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May 22, 2023

Every John Carpenter Movie, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes Score

John Carpenter, also clocked as "The Master of Horror," is an industry giant.

John Carpenter, also clocked as "The Master of Horror," is an industry giant. Here's how his films rank by Rotten Tomatoes scores.

John Carpenter has been one of horror's masterminds since the release of the all-time classic Halloween. However, Carpenter's filmography stretches beyond the depths of horror and also focuses heavily on composition. The filmmaker's legacy is built heavily on the music that he scored in his films, the most noteworthy of Carpenter's scores being Halloween. According to Far Out Magazine, the theme to The Exorcist and an Italian rock band named Goblin served as the inspiration for one of the most suspenseful scores in horror.

Carpenter's films, both horror and science fiction, generally take on heavy political commentary that isn't specifically centric to the time that they were released. They Live is a perfect example of the commentary on consumerism in America. The wasteland city projected on the film serves as a pivotal point in the story, making the plot almost timeless. Despite his semi-retirement as a director, Carpenter is still actively scoring films and was involved in David Gordon Green's Halloween Trilogy. As we await his next venture, let's see how his movies ranked, according to Rotten Tomatoes score.

Ghosts of Mars is easily one of Carpenter's more underwhelming films. With a budget of $28 million, the film only earned back half in box office earnings, and is often remembered with more camp than true science fiction. The Red Planet has been inhabited by human settlers for quite some time and serves as a hiatus from Earth. However, when a mining operation unlocks a civilization of alien warriors, the "invaders" begin to takeover human bodies.

Related: 13 Movies John Carpenter Almost Directed

Village of the Damned initially came out in 1960 and was written by science-fiction author John Wyndham. Despite the original's glowing score on Rotten Tomatoes, Carpenter's 1995 remake doesn't exactly boast the same appreciation in terms of Tomatometer score. However, as a standalone entity, the film has somewhat of a cult following. Whichever version you prefer, the premise overall is inherently unsettling, and the childern are amongst the creepiest in horror.

When Kristen (played by Amber Heard) is admitted into a psychiatric unit, an angry spirit of a former patient torments her and others. The Ward was released in 2010, and the film's overall tone follows that of the many others released during that time. Similar to movies like Mirrors and The Uninvited, The Ward's approach is a witty attempt that can't withstand the tests of time and when pitted up against some of the best horror films of the 2010s, it falls short by comparison.

Despite where Rotten Tomatoes ranks Carpenter's take on a vampire film, 1998's Vampires ranks number three on the list of goriest vampire movies. The film was adapted from a novel by the same name, and blends the genres of both horror and action. Carpenter's Vampires stands out from the rest due to its ability to possess different powers. Overall, the film's main character is play on the infamous Van Helsing who is a notorious vampire slayer.

Carpenter's political films stretch beyond his horror plots. 1996's Escape from L.A. time-jumps to 2013, where America is staunchly divided, and Los Angeles is now an island in which non-conformers get exiled. When the daughter of the United States president flees to L.A. to lead the rebel regime, Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) must go on a mission to retrieve her. Escape from L.A. is the follow-up to Carpenter's 1981 film Escape from New York, and is one of the many collaborations between Russell and Carpenter.

In the Mouth of Madness is a horror-fantasy film featuring Sam Neill as John Trent, an insurance investigator following-up on a missing horror novelist's apparent bogus claim. However, once Trent starts reading Sutter Cane's (played by Jurgen Prochnow) novels, he begins to have nightmares, which lead his investigation to a town in New Hampshire. According to Cinephilia & Beyond, In the Mouth of Madness is Carpenter's love letter to H.P. Lovecraft and Cosmic Horror. Lovecraftian horror, also known as Cosmic Horror, is a subgenre that focuses on existential dread and dangerous knowledge. All of which are themes that John Trent would come to know all too well.

Prince of Darkness plays out like an adult Goosebumps plot, only darker. Donald Pleasence, most notably recognized for his work as Doctor Lumis in Halloween, plays a priest who finds himself way in over his head when pit against Satan himself. After he and some grad students pine around in the basement of a church, the group unearth a vile filled with slime that soon begins to infect the students one by one. However, when Kelly (played by Susan Blanchard) is infected with a larger quantity of the slime, she becomes Satan in incarnate.

1993's Body Bags saw the directorial team up of horror aficionados, John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper. Both carry very different styles in both filmmaking and storytelling, but managed to effectively partake in a fun horror anthology. Body Bags tells three different tales, all introduced by Carpenter himself playing the coroner. The film was meant to be a television series, but was quickly rebranded as a film. Body Bags is one of the many films seeing a resurgence thanks to horror DVD distributor Scream Factory, who re-releases obscure films with new cover art.

Stephen King's story about an evil car was brought to life by Carpenter in 1983. Both the novel and the film follow Arnie (played by Keith Gordon), a teen who is bullied by his peers. However, when Arnie buys a 1958 Plymouth Fury he sees for sale on the side of the road, his life begins to change. Arnie becomes possessive over the car, as the car does with him. Christine may not be one of the scariest possession films ever made, but certainly serves as a must-watch for any Stephen King fan.

The screenplay for The Fog was penned by Carpenter and Debra Hill. The film stars some of the greatest horror actors of all time, and is a beloved classic among horror fans. After some strange occurences in a costal California town, an ominous fog slowly begins to seep into the air. From the fog, immerges the stuff of nightmares and for these residents, the only way out is death. Carpenter directed, acted in, and wrote The Fog alongside many familiar faces of his Halloween Franchise.

Related: Why The Thing Is John Carpenter's Most Important Movie, Not Halloween

Dark Star is Carpenter's attempt to parody 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film's superior 2001: A Space Odyssey takes on a more serious tone, especially with director Stanley Kubrick at the helm. While Kubrick's man versus machine face-off ends with a grimace rather than a grin, Carpenter's Dark Star isn't afraid to cast a smile. The lightness in the plot's overall tone seem to suggest that Carpenter's gripes are less with machines and more with the system.

Although a 74% is rather high on Rotten Tomatoes, Big Trouble in Little China's score doesn't perfectly reflect the appreciation film buffs have for this movie. The film's release saw an unimpressive box office return, but in its defense it was up against some pretty big titles. Fast-forward over 30 years later, and the film has become a cult classic, cementing itself as a major pop culture influence. Big Trouble in Little China is a prime example of films that were much more successful after their intial release.

John Carpenter's The Thing is one of three movies total that have been inspired by both John W. Campbell's novella, Who Goes There and H.P. Lovecraft's The Thing from Another World. Carpenter pulled heavily from Lovecraft's work for the 1982 adaptation, but it's the director himself who creates viewer paranoia. The film has long been regarded has a horror classic, and has an ending that is still questioned to this very day.

Starman is without a doubt one of the most successful sci-fi romances ever made. When an alien (Jeff Bridges) responds to a correspondence attempt from planet Earth, his ship is suddenly gunned down, and he is forced to presume the identity of a human. However, the identity he borrows belongs to a widow's husband and "Starman" kidnaps her to find his crashed ship. Somewhere along the line, the two fall in love and formulate a bond that spans beyond galaxies.

They Live is one of Carpenter's most politically charged films. So much so, there are literal billboard signs scattered in various point in the film to comment on American consumerism in the Reagan Era. Carpenter's They Live isn't the only film to comment on the time period that spanned from 1981 through 1989. Spielberg's Poltergiest sprinkles in hidden gems that note the film's occurrences and how the era impacted the events. Once the core rebels see the world for what it truly is through a pair of enlightening sunglasses, the quest to wake up the rest of the country begins. Carpenter's They Live questions the very ideology and capitalist structure that very much so still exists today.

Escape from New York time-jumps to 1997, where a war between America and Russia has finally come to an end and New York serves as a prison. When the President of the United States is taken captive by the violent inhabitants of the compound, Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) must risk his life in order to rescue him. The rights for Escape from New York were bought by New Line Cinema, and Radio Silence confirmed that the new film in the series would be a sequel rather than a remake.

Boasting an incredible 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, John Carpenter's Halloween remains one of the greatest horror classics of all time. According to Screen Rant, the film's success was due to the season in which it takes place, and having the story take place on Halloween night made it all the more alluring. Despite the sequels, requels, reboots, and more, Halloween's legacy lives on due to the infamous Michael Myers as well as its iconic score penned by Carpenter himself.

Carpenter's first film Dark Star may have put him on the map, but it would be the film he made nearly two years after that kept him on the map as a genre bending director. Assault on Precinct 13 borders the likes of a modern day western that meets a violent street gang. A remake was released in 2005, but gained otherwise lackluster reviews. 1976's Assault on Precinct 13 is both highly regarded on critics and audiences alike, and has understatedly withstood the test of time.

Freelance writer for MovieWeb. Overly obsessed Blockbuster Enthusiast. Horror junkie.