DARK STAR (1974)

Considering the look of the film, it is amazing to discover that the total cost was only $60,000. Made as a 16mm film while he was a student at U.S.C., DARK STAR is a witty fable of a spaceship, the DARK STAR, its disgruntled and argumentative crew and a talking bomb that develops phenomenological tendencies. The 16mm footage was later blown-up to 35 mm and, with the aid of financing, completed as an 85 minute feature. It was premiered in 1974 at Filmex, the Los Angeles Film Exhibition, where it was well received but, through poor distribution, passed into almost complete obscurity. It has only been through the success of later films that DARK STAR has achieved the cult success it deserves. Carpenter's music consisted of moody synthesized chord changes but were immensely effective in conveying the other-worldly feel of the film.

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)

In America, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 suffered the same fate as DARK STAR - it failed miserably at the box-office. It was at the 1977 London Film Festival that a reversal of fortune took place. The audience response was ecstatic the critics heaped praise on it and the UK distributor made it into a success.

This gritty, violent thriller was Carpenter's urban reworking of Howard Hawks' RIO BRAVO and is, in almost every sense, a western. The music is more thematic than that of DARK STAR and the main title is one of Carpenter's best themes.

 HALLOWEEN (1978)

It was the global success of HALLOWEEN that really pushed Carpenter forward as a film-maker to be watched. From a negative cost of $320,000, the film had already grossed $40 million within two years.

The unstoppable figure of Michael Myers and the gutsy teenage heroine soon became cliched characters in a succession of sequels and imitations but the original film has rarely been surpassed in terms of its ability to scare audiences.

THE FOG (1980)

Sticking with the supernatural, Carpenter created another brooding menace in the amorphous shape of a fog which contains the murderous ghosts of long-dead sailors. They terrorise a coastal community that has thrived on their misfortune for a hundred years. As with HALLOWEEN, Carpenter showed an unerring ability to score his films with the maximum of atmosphere.

 ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)

The scale of Carpenter's films increased with this taut, futuristic thriller starring Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasance and Lee Van Cleef. Treating Manhattan Island as a vast open prison allowed Carpenter great scope for action sequences within the story of the American President's plane crash landing in the middle of it and the frenzied attempt to rescue him.

The music score was more complex than previous efforts and the end result, performed with synthesizer expert Alan Howarth, became a popular part of the film's success.

THE THING (1982)

Even when he was making THE FOG, Carpenter has expressed his desire to re-make the Howard Hawks classic from 1951.

With major financing behind him, he was able to get the best make-up special effects available and created a tour-de-force show of nasty, disgusting and utterly brilliant transformation sequences. This time, the music for this horror/science-fiction spectacular was provided by a composer for whom Carpenter had always expressed great admiration, Ennio Morricone. His pulsating, rhythmic score acted as an ominous heartbeat to the film.

CHRISTINE (1983)

Another major figure in the horror field at this time was, and still is Stephen King. Hollywood has tried several times to make films from his books and has met with varying degrees of success. One of the better attempts was CHRISTINE, the story of a blood-red '58 Plymouth Fury with a mind (and heart) of its own that gradually takes over its owner. Here, Carpenter provided the background score but better use was made of a soundtrack of '50's rock 'n' roll, chief amongst which was George Thorogood's 'Bad To The Bone'.

 STARMAN (1985)

After the relentless terrors of his previous films, STARMAN came as something of a surprise dealing with an alien being stranded on earth, taking the shape of recently-deceased Jeff Bridges and travelling across America with his widow, Karen Allen. The film details their journey together while the authorities scour the countryside for them and their journey to the alien's last rendezvous point so that he can be collected is fraught with dangers. Bridges' performance as the slightly comic yet sympathetic alien won him an Oscar nomination and the film was so successful that it spawned a TV series.

The music, Jack Nitzsche came up with a memorable theme that underlined the tragic and romantic aspects of the story.

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986)

Staying within the fantasy field but moving in a totally different direction, Carpenter paid homage to the Chinese action-packed ghost stories which are so popular. In a frenzy of action, Carpenter fills the screen with knockabout fun and outrageous special effects and embroils his hero, Kurt Russell in all manner of weird situations. Musically, Carpenter was back in the driving seat and even provided a title song performed by The Coup De Villes, a group made up of himself and fellow directors Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace.

 PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)

PRINCE OF DARKNESS saw a return to a more serious kind of storytelling dealing with scientists battling against satanic forces beyond their control.

In a sense, the film looked back to the earlier days of HALLOWEEN to such an extent that, unlike his recent films, it was independently financed and distributed, an area where Carpenter feels that he has more creative control.

Similarly, the music is effective in evoking a spooky HALLOWEENish atmosphere.

 THEY LIVE (1988)