There is only one man worthy of being called the Horror Master, and that man is John Carpenter. For horror fans, he needs no introduction, as he’s behind some of the most beloved films in the genre’s history, including Halloween and The Thing. But one doesn’t become a master by making two films, and Carpenter’s impact on horror extends far beyond those titles. That’s well worth honoring.
The folks behind the Hollywood Walk of Fame agree, and Carpenter was recently named as part of the 2025 class who will be getting a star alongside Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund. To say that the filmmaker is deserving of this honor would be an embarrassing understatement and it’s probably something that should have happened a long time ago. It’s also a better late than never situation, to be certain. So, what makes Carpenter the Horror Master? Why is he getting that star on the Walk of Fame? Let’s dive into the legend’s history.
Carpenter got his start at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema, where he developed what became his feature directorial debut, Dark Star, which was released in 1974. But it was after his sophomore effort, Assault on Precinct 13 in 1976 that the filmmaker would release his defining masterpiece upon the world in the form of 1978’s Halloween. This is the film that helped define the slasher genre for the masses, with Michael Myers, aka The Shape, at the center of it all.
While Carpenter only directed the first entry in the series, Halloween has become a shockingly enduring enterprise, with the most recent trilogy producing a trio of blockbuster hits. Now, Miramax is even working on a TV series because, apparently, evil never dies, it just changes. In conjunction with Deborah Hill, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle and the other key players, Carpenter birthed one of cinema’s most enduring franchises. If he did nothing else, he’d have earned his place in the annals of cinema history.
But the filmmaker pressed right on, helming the TV movie Someone’s Watching Me! before making his first of many collaborations with Kurt Russell in the form of Elvis. Then, in 1980, Carpenter returned to big-screen horror with his ghost story classic The Fog, which also resulted in his first interview with FANGORIA, gracing issue #5 of the magazine’s original run. It was the beginning of a long relationship between Carpenter and Fango.
The Fog kicked off arguably one of the best runs by any director ever, as Carpenter then made Escape from New York and The Thing back-to-back. While the creature feature wasn’t a hit in its day, The Thing has since become embraced as one of the finest films the genre has ever produced. Both films reunited the director with Russell, who would later star in Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from L.A. It is arguably one of the best director/actor combos in history, right up there with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.
The Carpenter hot streak stayed alive with his Stephen King adaptation of Christine in 1983, which placed him on the cover of FANGORIA #32. The filmmaker finished the ’80s strong with Starman, Prince of Darkness and the unbridled classic They Live, which remains one of the most biting, ever-relevant bits of political commentary the genre has ever produced. Once again, Carpenter found himself in the pages of Fango in issue #78 with his 1988 sci-fi flick.
The ’90s were a bit of a mixed bag for the filmmaker. Carpenter didn’t score any hits as big as he had in the ’80s, making films like Memoirs of the Invisible Man, Village of the Damned and Vampires during this period. Though he did produce perhaps his most cherished cult favorite in 1994 in the form of In the Mouth of Madness, which graced the cover of FANGORIA #136. Starring Sam Neill, coming fresh off of Jurassic Park, the supernatural head trip has been widely embraced as one of Carpenter’s masterpieces in the decades since its initial release.
Carpenter only directed two films after the turn of the millennium: 2001’s Ghost of Mars and his final film, 2010’s The Ward. In the years since, the Horror Master has turned his attention elsewhere. He has directed several music videos and even some TV shows, such as Masters of Horror and Suburban Screams. Carpenter is an avid gamer and a very talented musician, releasing several albums, including the Lost Themes series.
Speaking of music, it has been a huge part of Carpenter’s career from the beginning. In addition to stepping behind the camera, he has provided the core to many of his classic films, including Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York and They Live, among others. He even returned to work on the soundtracks for 2018’s Halloween and its sequels, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. The Halloween theme alone would ensure that Carpenter’s name lived on for ages. Perhaps even more than his contributions to cinema as a director, his work as a composer is truly noteworthy.
As for the future, Carpenter has been far more focused on video games and music these days, composing the soundtrack for 2022’s Firestarter and the upcoming A24 film Death of a Unicorn. Carpenter has also gone on several tours to play his original music for sold-out crowds all over the world. Nothing has been set in stone, but Carpenter has teased that he would be willing to direct another movie under the right conditions. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen, but that’s certainly something that the horror community would welcome with open arms.
A date has not been set for Carpenter’s Walk of Fame ceremony, but it is expected to happen sometime in 2025. For more, be sure to check out what happened when Fango asked the internet to name their three favorite John Carpenter movies.
