The Spooky Brilliance Of John Carpenter

If you enjoy movies, especially horror movies, you probably are acquainted with the name of John Carpenter. He’s the mastermind behind iconic cult pieces from horror cinema like ‘Halloween’ (1978), ‘The Fog’ (1980), ‘Christine’ (1983), ‘Village of the Damned’ (1995), ‘Vampires’ (1998) and many more. Carpenter is mostly known as a director and as a writer, but he’s also credited as a composer in many of his films, which makes him responsible for having a 360 approach as a creator, crafting the vibe of each film by himself. Amongst his most loved soundtracks, those who inspired him back in the day, John lists the following:

Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) – Music by Ennio Morricone.
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) – Music by The Barrons.
The Thing from Another World (Christian Nyby, Howard Hawks, 1951) – Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977) – Music by Tangerine Dream
Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) – Music by Goblin
The Quatermass Xperiment (Val Guest, 1955) – Music by James Bernard

"Making music is much more fun than directing movies"

His most celebrated and remembered music composition has to be the original score and opening theme for ‘Halloween’ (1978) starring Jamie Lee Curtis, a must for spooky season marathons. The story of how this legendary tune came to be, is actually refreshing and it shows how random inspiration can come around: “My father bought me a pair of bongos for Christmas when I was 13 and he taught me five-four time, “pop pop pop.” So I thought that was clever. I sat down with the piano just one in “dun-dun-dun” and played octaves—that’s where it came about. I showed the movie to an executive without music, which is a big mistake. Don’t ever show a movie to anybody unless it’s completely done. And the executive said that’s not scary and I’m not scared by anything like that. And then you know the movie came out and it was with the music, it got scarier”. He’s been a pivotal key in the success of this horror franchise, which has accompanied him throughout his career – he’s even credited as a composer in the latest installment of the series, ‘Halloween Ends’ (2022). After a 20-year run as a director in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Carpenter (now in his 70s) doesn’t really direct movies anymore but has shifted his focus into developing his skills as a musician.

When asked about his process as a composer for PBS, Carpenter said: “Most of them are improvised on a synthesizer, primarily using a synthesizer. My musical career as a movie composer began in film school. In film school you have no money so you don’t have money for a composer or an orchestra. So you have to find a way to make music that sounds big or sounds big enough for your movie, and the way to do it is with a synthesizer. Because with a number of tracks in using a synth you can build up a sound that sounds like orchestra or like Switched-On Bach or you can sound like a scary movie or it’s like an action film. All sorts of things. So that’s where I began. And my first score was “Dark Star,” which I can’t even tell you what kind of synthesizer I use but it was really primitive, and then “Assault On Precinct 13” and “Halloween” and then I just began one after another doing the scores to my movies.

The technology and synthesizers got better over the years. But basically it’s a keyboard and you can call up various sounds. I mean you can do it now on a computer by just punching in a program or in the old days in the tube synthesizer days they had to tune the synth, saw-tooth or whatever sound they wanted. So I of course know nothing about that so I had to get somebody to do it for me. And that’s where all my associations and working with other people came and they were they had to work the machines. I couldn’t. All I could do was sit down at a keyboard, say make it sound like a deep bass sound, they would, and I’d play and that was it. And in the beginning I would just play the music and then cut it in in various places. But as time went on, I began to play to the image to the movie, which is great.”

With credits as a composer in 42 films, Carpenter is now a full-on musician, leaving the director chair for others to sit on. This new found joy is thanks to a partnership with his son, Cody Carpenter, and godson, Daniel Davies, making it all a family affair. For John, working with his family has been a meaningful experience: “It is the greatest. We went on tour together. It was amazing. And who gets to do that? I was very lucky. I’ve been a lucky man all my life. I got to live out my dreams”. So, we shouldn’t expect a new horror film by one of the most celebrated names in the modern horror genre, but we can expect more music from him: “Making music is much more fun than directing movies. Because making music is nowhere near as stressful!”.

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