Feature

Ranked: John Carpenter Films

Frame Rated staff chose their 10 favourites from ‘The Master of Horror’.

You don’t earn a nickname like ‘The Master of Horror’ without chalking up many successes in that genre. John Carpenter was synonymous with scary movies and thrillers back in the 1970s and 1980s, with an excellent run of consecutive beginning with Halloween (1978). Not every movie was critically acclaimed — The Thing (1982) was notoriously panned and flopped at the box office before being reappraised as a classic years later-but there was a tone and style to Carpenter’s work that stood out from the crowd.

His career faltered in the 1990s and never recovered as cinema moved into the digital age, but the ’80s was a noteworthy period for the horror genre, and when a film title had John Carpenter’s as a possessive before it… you knew you were in for something fun. And sometimes an unequivocal masterpiece.

To celebrate John Carpenter’s work, ahead of the release of Halloween Kills (the second modern-day sequel to his original slasher film), the writers of Frame Rated ranked his entire filmography and created a team-approved Top 10. And there are some interesting wrinkles here and there, so it’s certainly worth a read. But if you disagree with us, or just want to add your own ranking, be sure…