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What is the best John Carpenter movie?

by YPB Team

Eighteen films, two of them untouchable and several that needed a decade to find their audience. Rank them the way you would defend them.

  1. The Thing — ranked #11
    The Thing
    A 1982 Antarctic paranoia nightmare with practical effects that still have not been bettered.
    1000pts
  2. Halloween — ranked #22
    Halloween
    The 1978 slasher that invented the modern template, shot for pocket change and scored by Carpenter himself.
    943pts
  3. The Fog — ranked #33
    The Fog
    A 1980 ghost story about a coastal town paying a hundred-year-old debt.
    724pts
  4. Starman — ranked #44
    Starman
    A 1984 science-fiction road romance that earned Jeff Bridges an Oscar nomination.
    665pts
  5. Assault on Precinct 13 — ranked #55
    Assault on Precinct 13
    Carpenter's 1976 siege thriller, a Western rebuilt inside a condemned police station.
    596pts
  6. They Live — ranked #66
    They Live
    A 1988 satire about sunglasses that reveal the aliens running the consumer economy.
    517pts
  7. Escape from New York — ranked #77
    Escape from New York
    The 1981 dystopian heist that turned Manhattan into a prison and Kurt Russell into Snake Plissken.
    423pts
  8. Christine — ranked #88
    Christine
    The 1983 Stephen King adaptation about a 1958 Plymouth Fury with a jealous streak.
    423pts
  9. Escape from L.A. — ranked #99
    Escape from L.A.
    The 1996 sequel that sends Snake Plissken into a post-earthquake island California.
    423pts
  10. In the Mouth of Madness — ranked #1010
    In the Mouth of Madness
    A 1994 Lovecraftian spiral about a horror novelist whose books rewrite reality.
    423pts
  11. Dark Star — ranked #1111
    Dark Star
    Carpenter's 1974 student-film debut, a deadpan space comedy with a talking bomb.
    423pts
  12. Memoirs of an Invisible Man — ranked #1212
    Memoirs of an Invisible Man
    A 1992 Chevy Chase vehicle, Carpenter's one studio comedy-thriller and his strangest detour.
    423pts
  13. Big Trouble in Little China — ranked #1313
    Big Trouble in Little China
    A 1986 action comedy in which the hero is cheerfully the least competent person on screen.
    310pts
  14. The Ward — ranked #1414
    The Ward
    Carpenter's 2010 return to features, a psychiatric-hospital ghost story with Amber Heard.
    310pts
  15. Village of the Damned — ranked #1515
    Village of the Damned
    A 1995 remake about a town of platinum-haired children with a shared, hostile mind.
    310pts
  16. Vampires — ranked #1616
    Vampires
    A 1998 Western-flavored vampire hunt with James Woods dragging bloodsuckers into daylight.
    310pts
  17. Prince of Darkness — ranked #1717
    Prince of Darkness
    A 1987 apocalyptic horror film in which physicists and a canister of green liquid end the world.
    0pts
  18. Ghosts of Mars — ranked #1818
    Ghosts of Mars
    A 2001 colony-under-siege picture that reworks Assault on Precinct 13 on another planet.
    0pts

#Movies657#Directors94#Horror72#Sci-Fi76#John Carpenter1

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