John Carpenter's Filmography (2020): Masters of Terror

By Steve Hutchison

This book contains the synopses and reviews of the darkest films in John Carpenter's filmography. The movies are ranked.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Hutchison
• Release date: Mar 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781778871573

Steve Hutchison

Artist, developer and entrepreneur in film, video games and communications Steve Hutchison co-founded Shade.ca Art and Code in 1999, then Terror.ca and its French equivalent Terreur.ca in 2000. With his background as an artist and integrator, Steve worked on such games as Capcom's Street Fighter, PopCap's Bejeweled, Tetris, Bandai/Namco's Pac-Man and Mattel's Skip-Bo & Phase 10 as a localization manager, 2-D artist and usability expert. Having acquired skills in gamification, he invented a unique horror movie review system that is filterable, searchable and sortable by moods, genres, subgenres and antagonists. Horror movie fans love it, and so do horror authors and filmmakers, as it is a great source of inspiration. In March 2013, Steve launched Tales of Terror, with the same goals in mind but with a much finer technology and a complex engine, something that wasn’t possible initially. He has since published countless horror-themed books.

Book preview

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Tales of Terror’s

Masters of Terror 2020

John Carpenter’s Filmography

INTRODUCTION

This book contains the synopses and reviews of the darkest films in John Carpenter’s filmography. The listings are ranked from best to worst.

#1

The Thing

1982

In Antarctica, a group of scientists comes in contact with a hostile alien parasite that lurks inside their camp.

Stars

8/8

STORY

6/8

CREATIVITY

8/8

ACTING

7/8

QUALITY

8/8

This is a remake of the movie The Thing from Another World, a 1951 John W. Campbell story adaptation. The actors are all male and all geared up to face the worst conditions; more specifically, here, an upcoming battle against a powerful being that wraps itself in mystery. The Thing can hardly be summarized with words and doesn’t communicate the way we do.

The Thing establishes suspense like few horror films do; by laying down the facts, raising questions that may never find answers, then offering you so much more than the many outcomes you could possibly imagine. It uses perfectly paced sequences leading to unexpected jump scares. The animatronics are one of the kind and among the best and scariest ever seen in the genre.

The lighting is always just right; not revealing too much or too little. The thick ambiance is reinforced by an ongoing storm that