Current Events > John Carpenter films by tier. Plus, commentary.

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Great Tier

Prince of Darkness

Good Tier

The Fog
The Thing
Christine
My Soul To Take

Okay Tier

Big Trouble in Little China
They Live
Ghosts of Mars
The Ward

Lots of films worth watching by Carpenter. Prince of Darkness is great. Pretty much every scene is a winner, with a good central theme, and the excellent cast of characters really brings things to life. Christine is a lot of fun to watch, with plenty of good stuff...plus the pretty 80s girls. My Soul To Take is underrated, definitely. Lots of good dialogue, vivid characters too, but the pacing has problems. Ghosts of Mars was pretty average, with certain plot elements that went nowhere, and violence that was meant to be scary or exciting, but was sometimes more funny than anything else. They Live is pretty overrated. So many boring scenes, especially with the really slow early stuff. The main plot element isn't introduced until maybe halfway through. The sad thing is, the plot device is really cool, and pretty accurate. The other films have their ups and downs. I think the best is probably Prince of Darkness, though.
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Not only do you have Big Trouble in Little China as merely ok when it's the best film he ever made, you didn't even get the title right. Also a serious lack of In the Mouth of Madness, his best horror.
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Lol @ saying In The Mouth of Madness is his best horror, or his best film. And I'm surprised you didn't bitch about me "only" putting The Thing is Good Tier.

He's a pretty good director overall, I think.

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Assault on precinct 13 is his best
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The thing is god tier
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Paper_Okami posted...

Assault on precinct 13 is his best

Yep

Also prince of darkness isn't his best film
It's merely OK
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I still haven't seen Dark Star

You

uhh

seem to be missing one very important movie
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Prince of Darkness is garbage.
Real Carpenter levels:

God:

Halloween
The Thing

Good:

They Live
The Fog
Escape from N.Y.
Christine
Big Trouble in Little China

Meh:

Assault on Presinct 13
Vampires

Garbage:

Prince of Darkness
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Body Bags
In the Mouth of Madness
Village of the Damned
Escape from L.A.
Ghosts of Mars

Havent Seen It:

Dark Star
Someones Watching Over Me
Elvis
Starman
The Ward
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Big Trouble in Little China too low, everything else too high.
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RebelElite791 posted...

You

uhh

seem to be missing one very important movie

Maybe he thinks Halloween is a Wes Craven film, as he apparently thinks John Carpenter made My Soul to Take.
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Hold on, My Soul To Tkae wasn't John Carpenter? I saw it recently, and thought it was. Who made it, then? It's still a good film, even if people didn't like it that much.
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i didnt like prince of darknesses ending
for those who didnt see it the heroine pushes the possessed pregnant lady through the mirror portal to hell to stop her from freeing the devil from hell. this traps the heroine in hell for all eternity a punishment she didnt deserve which is a horrible thing to happen to mankinds savior
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also in an era where the final girl trope reigned supreme prince of darkness stands out by being an 80s horror movie where all 4 female characters die horrible deaths while most of the male characters survive
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The Thing is just about the best horror film I've ever seen, and Assault on Precinct 13 is fucking great.
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Sunhawk posted...

Hold on, My Soul To Tkae wasn't John Carpenter? I saw it recently, and thought it was. Who made it, then? It's still a good film, even if people didn't like it that much.

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BillWardsPants posted...

Prince of Darkness is garbage.
Real Carpenter levels:

God:

Halloween
The Thing

Good:

They Live
The Fog
Escape from N.Y.
Christine
Big Trouble in Little China

Meh:

Assault on Presinct 13
Vampires

Garbage:

Prince of Darkness
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Body Bags
In the Mouth of Madness
Village of the Damned
Escape from L.A.
Ghosts of Mars

Havent Seen It:

Dark Star
Someones Watching Over Me
Elvis
Starman
The Ward

I feel this is a better ranking tbqh fr fr
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Sunhawk posted...

Hold on, My Soul To Tkae wasn't John Carpenter? I saw it recently, and thought it was. Who made it, then? It's still a good film, even if people didn't like it that much.

Wes Craven.
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Yeah. I got them mixed up because they're both by directors who have done lots of horror films.

Wes Craven is probably just as good as John Carpenter though. I watched Nightmare 1 - 6 when I was pretty young, and liked them all, and some of his other films are pretty good too.

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In the Mouth of Madness wasn't garbage. It wasn't great but it's a decent Lovecraftian horror flick.

corruptionbear posted...

Not only do you have Big Trouble in Little China as merely ok when it's the best film he ever made, you didn't even get the title right. Also a serious lack of In the Mouth of Madness, his best horror.

I mostly agree with this, but I'd put the Thing just ahead of Mouth. Big Trouble is a masterpiece.

I forgot to post in your other topic of what was the most difficult film you ever watched. Mine was TDKR. I almost cried when Batman died.
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I watched Dark Star tonight. It's... weird. Almost put me to sleep. It's a movie Carpenter started making as a student and it shows lol.

Sunhawk posted...

Good Tier

The Fog
The Thing
Christine
My Soul To Take

Trash topic.
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nevershine posted...

BillWardsPants posted...

Prince of Darkness is garbage.
Real Carpenter levels:

God:

Halloween
The Thing

Good:

They Live
The Fog
Escape from N.Y.
Christine
Big Trouble in Little China

Meh:

Assault on Presinct 13
Vampires

Garbage:

Prince of Darkness
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Body Bags
In the Mouth of Madness
Village of the Damned
Escape from L.A.
Ghosts of Mars

Havent Seen It:

Dark Star
Someones Watching Over Me
Elvis
Starman
The Ward

I feel this is a better ranking tbqh fr fr

Yup, this man gets it.
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Halloween and The Thing are 1 and 2, everything else is up for debate.

I actually saw The Ward though and it sucks.
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Here's the updated (and corrected) version of the tier system.

Great Tier

Prince of Darkness

Good Tier

The Fog
The Thing
Christine

Okay Tier

Big Trouble in Little China
They Live
Ghosts of Mars
The Ward
In The Mouth of Darkness

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Wew lad
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PoD is really great

halloween is tied with it imo