), Carpenter has worked primarily in the horror, thriller and science fiction genres. He has been most comfortable and effective when working on modestly budgeted projects. While a graduate student at USC, Carpenter also produced, helmed and co-wrote with classmate Dan O'Bannon, the sci-fi black comedy "Dark Star", a memorable Master's thesis project which he expanded into his first feature--and a minor classic--in 1974. Shot on a budget of only $60,000, the film offered a witty yet quite bleak alternative to Stanley Kubrick's high-minded "2001: A Space Odyssey" in its vision of man in space overwhelmed by technology. British culture magazine TIME OUT proclaimed it "arguably the last great hippy movie with its jokey references to drugs, the Absurd and California surfing...." Described by its creator as "'Waiting for Godot' in space", "Dark Star" alerted genre fans of the arrival of a distinctive new sensibility that was smart, playful and technically assured. Sadly, relatively few had a chance to see the film. Though well received at the 1974 Filmex, "Dark Star" was mishandled by several different distributors. Its cult status was attained only after it became popular on the 16mm college circuit in the late 70s. With no directing offers forthcoming, Carpenter turned to writing screenplays--with some success. He sold "Eyes" to Columbia, "Blood River" to John Wayne's Batjac Productions and "Black Moon Rising" to producer Harry Gittes. "Eyes" metamorphosed into Irvin Kershner's "The Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978), starring Faye Dunaway; "Blood River" galloped onto the small screen as a 1991 CBS Western telefilm starring the unlikely trio of Rick Schroder, Wilford Brimley and Adrienne Barbeau; and "Black Moon Rising" became a forgettable 1986 caper film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Linda Hamilton. 5Carpenter enhanced his reputation with the remarkable exploitation flick "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976) which he directed and scripted and for which he composed the catchy minimalist score. "Assault" ingeniously mixed Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo", George A Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and film history references galore to create a deliciously stressful exercise in screen suspense. Though a failure at the box office, the film helped establish Carpenter with European cineastes fond of tough American auteurs. A last-minute addition to the London Film Festival in December 1977, the film garnered a huge audience response. London critics anointed Carpenter the major new "find" of the festival. Unfortunately, this critical success did not translate into directing offers, so Carpenter resumed screenwriting with "Escape" for 20th Century-Fox and "High Rise" and "Prey" for Warner Brothers. Of the three (as of 1996), only "High Rise" was subsequently produced (as the superior 1978 NBC telefilm "Someone's Watching Me!"). 5Producer Irwin Yablans--whose Turtle Releasing had distributed "Assault on Precinct 13" in the US--had attended the successful London screening. Then setting up a new production company, Compass International, he offered Carpenter a chance to direct a feature. The project would be a thriller based on a concept by Yablans called "The Babysitter Murders". The struggling writer-director thought the idea might prove commercial. Carpenter finally gained a firm foothold in the industry with the enormous success of the influential thriller "Halloween" (1978) which introduced Jamie Lee Curtis and helped to establish the grammar and thematic preoccupations of the modern "slasher" film. To the accompaniment of his most celebrated film score, Carpenter skillfully employed a gliding Steadicam that unexpectedly turned elegant tracking sequences into menacing point-of-view shots. Having more in common with a carnival funhouse than the charnel house air of many of its would-be imitators, the film tantalized with the possibility of cheap thrills on the periphery of each carefully composed widescreen frame. Produced by co-writer Debra Hill for $300,000, "Halloween" has reportedly grossed over $75 million worldwide, making it one of the most profitable films ever made. The success of "Halloween" launched a series of inferior sequels (directed by others), as well as Carpenter's entry into mainstream Hollywood production. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association hailed Carpenter with the 1979 New Generation Award for "Dark Star", "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Halloween". Carpenter began working in TV during the late 70s, starting with co-scripting the innocuous teen romance "Zuma Beach" (NBC, 1978). He strutted his stuff a few months later as writer-director of NBC's "Someone's Watching Me!", a dazzling suspenser starring Lauren Hutton as a career woman being preyed upon by an unseen voyeuristic neighbor. With a nod to Hitchcock's "Rear Window", Carpenter achieved his claustrophobic effects with subtle framing and deep focus compositions. He gained more attention and kudos with "Elvis" (ABC, 1979), a three-hour biopic starring Kurt Russell as the legendary rocker. A trimmed version was released theatrically overseas. Carpenter's overall approach rests firmly in the American tradition of genre filmmaking embodied by directors like John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks. His greatest skill is an uncluttered depiction of action in a way that almost transcends narrative constraints, such as the famous lengthy POV shot that opens "Halloween" or the astronaut's chase of a mischievous alien creature through the ship's elevator shaft in "Dark Star". His stylistic trademark is a driving pace, enforced by a powerful sense of montage and insistent music, often electronic compositions by the director. Carpenter favors two-fisted yet intelligent heroes and equally tough heroines. Once a leading contender to become modern Hollywood's version of the old genre master Hawks, Carpenter, since moving into bigger-budget productions, has found his stylistic strengths and modest thematic interests (e.g. issues of communication and isolation; questioning authority) being sometimes smothered by an excess of production values or poorly served by inadequate scripting. Even a relatively early and low-budget outing like "Escape From New York" (1981) soon dropped its intriguing premise to settle for the conventional heroics required by the plot. Similarly, in "The Thing" (the first film over which Carpenter did not have contractual control), Rob Bottin's impressive special effects stole the spotlight from an ostensibly humanist theme. "Christine" (1983) began as a promising exploration of America's automobile fetish and its relationship to male youth culture only to dissolve into a spectacle of the eponymous car's several physical metamorphoses and murderous rampages. "Starman" (1984) attempted to retell "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" as an adult love story. Neither Jeff Bridges' Oscar-nominated performance as an amorous alien nor his peculiar, but engaging, chemistry with leading lady Karen Allen was sufficient to overcome the sketchy and derivative screenplay (which Carpenter did not script). "Starman" served as a gentle reminder that characterization is not one of Carpenter's strengths as a filmmaker. 5"Big Trouble in Little China" (1986) was a lavish but uneven homage to supernatural Hong Kong actio n flicks. Memorable for Kurt Russell's broad spoof of John Wayne and for a deftly edited sequence, the film eventually succumbed to an overdose of special effects. The commercial and critical failure of this project sent Carpenter temporarily back to the world of low-budget filmmaking. "Prince of Darkness" (1987) was a likably goofy return to low-budget horror and a knowing tribute to the works of British fantasy screenwriter Nigel Kneale (best known for the "Quatermass" films). Absurd but compelling, the film told the story of Satan's return to Earth couched in the terminology of technological sci-fi. "They Live" (1988) presented professional wrestler Roddy Piper in an initially subversive consideration of the dark underpinnings of the "Reagan revolution" before degenerating into all-too-familiar fisticuffs and shoot-outs. Nonetheless, budget restrictions seemed to reawaken some quality that had been fading in Carpenter's filmmaking. Shorn of production bloat, his films had again become fairly dependable if unambitious fun. The $40 million "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" (1992) boasted state-of-the-art invisibility effects from Industrial Light and Magic but was undermined by poor casting--it was a Chevy Chase vehicle--and an indecisive tone. Carpenter briefly returned to the small screen as executive producer, segment director, composer and host of "John Carpenter Presents Body Bags" (Showtime, 1993), a horror anthology telefilm. Playing a ghoulish, pun-happy morgue attendant, Carpenter introduced three horrific stories, "Gas Station", "Hair" and "Eye". He helmed the first two while Tobe Hooper directed the third. The effort was generally deemed well-crafted but uninspired. "In the Mouth of Madness" (1995) was an enormously entertaining trifle about a skeptical insurance investigator (Sam Neill) pursuing a hugely successful horror writer whose books literally create a world of their own. The film benefited from a terrific cast that also included David Warner, Charlton Heston, Jurgen Prochnow and John Glover. The film's pleasures were undercut by an annoyingly obscure last third and a silly ending. Carpenter's remake of one of the beloved films of his youth, "Village of the Damned" (also 1995) opened to mixed reviews and tepid box office. The sequel that no one demanded, "John Carpenter's Escape From L.A." (1996) arrived 15 years after its predecessor on a wave of hype. Carpenter, Kurt Russell and Debra Hill collaborated on the screenplay and Hill produced. Though a stylized cipher, "Escape from New York"'s Snake Plissken may be the most memorable character in all of Carpenter's films. Russell was still convincing in black leather as the reluctant mercenary sent into a nightmarish futuristic Los Angeles where the terminally politically incorrect are consigned. Though budgeted at $50 million, the film was deemed "cheesy" and "crappy" by much of the press but these words were delivered with affection. The cast featured such exploitation icons as Peter Fonda, Bruce Campbell and Pam Grier and the film opened to healthy box office. By the mid-90s, John Carpenter was a hardy survivor of the vicissitudes of the movie business. One of the few young genre auteurs of the 70s to continue to work in genre fare (unlike David Cronenberg)--and work regularly (unlike George Romero and Tobe Hooper), he has remained busy producing, helming and penning works for film and TV. But, he has had difficulty rediscovering and packaging his strengths in a modern commercial cinema that encourages the presentation of action as overblown visual spectacle. A consummate craftsman, Carpenter delivers solid entertainments that always boast at least a few outstanding sequences. Unfortunately, while his career has continued, there is little evidence of artistic growth. Carpenter's name figures prominently in advertising as a "brand-name" assurance of a certain level of quality, but he has clearly failed to live up to the promise of his early work.