The John Carpenter Page
I doubt there are few people in this world that could honestly say they've never seen a John Carpenter film.  Over the years he has covered, and invented, may of the present movie genres.  From classic horrors, sci-fi, modern day westerns and even tales of Elvis, Carpenter has done them all, and most importantly he does it well, VERY well.  He manges to combine genres together very succesfully, for example, bringing comedy into any genre (i.e. Assault on Precinct 13 - Napoleon Wilson asking every 5 minutes for a cigarette) and bringing some depth to love stories (Starman).  One of the things i personally like about John Carpenter is his level of involvement in his films not only does he direct, he produces, writes, edits and composes, he's just such a talented man.
There are trademark features that run through Carpenters films.  The main one is his endings, the film will be very witty and quite fast paced (its hard to get bored in a Carpenter movie) but the endings are often very downbeat and give very little closure on the situation.  For example, at the end of 'Halloween' the killer is still on the loose and 'The Thing' has a very ambiguos ending leaving us withe the possibilty that one of the survivors could still be an alien (an extended ending was filmed with MacReady making it back to civilisation and being given a clean bill of health, but it was agreed that the film lost too much with that as an ending).
Unfortunateley i haven't seen all his films, yet (i'm working on it slowly but surely)!  But never the less i have seen a fair few and the aim of this page is to give a quick look at the films i have seen of Carpenters, a quick bio and a list of all his films.  So here we go.
John Carpenter Stats and Facts
Stats
Name:  John Howard Carpenter
D.O.B:  January 16th 1948 in Carthage, New York, but was raised in Kentucky
Height:  6 foot
Education:  Attended Western Kentucky University, but manged to get a place at the University of Southern California so went there instead.  USC is very well known for it film courses and directors such as Roman Polanski, Howard Hawks (one of Carpenters main influences) and Alferd Hitchcock gave talks
Facts
Carpenters master's thesis was 'Dark Star', which was orignally less than a hour and used friends for actors and scavenged rubish for scenery.  But extra stuff was added to bring it over an hour long and the film was put out on general release.  The film was shot for less than $60,000 but made huge profits competeing with larger budget films of the time (not bad for a university project).
Carpenter considers it back luck to wear a crew cap of the film he's working on and subsequently won't wear one until filming is over.
Can fly a helicopter
Often uses pseudonyms in the credits for himself: Johnny Carpenter, John/James T Chance, Martin Quatermass, Rip Haight and Frank Armitage
Halloween (1978), my favourite Carpenter movie this is just simply a classic, pure genius & you've gotta love the theme tune.  Click on the pic to go to a whole page about the film.
The Fog (1979), a town celebrates it's centenary, but a mysterious fog engulfs the town and something is in it.  A local DJ (played by Adrienne Barbeau who was married to Carpenter until 1984) and various others start to uncover the towns sorbid past in an attempt to try and stop the fog and save the town.  The use of the fog in this film is brilliant, dur to the whole 'it scares you cos you can't see it' sorta thing.  Carpenter even puts in an appeareance as Bennett the church assistant.
They Live (1988), this film is very wierd in a good way.  Its highly watchable and very amusing, you'll be quoting the bubblegum bit for weeks afterwards.  Basically, Alien have landed on Earth and are walking amongst us, but we can't see them, unless you wear these special sunglasses.  When Nada gets hold of a pair well thats when the fun beings.  This film has a brilliant ending thats just pure Carpenter.
The Thing (1982), this is a redo in a way of 'The Thing from Another World'.  An American antartic research team is shaken up when a Norweigen helicopter crosses their path while chasing a dog (their trying to kill it).  It turns out the dog is really an extra-terrestrial carnivorous xenomorph that was accidentally thrawed out by a research team.
Theres plenty of gore in this film (gotta love the CPR chest bit) and brilliant SFX.  Plus the tension that Carpenter creates in the film is seriously nail biting (i.e. when MacReady is testing whos an alien and whos not).
Escape From New York (1981),.Snake Plisskin, the ultimate anti-hero, you just can't help but love the guy.  He's been convicted and sent to New York, which is now a HUGE prison.  But is offered freedom if he rescues the president, whos trapped in New York and being held by the Duke (big gang leader).  This is just a brilliant movie, one of Carpernters best, with some intersting messages in it.
Assault On Precinct 13 (1976), I personnally adore this film.  When you look back on it you realise that very little happened (compared to the usual high content level of films) yet you were absolutely captivated.  The film is basically a modern day western, where an gang make an asssult on the local police precinct, which is being closed down and only occupied by a police officer, 2 secretaries and a group of cons.  Not to add to their plight but their also running out of ammo.
The Others:

Dark Star (1974)               Someone's Watching Me (1978)
Elvis (1979)                      Christine (1983)
Starman (1984)                  Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
Prince Of Darkness (1987)  Body Bags (1993)              
John Carpenters Vampires (1998) Ghosts Of Mars (2001)
Wrote the screenplay and/or produced:  Halloween 2 & 3, The Eyes Of Laura Mars (1978), The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), Black Moon Rising (1985)
To go to the another page with more Carpenter movies on click on the button to the right, to go back to the home page click on the arrow to the left and click on the picture of Carpenter above (and to the right abit) to go to an unofficial fan page about Carpenter.
Hoorah!  John Carpenter appeared in 'directors with beards' in Total Film (July, issue 54)