John Carpenter first exploded onto the horror scene in 1978 with the seminal slasher flick Halloween. He directed the movie for very little money with a small cast and crew and the final result became nothing less than horror movie history. John Carpenter’s Halloween was at one time the most profitable independent movie ever made and inspired films and filmmakers for generations to come.
Since then, Carpenter has gone on to a roller-coaster ride of triumphs and failures throughout a 30 year career which has brought us such classics as The Fog, The Thing, Carrie, and In The Mouth of Madness. After years of feeling stifled and held back by studio executives, Carpenter walked away from Hollywood in 2001. He returned briefly for the television series Masters of Horror on Showtime and directed John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns which was voted best horror of 2005 by Mutantville.com.
Away from the cinema since his 2001 release of Ghosts of Mars, Carpenter, like his predecessor George A. Romero, has finally returned to his indie roots by going his own way and making his latest horror film, The Ward. The Ward tells the story of Kristen (played by Amber Heard) who is confined to a mental institution after allegedly setting a house aflame – only to discover that the vengeful ghost of a former patient is killing off the residents one by one.
In discussing his decision to return to filmmaking with The Ward, in a recent interview with Empire Online, Carpenter states “This was the first one that came along that had a small cast, a small budget and a reasonable shooting time in a simplified physical space. In other words, it all took place in one area [and] that was just right for me. That was what I was looking for.”
You can read the rest of Empire’s interview with John Carpenter by clicking this link. Be sure to join the Mutantville Players as we set off on the road to meet John Carpenter at the Fright Night Film Fest in Kentucky this summer! Our first stop on the way to Fright Night – the Nevermore Fundraiser at Retrofantasma tomorrow night. They’re playing a double feature of John Carpenter’s The Thing and James Cameron’s Aliens in 35mm! See you there.
